Shop cabinets (uppers and lowers) - Face Frame or No Face Frame?

[Glen Blanchard]

Is there a consensus on which cabinet style is better suited for shop cabinets? It would seem that the frameless would have the advantage of easier and more complete access to the contents of the cabinet. At the same time, a face frame cabinet will be more rigid, no?

So is there a "hands-down winner" when it comes to shop cabinets?

[Tom Clark FL]

For me the hands down winner was face frame cabinets. I have a couple of dozen of them in the shop. I did build one without frames and the sides bowed out and the drawers fell out right away! This link shows many of my cabinets. They are solid and you can load them without worrying about how much weight they have on them.

[Bob Winkler]

Hey Tom, I loved your shop featured in America's Best Home Workshops. I read it over Christmas and got a lot of nice ideas from it.

And I second the face frame cabinets. Given today's poor quality plywood, I think that rigid face frames add beauty and needed strength. Pocket screws make them easy.

Bob

[Chip Lindley]

Faceframes add needed strength to heavily-loaded shop cabinets. Do you trust gallons of paint or heavy motorized tools to a couple of screws, biscuits or dowels? Pfffttt!!

Besides, they just look *Finished*!

[Rod Sheridan]

[QUOTE=Chip Lindley;1300243] Do you trust gallons of paint or heavy motorized tools to a couple of screws, biscuits or dowels? Pfffttt!!
QUOTE


Of course not, my cabinets don't have biscuits, dowels or screws holding them together.

They have rebates, tongues and grooves etc and lots of Lee Valley 2002GF glue.

Never had a problem with any of them, if I do the furniture I make will have problems as well as it doesn't have any biscuits dowels or screws either.

Regards, Rod.

[Mark P. Miller]

Either approach, with appropriate consideration to design and materials, will be just fine. Build what you prefer and/or know best.

[Jim Fox]

I keep going back and forth on this myself. Frameless cabinets would be the way to go if you wanted quick and cheaper than Framed. I haven't built mine yet for this new shop, but I've build a handfull of Framed cabs at the old house. It just boils down to me, not accounting for added strenght, that I like the look better of framed.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

In general, frameless cabinets are plenty strong assuming the carcass is the usual 5/8" or 3/4" thick material and the cabinet's width doesn't exceed 48". I'm also assuming that the carcass is assembled using decent woodworking techniques.

I've installed plenty of frameless cabinets in the past including in my own kitchen and workshop. They provide a nice clean contemporary design. I've never had any issues regarding sag or failure.

In my opinion, the two most common misperceptions regarding cabinet quality: If it doesn't have a faceframe or dovetailed drawers, then it's no good.

-Jeff

[Rick Fisher]

Up in my area, Frame-less cabinets are the norm. $100,000 kitchens don't have face frames..

They went out of style a long time ago.. Everything is European hinges ..

[Tom Clark FL]

Up in my area, Frame-less cabinets are the norm. $100,000 kitchens don't have face frames..

They went out of style a long time ago.. Everything is European hinges ..

Rick, you are 100% correct about KITCHEN cabinets, but here we are talking about SHOP cabinets. You know - the ones with 200 pound drill presses sitting on them, or planers, sanders, etc., and another 500 pounds in the drawers. I sure wouldn't want to to put a 1000 pound load on the cabinets in my kitchen!!

On the other hand - I really don't want to know just how much weight the wife has added to the kitchen cabinets, either!

To me framed cabinets just seem far stronger and more solid for the shop.

[Michael Gibbons]

Glen, Check out the NYW's garage shop episode. That might help...

[Phil Thien]

On the other hand - I really don't want to know just how much weight the wife has added to the kitchen cabinets, either!

I think the loading is pretty similar, actually.

My wife stuffs quite a bit of China and canned goods in those kitchen cabinets.

What she DOESN'T do is add a lot of weight to the counter tops.

Out kitchen has face frames. I think if I was going to go frame-less for shop cabinets, I'd at least glue a fixed shelf halfway up, at least for base cabinets. That should prevent the sides from bowing if I decided to add a lot of weight to the top.

Or I'd used the European fixed-bore system and rig something up so that at least one shelf was screwed into both sizes rather than just sitting on pins.

[Jim Fox]

They went out of style a long time ago.. Everything is European hinges ..

Only went outta style because they are cheap and quick to produce. If it's not cheap particle board junk or Ikea, it's not the American way any more.

Which reminds me.......local Five & Dime store is having a sale on Sauder Workbenches for $50.00 today. I might go get one. (side note: sauder = that cheap particle board, high end wood looking contact paper outside junk sold at every store). But with that said, I have been there, done that and gotten the T shirt once or twice in my life.

[glenn bradley]

Wow, I didn't know this subject was so touchy. Almost like a DC, Festool or EZ Smart "discussion" . I wonder if any of the mags have done any tests on this?

Frameless cabinets built like shop cabinets and not like kitchen/bathroom cabinets should fare well. I would expect results like Tom got if I built a 30" cube out of particle board and put shelf peg supported shelves in it an loaded it up (I recently had to rebuild my plywood pantry of this design as the sides bowed, silly cabinet-makers). A better style of construction would probably, well, do better.

All that said I find FF easier and more attractive. I do avoid any lip at the front of the base. That is, I let things slide right off the bottom 'shelf' without catching. Seems this discussion could go on for awhile, eh?

[Jim Becker]

As a general rule, I build cabinets with face frames...just personal preference. BUT...I do it so that the inset doors are even with the sides of the cabinet boxes...the look of face frames with the ease of frameless hinges, etc. There is a small sacrifice in actual cabinet space, but there are also no little corners that collect dust and debris, either.