Building Kitchen Cabinets

[kevin st john]

So I have decided to try to build my own kitchen cabinets. So my question is how difficult can this be? I am going to purchase a Sawstop table saw. I will also have access to other wood working equipment as well.
I would appreciate any input that anyone has.
Thanks.

[Bob Grier]

Of course the amount of work depends on the quantity, style, construction style, materials (sheet goods, prefinished, solid wood, etc.) equipment/tools, work space, experience, and availability of everything you need to build them including finishing them. It is a lot of work.

If you will have a kitchen island, maybe build that and buy custom cabinets from a local shop or mail order and then you install them. I am wondering why you are motivated to build kitchen cabinets? If you have experience and a shop to build them in, then I can see some of the motivation if you like building your own things. Working evenings and weekends for a long time might become a grind. Also, you will pretty much need all the cabinets built before installing them unless you will be using temporary counter tops.

Is this for a remodel or new house?

[Sam Murdoch]

What do you know about woodworking? Any experience? Can be real hard or real easy. Not trying to be a WA but your first post means we have no information other than what you provide. The more detail you provide the more appropriately we can offer suggestions.

Oh yeah - and then all that Bob writes above ^.

[Sean Tracey]

I have a table saw but I use a track saw and parallel guides and a right angle forr cutting the majority of the sheet goods for the cabinets and drawer parts. Dealing with a whole sheet on a table saw or parts where the length of cut is shorter than the width of the piece hanging over on the left side of the blade isn't my thing. I groove the drawer slots on a table router which might also come in handy in drawer and door front construction. Then you need a way of joining the cabinet and drawer parts.

Finishing takes time. And sanding.

There are a lot of parts in kitchen cabinets. So you need space and to build them.

I have been building shop cabinets and using them as skill builders before making kitchen cabinets. You could also do closet organizers first for practice and skill building if you haven't made cabinets before.

[Andrew Hughes]

Building the cabs isn't the hard part since designs can be super simple.Now laying down a good finish that's a whole new kettle of fish.
That's the part I hate.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Danny Proulx's book "Building Your Own Kitchen Cabinets" was written for guys like you (and me.) Super simple system. Doors and drawer fronts can be outsourced. The rest is just boxes

[Gregory Stahl]

Udo Schmidt's book: "Building Kitchen Cabinets" is what I recommend to those getting into cabinetry.

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Kitch.../dp/1561584703

Greg Stahl

[kevin st john]

Thanks for the replies. I used to work construction in my past life. And the reason that I want to build them is that for me to have the kind of cabinets I want is more money than I want to pay. Plus, I want to walk into my house and look at them and say to myself, I really like the way they look. And I do understand that this will be a lot of work. But so is borrowing $15,000.00 and then having to work and pay that back over a period of time.
Now, I have been researching how to build them and I have read a lot of books on how to construct them.
Also, I do plan on buying the drawers, drawer fronts, and cabinet doors on line to help speed the process up.

[Wayne Lomman]

Kevin, the final touch to getting it all to look right is the final installation. Get it level, scribe all your kick boards to the floor, scribe filler pieces to the walls and bench tops to the walls. It's the difference between professional and mediocre.

[Robert Parent]

I did my first kitchen cabinet project about 9 months ago....... It was a great learning experience but would not recommend it as a first project if new to woodworking. The finishing is the hardest part to get right, and it needs to be right! It took me about two weeks to design, a week to build, 3-4 weeks to finish, one week to install everything. I cut everything (Euro style cabinets) on a CNC router so all the parts fit together perfectly. Very happy with the final result and would certainly do another project in the future.

Robert

[Robert Engel]

Danny Proulx's book "Building Your Own Kitchen Cabinets" was written for guys like you (and me.) Super simple system. Doors and drawer fronts can be outsourced. The rest is just boxes

Dittos!

I used this method to build my kitchen several years ago.
Make the boxes of double sided melamine.

I made my own doors and drawer fronts but like Bruce said, it may be quicker and more cost effective to have them outsourced.

Kitchen.jpg

[Lee Schierer]

When building your own cabinets, you need to know that you not only need room for all the materials, assembly and finishing, but youalso need a place to store teh completed cabinets prior to installation.

[David Kumm]

Make sure you make a jig to get the boxes exactly square. Seems like a no brainer but if they get clamped just a little off, The fitting gets very difficult. When sourcing doors, you can specify how wide the boards ( say over 4" ) and check that the company actually tries to match the grain at least a little. Dave

[Malcolm McLeod]

When building your own cabinets, ....need a place to store the completed cabinets....

As others have said, they're just boxes. BIG boxes. And they take a LOT of space!

I dedicated 2-car garage space to fab and storage. Cut all the parts, then started assembly. By the time I had 4-5 cabinets assembled, I was climbing over them to get to tools. I quickly realized it was hopeless in the space I had, so took over another room in the house for storage. The logistics of stacking, un-stacking, moving into/out of storage/finishing area, and staging for install probably added 20-25% to the time required.

[Andy Giddings]

Just finished a long row of bathroom cabinets so can relate to a lot of the comments above. Kitchen is next.

In terms of buying drawer fronts etc compared to making them - I would argue it really depends on how you value your time and effort to make these vs buying. It also depends on the design and finish. I chose a simple mission style as these are easy to make and in fashion right now. Also painted cabinets are popular - if you decide to go this route there are plenty of modern paints that are relatively easy to apply with a brush, and get a good finish that stands up to kitchen use. Like the OP, I chose to make my own as I could see the construction is simple and I knew I could reduce the remodeling cost. For me, I did the whole lot (drawers, fronts, doors) as these are straightforward although time consuming. In terms of getting everything to fit and be square, cutting everything in batches, an accurate square and good quality clamps with a large flat surface are important.
Also, the best (and most recent) book I found was the Paolini book especially if you want Euro cabinets. Would also recommend Euro cabinets as they are simpler and give you more storage