New shop cabinets

[Scott Welty]

I have a month in my old shop and plan to use it to build the base cabinets for the new shop. (I have more room here and the panel saw which is not going to make the move). Two questions.

1. The basic cabinet has 4 3/4 panels. Drawers will go in the three spaces this makes. Can I cut 1/4 deep dados from both sides for the bottoms (and top and maybe a mid shelf) and not weaken too much?

2. The cabinets are going to sit on a concrete garage floor. Plywood on concrete? It will be dry but there will be large temperature swings. I'll only heat it when I'm in there. So, how to best anchor. These are not going to be against a wall but, rather, make an island.

Note that I could make 3 'boxes' and then screw them together but looking to save material and weight.

Scottshop cabinets.jpg

[David Gutierrez]

I will leave question #1 to some one smarter than me. Question #2 if the cabinets are filled do you need to anchor them? too anchor them you could tapcon some 2x cleats to the floor and screw the cabinet to the cleat.

[Jim Becker]

Rabbits and dados are a normal way to assemble this kind of project and provide additional glue surface and exactly alignment. I see no downside to what you want to do there. One suggestion, however...build the toe-kick area separately. It makes it a piece of cake to level things before you plop the cabinets into their new home.

As to anchoring, if they are free-standing and "tall-but-narrow" as most cabinets are, I'd be concerned about them potentially tipping, even if filled with weight, if you accidentally banged into them with any kind of mass. If you did a second set to butt behind to create a larger "island", no worries, but I think I"d try to hold them down. Anchors and bolts into the floor is what I'd probably do. Only a couple are needed which limits drilling. But that's my opinion and others may not agree.

[Randy Henry]

Simple way to do this. I'd consider reducing the height of your cabinet sides by 3 1/2" (toe kick area), and make a "cabinet ladder" for the cabinets to sit on out of treated 2x4's. Make the depth of the ladder 3" shorter than the depth of the cabinet, to allow for the toe kick. Level the ladder up, use angle brackets to secure it to the floor, then mount your cab's to the ladder. If your cab's are built square and uniform, placing the cab's on the level ladder doesn't get any easier. I used to build my cab's the way you are doing, but the ladder way makes the installation so much faster. After the cab's are installed, you can cut a piece of 1/4 cab material/skin to put on the face of the ladder (toe kick) to match the cab's, which will also hide any shims you used to level the ladder. I don't have any pic's of the ladder style, but I have seen them on this forum before.

1/4 dado's are fine if you want a fixed shelf. I personally would drill shelf pin holes to allow for any height of shelf that I may later need. I always use a dado for the bottom shelf, and a rabbet for the back to help keep the cabinet square when assembling.

[Scott Welty]

Thanks all! Yes to the ladder. I did this once for cabinets installed under a basement stairs. Should have thought of that. Using treated 2x4 here makes sense.

I'm ON IT!

Scott

[Bill Dufour]

Drop anchor into slab then all thread With a washer and nut through the base. If you move unthread the allthread and fill the drop anchor with some concrete. Just set the drop anchor 1/4" below flush or so when it is installed.
Bill D