Construction of cabinet boxes

[Gordon Stump]

I use 3/4" birch ply with stub tenons. For my shop cabinets: Frame less trimmed with walnut. European hinges. Actually when I did small kitchens I always did 3/8" stub tenons regardless of face frame or frame-less.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Thank you for your answer/comment, Jim. I am glad to know frameless is also frequent in the US of today.

All private homes I visited there in the last 30 years (for full disclose, it is not a so big number, one dozen of them actually) and most of the videos in YT I watch, it looks frameless is an anathema in the US!

On the other hand, all homes I visited in any other countries, cabinets were frameless.

Of course, due to the size of my sample, it could be an imperfect one.

[Joe Calhoon]

In the 80s, 90s and early 2000s we were doing whole house projects millwork, doors and casework. Did some inset face frame construction and finally went to a hybrid euro system. I consider inset face frame the highest quality from a craftsman view but in our area frameless with flush fillers, end panels and moulding is quite acceptable and from a business standpoint more profitable. You have to remember that building kitchen cabinets is not Brian Holcombe furniture! Most kitchens will probably only survive 20 to 40 years before a remodel. In my market I’ve noticed sometimes less unfortunately.
My construction method was 3/4” prefinished ply with 1/4” solid wood banding. Never liked the thin bandings put on with a auto edge Bander that can be knocked off easily. We had a Marunaka solid wood Bander at the time and did dowel construction with a SCM horizontal-vertical drill. Was set to buy a case clamp but at that time most shops figured out that was inefficient if using applied ends. Biskets and screws is what we settled on. I think plenty strong enough.
So 20 years after not touching a kitchen I find myself building one for our guest apartment. Thought about doing inset face frame but it’s small and like the functionality of the Euro system. A little rusty starting out but getting into the swing of it now!
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[Kevin Jenness]

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I like the through tenoned doors - seldom seen. My box construction is the same, though I often set back stretchers and partitions 1/32" to save sanding. What is the groove in the cabinet back at top center of the first picture?

[Joe Calhoon]

Kevin,
the through tenons were some work and only did that for my satisfaction! Back in the day we did cope with dowel construction. I always put a lot of effort into grain matching of the doors and drawer fronts.
the groove is for the 1/4” backs with hangers. I can see advantage to 3/4” backs but like to keep the weight down.
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[Ray Newman]

Rich Engelhardt: thanks for posting the link to Sommerfield "System." So far, I watched the first two and the methods utilized are very interesting.

Again, thanks.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Ray - you're welcome!

Also take note of what Brad says here:

I would add that one of the main high value benefits of the Sommerfeld designed/spec'd CMT manufactured bit's (if in fact CMT is still who is making them today) is the fact that the bit shaft lengths are standardized such that once one bit in a set is seated (on an o-ring in the collet) and adjusted to the proper depth, other bits in a set (eg. rail & style) can be swapped (or replaced with new) without doing any further adjustment. It's been a real time saver over the years for me...

Last edited by Brad Schmid; 02-01-2022 at 12:12 PM.

This is an extremely good point since a whole lot of trial and error &wasted time setting and adjusting are reduced to almost nothing because of this.