Originally Posted by
Bob Vaughan
A commercial point of view would be $40K worth of quality custom made casework = roughly 8K worth of materials. If half of that is sheet goods (3/4 & 1/4 birch plywood), that's a lot of plywood for one man. $32K left for labor, that's 533 man-hours for a $60.00/hr shop. A simple table saw will increase the labor time significantly. When considering doing your own casework there's a lot more to it other than the cheapest table saw capable of doing the job. It took me years of on and off work to get my tiny kitchen done the way I wanted it, but I did get it done. A good table saw was an asset, for sure, but it wasn't anywhere as near as efficient as an Altendorf slider type that the pros use. I also found that storage of work in process and a finishing area were a bigger concern than simple parts detailing. Its worth the hassle if you can't get the quality you want from commercial custom builders. If you're just trying to keep from spending money on big box store cabinets, then you'll find it difficult to beat a man at his own game.