Heavy wall cabinet joinery

[zayd alle]

Good evening, all.

I'm a novice woodworker attempting to build a couple of wall cabinets to augment a kitchen full of new manufactured cabinets I recently installed. I'm looking to build pull-out spice cabinets to be wall-mounted. The carcasses will be 3/4" maple ply and inner pull-out will likely be 1/2" poplar (I'm certainly open to suggestions there). The sides of the cabinets will be visible.

The question comes in joinery of the carcass pieces. The back (3/4" ply) will be dadoed into the sides 1/4" in from the rear. I had originally planned to rabbet/dado the top and bottom into the sides with screws and glue to secure. But given that the sides will be visible, that means no screws. Would dados (rabbet for the top) and glue be strong enough for a heavier-than-average wall cabinet? If not, which of the depicted methods would be best? Or maybe another method?

Really appreciate your guidance on this.

Zayd

[Ray Schafer]

There have been many posts over the past year about how to build a wall cabinet. I just built four of them. After reading all of the posts on this topic, I decided to follow the method that Chris McDowell recommends. I also read the Danny Proulx book on cabinets. I followed most of his approach.

Here is what I did:
1. I used butt joints to join my sides to my top and bottom (all plywood). This seems to be plenty strong for this application. I used Ultimate screws and did not have to drill pilot holes.
2. You can use melamine for the carcass. In this case I would use confirmat screws -- you should buy the confirmat starter kit from McFeeleys. The drill bit that they sell works very well.
3. The back (1.2" ply) is put in a groove (dado). I left 1/2" in the back. Chris recommends this in case you need the extra space to scribe for the wall.
4. On the end panels, I used pocket screws so that the screws would not show. Another way to hide them would be to use modling or an end panel -- if you use the same butt joint and screw method as the inner sides.
5. I made the top and bottom shallower than the sides so that the back could be screwed into them. I think that this adds to the strength of the cabinet.
6. I built the Danny Proulx jig for drilling the shelf pin holes. It is shown in one of my previous posts from just a couple of weeks ago.
7. If I used plywood again, I would use prefinished for the carcasses. That would have save me about one day of work, and the cost is not that much more. But I am going to use cabinet-grade melamine for the next cabinets that I make.
8. If you look at one of my previous posts, there is a spreadsheet attached which will calculate the part sizes for the approach that I am presenting.
7. I used face frames a la Danny Proulx, but you could do frameless and it would take less time and would look great, too.

Look up the posts by Frank Shic and Chris McDowell. They gave me a lot of good advice. Their methods follow what I am presenting here.

You will see a lot of opinions that more sophisticated joints should be used. I believe that the butt joints with "good" screws are plenty strong. But if you want to spend the extra time making dados, rabbets, etc. it won't hurt anything, and may help you develop your skills. I am always trying to save time and so I look for the way that will do the job without any extra effort.

You will also see lots of opinions about melamine. I believe that cabinet-grade melamine with confirmat screws is a great way to go for about 35% of the cost. But if you want to spend the extra money for plywood, that works great, too. I live in a neighborhood that has houses that run from $450,000 to $3M, and they all have melamine cabinets with hardwood face frames and hardwood doors. They are great. The melamine is much more durable and easy to clean.

That is just one man's approach, and it seems to be working for me.

Ray

[zayd alle]

Ray,

Thanks so much for the great tips. I referenced Chris and Frank's posts and gleaned much information from them as well. I will let you know how it turns out.

I would like to incorporate some dado'ing (probably the back) just for my own newbie satisfaction

Zayd

[Ray Schafer]

Yes, I put a groove/dado in the back. That is what Chris does, too. I think Frank does, but I can't remember.