Any books on Heirloom Cabinet construction?

[Cameron Reddy]

All I can find are books focused on plywood, veneer, pocket holes, and teeny weeny router bits cutting piddling 3/8" mortices and tenons...

Phooey on that.

I want to build REAL cabinets and drawers. NO plywood sides, panels, or drawer bottoms. NO plywood anywhere. Deep, strong, mortice and tenon joints.

Took a class on cabinet door making and the instructor had never even considered anything other than pocket holes and puny router bits I'd reserve for use building a bird house.

I've got a big shaper and would prefer to use 3/4" or longer mortice and tenon joints on doors. I plan to stack profile cutters along with rabbeting and groove cutters, in concert with rub collars and fence adjustments, to make these cuts. (As an aside, I can't find a stub spindle to use on my PM2700, or any other shaper, for that matter. Why is that?)

What I'm looking for is a book discussing the construction of these sturdy, traditional cabinets, doors, and drawers.

Can any of you help?

Cameron Reddy

[Mike Henderson]

Just for clarification, are you looking to build things like kitchen cabinets, or furniture cabinets, such as a clothes press.

From your description, it sounds like kitchen cabinet type projects.

Mike

[Cameron Reddy]

Mike,

Yes, kitchen.

[Nate Folco]

I think that 'heirloom kitchen cabinets' is an oxymoron. Thirty years from now someone's wife will want to tear out those 'horribly dated twenty-ten style cabinets' and put up something modern.

Pocket screws and short tenons are plenty strong for something not meant to last a hundred years.

That said if you want to make it out of solid wood it might make a fun project. I don't know of any books, but I think pegged bridle joints for the door frames would be attractive and quite strong.

[Dave Avery]

I think that 'heirloom kitchen cabinets' is an oxymoron. Thirty years from now someone's wife will want to tear out those 'horribly dated twenty-ten style cabinets' and put up something modern.

Pocket screws and short tenons are plenty strong for something not meant to last a hundred years.

That said if you want to make it out of solid wood it might make a fun project. I don't know of any books, but I think pegged bridle joints for the door frames would be attractive and quite strong.

Yep...... except it will probably be 15 or 20 years.

[Peter Quinn]

Kitchen cabinets were never made like furniture. Back when things were mortised together, furniture was expensive, kitchens were for utility more than cosmetics, and they were sparse. And those that could afford such cabinets had servants, and thus rarely decorated the kitchen in any high style. They reserved such things for the parts of the house they actually spent time in! No walls of uppers filling every space and banks of drawers filling every wall.

You can surely adapt any furniture making books for your needs, as a drawer is a drawer and a door is a door. But keep in mind that solid wood boxes joined with dovetails may get a bit HEAVY to install, so I hope you are framed up properly. And wood doesn't move much over its length, but a wall of solid wood cabinets may move more than plywood boxes, so you might want to leave room for expansion.

I haven't seen stub spindles in a long time, and the PM2700 is not a slider, so spinning tennoning tooling for a cope and stick with integral tennons may be a challenge. Are you good at jack mitering?

[Don L Johnson]

At "Half Price Books" I found a book titled "How to Build Period Country Furniture", by V.J. Taylor. It has several pieces that use to be in a typical kitchen. It also goes through much of the typical construction during that period. The first chapter is "Cabinet Work", which would apply to about any kitchen piece. You could probably pick it up at a used book dealer on the internet/Barns and Noble, etc.

[Gene DiNardo]

Cameron,
Check out "Hoosier" Cabinetry.
It is good quality heirloom furniture for the kitchen.
Originals are pretty pricey. If you make reproductions they will automatically become heirlooms (at least to your family).
That is, if you like the style.
Gene

[michael case]

I admire your commitment to quality. But no plywood bottoms in the drawers? Your really doing yourself a disservice. There are a number of applications where plywood is far superior to joined solid wood and this certainly is one of them. But if you want real tenons for your doors frames your right on. The stub tenons made with cope and stick bit sets produce very weak joints. By the way, almost all production frames even on "high end" kitchen cabinets consist of pocket screwed face frames and stub tenon door frames. One quick way to make deeper stronger tenons and still keep the cope and stick detail is to add floating tenons to the cope and stick door frame either with the Festool domino joiner or some kind of slot mortiser. The other alternatives for joining door frames with bead and detail are much more difficult as you will discover when start reading some of the recommended books.

[Cameron Reddy]

Peter, that's interesting. I hadn't considered that kitchen cabinets were never made to furniture standards. That explains why I can't find any books on building furniture grade cabinets.

Why would I need a sliding table to use a stub spindle?

Gene, I'll check out some Hoosier stuff.

Don, I'll look for the book.

Michael, I'm only making nine drawers and figured I'd give it a go with solid strips (grain carefully oriented). I recognize the utility of plywood for drawer bottoms. I just dislike the stuff. I may break down, however, and go the easier (and, yes, arguably better) route for the drawer bottoms. Frankly, I'm mostly interested in learning to build a stronger cope and stick door joint. I'd like to make some nice strong interior and exterior doors.

Nate, I wonder if folks would tear out really well made cabinets. I'd think they might instead carefully pull them out and sell them, just as they would good furniture no longer wanted. I suspect cabinets get TORN OUT precisely because they are made so cheaply.

Pegged bridle joints would really be something...

Thanks everyone!

Cameron Reddy

[Myk Rian]

Nate, I wonder if folks would tear out really well made cabinets. I'd think they might instead carefully pull them out and sell them, just as they would good furniture no longer wanted. I suspect cabinets get TORN OUT precisely because they are made so cheaply.
I would hope most of the better ones get relegated to a garage wall.