Begginer Buying Tools

[Lucas Spraggs]

My dad and I have decided to build kitchen cabinets for my new house. He is always looking for an excuse to buy new tools so we are gonna basically start from scratch with the exception of miter saw and drills. What tools do we need to complete this project and does anyone have any suggetions on what features are important on the tools. I've made a list of things we will need as far as tools. Table saw, I've been looking at the Grizzlies; a router and table; bisquit jointer. Any others we will need and some suggestions will be appreciated. Along with any other good sources of info for building cabinets.

[Michael Wildt]

Big project, where to start...

I think you will find a lot of folks recommend Kreg pocket jig and Festool Domino for that kind of work. I have the first item and used it on some projects that were not cabinets. I like it. Wish I had the latter as well.

I wouldn't invest in a bisquit jointer if it was me. Table saw would be nice, but you could also get by with a track saw like the Festool or Dewalt ones. Especially when breaking down big sheets.

May want to give the 32mm system a look if you like the benefits that gives.

May need some stile/rail bits for the router all depending on the design you're after.

Prefinished plywood, would be another choice I'd make. Maybe see if I could find the New Yankee video's of kitchen cabinets. I think it was 9 episodes.

Cost and time wise I'd try to do the pro/con part since taking on this project as a beginner is a big task. Either way design and planning is key.

I just installed some Ikea cabinets for the basement (storage), and if you go with the 32mm system then you can get the Blum hardware there for a good price even if you build your self. They also have a ok kitchen design tool online.

[Van Huskey]

The first thing I would want besides a tasble saw for cabinets would be a shaper and power feeder instead of a router and table.

[tim weidman]

research kitchen project threads on this site. lots of info and tips. matt meisner had a great one in the woodworking projects section. don't hesitate to ask any questions. the people here know their stuff. as far as tools i wouldn't spend a ton of money unless you plan to use them for more than this project. harbor frieght has some good stuff cheap. good luck and post pics!

[Jon Endres]

Well, since I built my own kitchen cabinets, I'll tell you what I used.

First - best thing you can do is buy prefinished plywood. Helps a great deal because finishing a whole kitchen is a chore. I managed to do the job on unfinished plywood, with a cheap Harbor Freight HVLP setup and sawhorses in the driveway, but not the best way to do it.

I also used baltic birch plywood for the drawers and put them together with glue and pocket screws. Kitchen cabinets aren't fine furniture. Make the faces as nice as you want, but look at it this way - a kitchen is a workshop with different tools.

OK, tools. Table saw, with a good blade. You can avoid a miter saw if you have a good square cutoff sled for the table saw. You can also do all your plywood cuts on the table saw, but I didn't. I bought an EZ-Guide, and Hitachi circular saw with brake that I dedicated to the EZ-Guide. I cut narrow pieces like braces and drawer parts on the table saw, though. I did use my miter saw to cut all the face frame parts to length. If you can set up some sort of system with stop blocks and repeatability, that's the best.

Let's see. Cordless drill dedicated to a Kreg pocket hole drill bit. Hitachi impact driver with 6" long #2 square drive bit. Pocket screws from McFeeley's. Kreg pocket hole kit (K2000). Attach the whole thing to a piece of plywood, make it semi-permanent, clamp that to the workbench. Oh yeah - my workbench was two heavy-duty timber sawhorses and a cutting grid for the EZ-Guide made out of 1x3 and 2x4 pine. I made it flat, dead flat, with shims and winding sticks and didn't move it for the duration. Also, rely on diagonals to keep everything square. Buy a good tape measure and use just that one tape for the job. Two different tapes can read differently.

Random orbit sander, two of them are better, one with 100 grit, one with 150 grit. Change paper often. Router table with your choice of bits. I did full-inset Shaker-style cabinets with flat panels, I really didn't need a router but if you put any kind of profile on your doors or drawers, you will need one. Router table can be as simple or elaborate as you want to get the job done. Never bothered with a shaper; had one and sold it.

All carcases were pocket-screwed and glued. All face frames pocket-screwed, glued and then pocket-screwed to the carcases. Drawers - see above - 1/2" BB ply and 1/4" BB bottoms slid into a dado and a single screw secures in the bottom rear of each drawer. There is no rocket science here, no fine furniture, just cabinets that the next guy is gonna tear out and replace when you move out.

There's a billion tips that you can find on this subject in other threads and across the web. One I found very helpful, AFTER the fact - cut your cabinet bottoms 1/16" narrow and edge-band them. Set your face frame 1/4" lower than the cabinet bottom, and you can use the cabinet bottom for a stop so that the door sits flush when closed. Only useful for full-inset doors, of course. Also, I used non-mortise butt hinges - very easy to do the doors, as your gap is set by the hinge side and you can trim the door to match.

Other little stupid stuff that I found useful - good square framing square, sharp, well-adjusted block plane, set of sharp chisels, small steel rule, various clamps (parallel-jaw best for cabinet work), maybe some of those Rockler square-thingys that you can clamp to the sides to square them up (diagonals don't lie, though). I made some decorative toekicks for bathroom vanities so a good jigsaw (Bosch 1587 is mine) with fine-tooth blades was essential. You can, in a pinch, rough-cut all your plywood to size with a jigsaw, but I don't recommend it. If the EZ-Guide has new inserts and is straight (my first one wasn't, my current one is), you can make final cuts on your first cut. Don't waste expensive plywood.

Good luck, anyway.

[David Prince]

My dad and I have decided to build kitchen cabinets for my new house. He is always looking for an excuse to buy new tools so we are gonna basically start from scratch with the exception of miter saw and drills. What tools do we need to complete this project and does anyone have any suggetions on what features are important on the tools. I've made a list of things we will need as far as tools. Table saw, I've been looking at the Grizzlies; a router and table; bisquit jointer. Any others we will need and some suggestions will be appreciated. Along with any other good sources of info for building cabinets.

If you have a miter saw and drills, you should start out building your mom a nice end table. From there, move yourself up. Jumping in on kitchen cabinets without any tools, modest skills, and lack of experience is a bad recipe. You could spend thousands on tools, but that doesn't guarantee that you will produce anything worthwhile in the end.

I am not trying to be rude, but you could be biting off more than you can chew. Kitchen cabinets are not rocket science, but if they look like crap in the end you will feel like crap every morning when you eat your breakfast in the kitchen. If you do something wrong in the production, you could have safety issues with cabinets falling off the wall, falling apart when loaded, and not lasting for the long haul. And you are going to put these in your NEW house?:eek:

You could potentially learn a lot in the process, but you could end up with a lot of money tied up in tools, materials, and a crappy kitchen. You may find that you dislike woodworking by the time you are done.

My advice for what it is worth. Work yourself up to the kitchen later. Start with something small. Even start with building some cabinets for the garage and see how that goes.

Am I assuming a lack of experience on your part? Yes! If you only have drills and a miter saw you aren't where you need to be to take on this project.

[Mike Heidrick]

Doing face frames?

I think you can do it if you set your mind to it and have pleny of practice wood. Go slow, be careful/safe, and ask a lot of questions. Get some good cabinet books.

Have routers by chance?

[Lucas Spraggs]

The cabinets will be painted and glazed. Shaker doors with recessed panels, considering using mdf for the panels since they will be painted and no edges will show. Any thoughts here? Also what type of wood should I use for the different parts of the cabinets? Yes I am doing face frames.

[Van Huskey]

The cabinets will be painted and glazed. Shaker doors with recessed panels, considering using mdf for the panels since they will be painted and no edges will show. Any thoughts here? Also what type of wood should I use for the different parts of the cabinets? Yes I am doing face frames.

Do you have a paint sprayer?

MDF is fine for this application, as for hardwood for the rails, stiles and face frame, what are your local secondary woods?

[Lucas Spraggs]

I do not have a paint sprayer but was planning on buying one. Can the face frames and rails and stiles be built with poplar or is it to soft? Birch for the boxes.

[Van Huskey]

I do not have a paint sprayer but was planning on buying one. Can the face frames and rails and stiles be built with poplar or is it to soft? Birch for the boxes.

I have seen poplar used but for me I agree it is too soft. I don't know where you are but what is the price of maple? Which brings me to another point what are you going to do about milling the wood? An inexpensive 6" jointer and a lunchbox planer would probably more than pay for themselves if it is a decent sized kitchen.

[Terry Welty]

Well, you're biting off quite a bit... If you're looking for an excuse to buy tools, Hmmmmm.... I'd get a good cabinet table saw... too bad, but I think all of the Ridgid R4511's have already been sucked up... with the table saw you'll need a good blade and a stacked dado set up... You'll be able to make a jig for cutting out box joints and dado's for drawer bottoms, etc. I really like mortise and tenons for stiles and rails, but you can get by with pocket holes so you need a good Kreg jig... You'll definately need a ROS Sander, squares, clamps... Router, bits... If you're going to buy a paint gun, you're going to have to buy a compressor...
Since you're getting a compressor, you'll definately need a couple of nail guns... Are you going to install the tops yourself???

Let's check a budget... Table Saw $500 - $1000, (unless you buy used and get lucky), Saw Blade $30 - $100, Dado set $70 (on sale Rockler) Kreg Jig $130, Sander $70, HVLP Paint Gun $75 - ???, Compressor $100 - $$$, Router, nail guns, Bits, Clamps, Sandpaper, Misc. tools, glue, screws ... Experience of doing it... PRICELESS.

I hate to say this... it will probably be cheaper and it definately would be faster to buy prefinished and install them yourself... But, then you wouldn't have all of those cool tools... so you should go the hard, slow way and buy the tools and visit your local library and check out a bunch of "How To" books. Check out your local high school or junior college, they frequently have adult education classes that allow you to make your project at their shop, using their tools... plus the instructor will be able to guide you through the project, just a thought.

[Al Willits]

Doing face frames?

I think you can do it if you set your mind to it and have plenty of practice wood. Go slow, be careful/safe, and ask a lot of questions. Get some good cabinet books.

Have routers by chance?

Good points, also are you going to build these cabinets and that's it for major woodworking?
Not sure what your finances are, but high end spendy tools are great if you use them a lot.

Otherwise they just sit.

Give some thought to spending your money, will you continue to use something like a shaper or cabinet saw?

If not, maybe a router and circular saw might be a better bet...imho

But if you think you'll continue to do woodworking, don't underbuy, buy quaility items that will last for years and do the job you need.

Al

[Philip Johnson]

I got back into woodworking to build some cabinets for a mud room and laundry room. I had a good cabinet saw already. I just needed a few more tools, I picked up a kreg jig, dado blade, new saw blades, festool sander, domino, festool vac, dust collector, drill press, planner, jointer, shaper and powerfeed, shaper cutters, band saw, a few tools to tune up the tools, an Akeada dovetail jib and 2 routers, a few chiesels and drill bits, and I'm sure I forgot a few accessories. One of these days I gota get started on the cabinets but its my day off and there is a tool sale going on seems I must need something.

If you want to get into wood working because you enjoy it then do it. If you want to save money then buy the cabinets.

Phil

[Doug Roper Chairmaker]

Having made cabinets for many years, I've noticed a trend in the business that might be of help. With the use of the 32mm systems, many shops weren't equipped to deal with accuracy needed in cutting, edge banding, line boring, etc. so they began to outsource these phases of the project to large shops that have the equipment in place. Also, many shops order their doors, draw-fronts and drawers from companies that specialize in making these products. That said, you may want to look locally at shops willing to perform some of your work to minimize the capitol outlay for tools that may not be used on a regular basis.

As for material, since it sounds like you're are going paint grade, I would suggest using birch for the solid wood face frames, door frames, draw-fronts and shelf edging. Materials would include 3/4" and 1/4" pre-finished material (melamine) for the box interiors and backs, 1/2" melamine for drawer boxes, 1/2" or 3/4" birch plywood with a 1/4" pre-finished laminate applied, for the interior, of the exposed box ends and 1/4" birch for the door panels. Birch is tight grained, looks good under paint and moderately priced. Maples, hard and soft, are both good but would depend on economics.

I prefer using adjustable shelving (32mm line boring) and hardware would include European draw slides and hinges (I like Blum).

Hope this helps

[Paul Wunder]

Norm Abrams on the New Yankee Workshop, has a multi-part series on building kitchen cabinets. High quality, but basic construction. If you haven't
seen the series, purchasing the DVD would would certainly answer a lot of questions re techniques, tools and ultimately.....whether you will feel comfortable doing such a large project.

I have minimal skills, but with my wife's patience (and lots of time) I built her a kitchen years ago and she loved it. I had not built anything of that magnitude previously, and I only had a Crapsman radial saw and a cheap router.

Good luck.

[Greg Peterson]

If you want to get into wood working because you enjoy it then do it. If you want to save money then buy the cabinets.

Phil

This cuts to the meat of the question. It is far less expensive to just buy the cabinets if you don't plan using the tools after the project is completed.

If you've little or no experience in woodworking, here are a few considerations.

You will never have too many clamps. Good clamps are not cheap. For cabinet work you will want to use parallel jaw clamps. Jet and Jorgensons recently received high marks for their clamps.

Dust collection. If you don't think you will need DC, try this experiment: take your shop vac to the middle of your workshop/garage, pour about half of five pound bag of flour into a nice and neat pile on the floor, and then vacuum it up. Close up the work space and come back about eight hours later. This is what your your work space will look like every day unless you provide a DC solution. Even if you don't consider the mess a problem there are health considerations to working in this kind of environment.

You can never, ever, have to many clamps.

A tool that does what you expect it to do, and do it well and easily, will not be inexpensive. Until you have struggled with the short comings of a tool it is difficult to appreciate how this can negatively impact a project. The sweet taste of a bargain is but a momentary event while the sour lingers long after. Choose your tools carefully and realize that if a tool seems expensive there is likely a very good reason why.

In summary:
Clamps
DC
More clamps
Quality tools
And more clamps yet

[Dave Schreib]

As somebody who is always biting off more than he can chew - I congratiulate you for being this ambitious.

In terms of what tools you will need, all I can say is "more than you you think." I was doing a minor project last night that required seven power tools - table saw, DC, shop vac, router, planer, miter saw, sander. Plus assorted hand tools, clamps, etc. If I had to, I could have made do with fewer, but my results would not have been as good and I would have spent a lot more time.

If you are a diy kind of guy, and are in a position to buy all those tools to do this project right - I think you will be happy with the outcome, you'll learn new skills andn you'll have a great new set of tools.

[Greg Peterson]

In terms of what tools you will need, all I can say is "more than you you think."

Lol! Every time I do a simple little project it seems I spend half my time going back and forth between the project and the shop to get one last tool. Upon completion I have half my tools laying around me.

Anymore, when I'm doing yard work, I just throw everything in my garden cart and have at it. It seems I always end up needing something I didn't think I would need.

And when it comes to woodworking, not having the tool you need is a real show stopper.

[Glen Butler]

I did the same thing you are doing with 14 years woodworking, and carpentry experience under my belt. I am a general contractor. I knew it was the only way I was ever going to "afford" a shop. You will need a lot of tools. The little stuff adds up quick. $1500 for a line bore starts looking like $150 after doing it by hand or with a jig. I planned to spend $11,000, for tools but I have easily exceeded $16,000:

Table saw outfitted with proper blades, time and material for a nice crosscut sled.
Shaper, power feed, shaper cutters, time and material for coping and stile sleds and jigs.
Jointer
Planer
Line Bore, drill bits
Hinge bore
Possibly a dove-tail jig for professional looking boxes.
Router, router bits
Pocket hole jig
Face frame jig
Clamps, Clamps, Clamps, and then some more clamps
Air compressor, palm sander
HVLP, pressure regulator, particulate filter
Spray booth, explosion proof fan, filter material, drying racks, spraying table.

Just know what you are getting into, this is a huge undertaking even doing it full time. I am nearing the tail end of the cabinet project now. I will have spent six months nearly full time (some odd side jobs got in the way here and there) building cabinets. It was worth it to me because to have the cabinets and other woodwork in the house done by other tradesmen would have cost $54,000 dollars. I have saved about half that. Have a game plan and know your real costs before getting in over your head.

[Van Huskey]

One thing that I am sure is clear to the OP but wanna make sure is starting from scratch with tools you will NOT save money, quite the opposite!

[Ray Newman]

Good advice as to tools, construction, and costs.

Now I'll tap different thoughts. Don't want to sound too negative, but I think the below are issues that you should seriously consider....

You titled this thread: "Beginner Buying Tools." Does this mean that you have very little, no, or just some woodworking experience? Same with you father.

I've known a few guys who built/re-built their own kitchens. From what they said and from what I've read posted by others on this same topic on different boards, it is a time consuming task, esp. if you and father are also working full time. Working nights and weekends can be and will get tiring after awhile and then the job appears never ending. More so if you have no experience building cabinets, fitting around existing walls, appliances, etc. I think the task will even be more difficult if you have no or little experience and trying to learn things as you go.

How big is this kitchen?

Also, you'll need ample space to store your sheet goods and keep them flat, as well room to store the finished cabinets.

I 'dunno' if you are married or not, but how does your spouse feel about the added expenses and time to complete this project? How long do you think it will take to complete it?

Don't forget plans, getting appliance sizes for cut outs, etc. Have all of your hardware, esp. for drawers, on hand before starting. Nothing worse than finding that want you want is no longer made or will not fit the finished project. And quality hardware that will hold up over the years is not inexpensive, even when buying two dozen + or so items.

What do you mean by a "new" house? If it is new construction, remember you'll be paying for the original kitchen after you tear it out. Or, are you buying the house w/o kitchen cabinetry?

If it is an "older" or "pre-owned" home, you might also need to do some electric or plumbing upgrades and that does cost. ’Ya nevva’ know what's behind the cabinets and appliances or in the walls until you tear them out.

IMO, I think a number of people look at kitchen cabinets as simply building boxes, adding the trim and doors, etc. While that is true, they also have no little or no appreciation/undertsanding and or knowledge of the time, tooling, and skilled involved, the cost of materials, etc. A good cabinet shop can turn out cabinets quickly and efficiently, but they have the tooling and the experienced labour to do the job quickly.

[Lucas Spraggs]

OKay, well I plan to continue the wood working once the cabinets are built becasue I want to build various other pieces for my home and as gifts. Also dad says he is paying for the table saw, router and table. Can I purcashe material that won't have to be run across a jointer and through a planner. Well on second though a friend has a jointer I can use, so where does that leave me. Thanks for all the respones and keep them coming. By the way, my dad has woodworking experience and I have some myself.

[Glen Butler]

You could buy S4S. In my experience it is never as straight as it could be and it costs 2.5 x as much. You'd be better of with a jointer and planer. The planer is nice because you can run all your face frame stock on edge to get it dimensioned perfectly. I see you are running shaker style doors. That means you can do the job on a router table. A mini power feed would be nice to have though for even and consistent grooving.