Installed Kitchen Cabinet .... Need Help With Fix!

[Scott Vigder]

A recently-purchased home has this problem with two kitchen cabinets...obviously this dowel-only connection is not structurally competent to support the weight. I'm concerned that if I just glue the dowel back in, it will just pop back out. Any suggestions?

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[Kurt Cady]

You've got some big time deflection of the shelves without anything on them really (long-term creep and permanent deformation) . The deflection of the shelves, or the deflection of the bottom cross member, is causing the vertical piece to pull out at the top.

Looks to me like some long-term deflection issues and it will need to be supported from the bottom.

[David Giles]

The lack of a solid wood face frame is a problem. Dowels into melamine coated particle board are less than stable. The melamine surface will resist bonding to most glues. The melamine surface could be removed for better bonding to the style, but I doubt that would help much. Normal white/yellow glue is unlikely to work well as they need a tight surface-surface contact to be effective. I would tend toward an epoxy filled joint. Epoxy is good at filling gaps and should work well in void filled particle board substrate. Getting the epoxy into the joint without making a royal mess will be a challenge.

The style does not seem to support the internal shelving. I'm guessing that it only acts to hide the gap between the doors. What if you removed the style and left it out? If the bottom shelf is bowing, add a hardwood strip on edge under the front lip.

[Kent A Bathurst]

It would help to add a photo showing where the bottom of the stile meets the ??? - which is my point - can't figure out why the stile has dropped.

Beyond that......I would suggest the straight-forward solution. Some 3/4" x 3/4" [or 1" x 1"] blocks of scrap hardwood - maybe 1/4" shorter than the stile is wide. Get the shelves and stile back in alignment, then center the blocks behind the stile and under the case ceiling/shelves. Glue & screw them into the stile and the case ceiling + shelves. It won't look 100% like fine woodworking [well - it will look 100% like Fine Woodworking magazine does in the "modern era" :mad:]. Finish them however helps make them "disappear".

The shelves will be more stable. The stile will stay in place. You likely have the cabinet doors closed in practice, so the detailed look isn't as important as keeping everything together.

But again - I'm curious what the stile does at the bottom.

[scott vroom]

+1 what Keith said.

Keith, BTW nice tribute to Clarence Clemons in your signature line ;)

[Chris Fournier]

Perhaps some pocket screws from behind would do the trick? Not great but perhaps a "good enough" solution.

[Paul Girouard]

Re-glue the dowel , jack the cabinet back up into position and add a 90 degree metal angle piece the width of the rail say 2" x 2" angle. Ace , Home depot or the like should have some aluminum angle stock that you can cut to lenght , put a couple of screws into the back of the rail , and three into the cabinet top. It "might" hold , PB , more than likely the cabinet case is made out of the same 1/2" thick stock the shelves are made out of.

If so the screws that go thru the cabinet ceiling / top may be better as the folding wing style that you bore a bigger hole , fold the wings in push then thru the hole and they deploy once they get past the 1/2" PB top.

You'd have to have the screws thru the angle piece before you install the winged deals.

I can't find a photo of the type of winged fastener I'm referring to , but they'd give the best strength ratio as they'd spread the load and use all of the 1/2" PB to bear against.

[Leo Graywacz]

A mix of Paul and Chris's ideas would work well.

I would first reglue the dowel and prop it back into place until dry. Using a pocket hole jig, take off the front stop of the jig and use a clamp or screw to hold the jig in place on the backside of the FF member. Drill two pocket holes and use a coarse thread pocket screw in each hole. This should be more than enough to hold a lot of weight.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Yeah - I know squat/zip/doodly about pocket holes. Didn't consider that option.

[Scott Vigder]

Thank you all- there are some great suggestions thinking outside the box

[Jim Matthews]

I would anchor a run of aircraft cable into the ceiling, and run it behind the stile.
With a "stop" at the bottom, you could occasionally take up slack to keep things on the level.

My bay window is suspended similarly.

[John Coloccia]

re: gluing back in/pocket screws

I suspect that if he only does this and reinforces the top, it'll just pop out at the bottom.

[Leo Graywacz]

Then put pocket screws in the bottom too