Kitchen cabinet questions

[john bateman]

After pricing some commercially available kitchen cabinets, I'm considering making them myself.
I know there are folks here who do this from time to time, so maybe they have some ballpark numbers in their head they could share, to help me estimate the cost of DIY'ing it.

1) Assuming 10 ft of wall and base cabinets, how much prefinished plywood would I need to buy for the carcases, including backs, shelves, and drawer boxes.

2) Assuming 10ft again, how much rough sawn cherry lumber would I need to insure I had enough for the face frames, door frames, and drawer fronts after waste. (I will probably use cherry plywood for the door panels rather than raised panels from lumber)

Thanks for your experience.

[David Larsen]

Your question is more on the lines of "Can someone figure out my materials list for me!"

[Sal Kurban]

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It really depends on a lot of factors. First you need to figure out the quality of lumber. I bought my cherry lumber from several sawmills and each would grade the stock slightly differently. I even had to deal with some infested lumber that needed some treatment! The second factor is the rails and stile width. Third, are you considering 42" or standard cabinets? Fourth, what kind of hardware do you want to go with? If you go with blum soft closing blumotion slides, it will be different than say a standard undermount slides. Do you want to use extruded brass butt hinges or cup hinges? Dou you already have the equipment (router table set up, bits, all the jigs and shop equipment?) Do you intend to modify the layout (wiring, plumbing etc?) What are you using for floor, countertop, backsplash, lamps? The list goes on and on.

I went with what I considered classical style and built furniture grade cabinets. I practically demolished the old kitchen and gave it a makeover even designing my own lamps. Took 1.5 years to complete and cost about $36K including appliances. Our kitchen is considerably larger involving some 40 ft of cabinetry though. Above are some pics.

[Glen Butler]

Making your own cabinetry is definitely worth it. Considering basic melamine euro style boxes and rustic grade doors, your materials are roughly 1/3 and labor is 2/3 the cost if hired out. What you need to do is decide your kitchen layout and the size of each box. Enter the size of each box on an excel spread sheet. You can then organize each piece according to size and see how many of each piece you will need and you can also easily figure the square footage of melamine, and hardwood. I typically add 10 % to the melamine and 50% to the basic facing square footage if using rustic wood.

May I recommend the confirmat screw system and zentrix jig for box assembly. Saves time on rabbetting all your box pieces and its easier to figure sizes. A simple clothes iron and rubber roller can apply edge banding. You can save more hassle by finding a PVC banding that matches your cabinet finish.

[Paul Incognito]

For the solid wood portion of cabinets I build, if they're going to have doors and/or drawers, I generaly figure the surface area of the front of the cabinet is solid. Say a 36" base cab, the front will be 3'-0"x 2'-6", assuming 4/4 stock, that's 7-1/2 board feet of lumber. If doing solid wood panels, I'll add 10-20% depending on the wood species, if plywood panels, the panel portion is the percentage of waste. Clear as mud? I'm sure there are better, more precise ways to figure it, but this has worked well for me so far.
Hope this helps,
Paul

[Leo Graywacz]

The rough materials you buy will likely be the same or more than a complete kitchen you buy. This is true if you get a pretty standard set of boxes. If you plan on building a lot of elaborate cabinets then you would need to buy a upper end box and you may save a little.

But on average, when I build stuff I find that the raw materials cost the same as a fully functional product. The ones you build will likely be much better quality, but will look the same on the outside.

[Paul Incognito]

That's what I've found too, Leo. The only times we build cabinets are when they have to be custom.
Paul

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I dunno about raw materials costing the same as ready to use. Locally they wanted $60 a door, for a shaker style, non raised panel. I made 4 for 60 bucks worth of maple. And I made raised panel doors.
But, that being said, that's only the maple rough stock. That's not counting the bits, all the power tools, so in THAT case, cheaper to buy. Oh and labor.

[Darrell Bade]

It is worth it if you have the time. I built mine 3 years ago. My wifes quote was for $8,200 not including the 2 bathroom vanities or laundry room. I built them all for around $2,800. I used solid oak for the face frames, raised panel doors, drawer carcasses and drawer fronts. Used oak plywood on the sides and backs.
Price included ball bearing drawer slides which were not cheap.


Like I say, you can save if you have the time. I started the first of June and got finished in September, barely kept pace with the builder and I worked real hard every night and weekend. I would never do it again without a drum sander or widebelt sander. I spent hours sanding with a RO sander. With what I saved I bought a Saw Stop, 15" planer, 8" joiner and a 19" bandsaw so it was worth it to me to get my new shop equipped. I had been working with mostly bench top tools other than a tablesaw for years till I suddenly had my new 20' x 32' shop.


I almost forgot the most important thing, the pride I feel every time I walk into the kitchen.

[john bateman]

Some more info. The commercial mfg's like Kraftmaid have price guides estimates, when you look at their brochures in the big box stores. They base these prices on 10ft of wall and base cabinetry. Of course prices will vary a bit based on specifics.
The styles we looked at use prefinished 3/4" plywood interiors with solid wood door frame and flat plywood panels. They were about $3500 per 10ft wall and base, which means I would pay about $10K for all my needs.

Now, I have all the equipment to build and finish this stuff, and the hardware is not really that expensive, even using full extension and soft close mechanisms.
But not having built anything of this magnitude before, I had hoped someone who does this on a regular basis might know the approximate needs before I go design the entire thing, then create a materials list.
FWIW this will be a complete gutting of the room right down to the studs, with new insulation, windows, walls, floor, appliances, and cabinetry. If it costs me $3K to $5K in materials to DIY the cabinets, I'm in. If it costs $7K or $8K in materials, probably not.

[Greg Moore]

I build custom cabinets to suit the room or the person (height +/-). Depending on the price of hardwoods in your area, some species of wood will be cheaper than others. I find that price spread on most common hardwoods, for a complete kitchen, generally runs around $300-$400. For an average sized kitchen (depending on features and knobs/handles) you will easily be in your price range (cabinets only). Counter tops can really blow your budget depending on materials used/wanted.

Your biggest consideration is going to be time. Depending on style of doors and your experience, you could very easily spend 200-400+ hrs. building and installing your own cabinets.

Have fun.

[Joe Adams]

I used to make every thing myself but these days I buy pre-fab cabinet components (boxes & drawers) and assemble them onsite. You can make you own face-frames if you go with that style or buy those parts pre-made as well. I've subbed out my doors & drawer fronts for years.

[Bryan Cowing]

I built a large kitchen for my son a few yrs back, material cost was $2200 for melamine, ruff oak, hinges, handles, drawer slides, 2 gallons finish, 2 quarts stain.His counter tops ran $1300. For sq footage of the cupboards face, say 3' for bottom and 3' for top x 1.5, usually very close for ruff lumber needed. Sheet stock, used an estimator program ( Cut -List) I bought on line to calculate sheets and print a cut list, had HD cut melamine to basic sizes, I could then trim parts at home. Check my webshots album for pics.http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/575245360Hysnlt

[Leo Graywacz]

I dunno about raw materials costing the same as ready to use. Locally they wanted $60 a door, for a shaker style, non raised panel. I made 4 for 60 bucks worth of maple. And I made raised panel doors.
But, that being said, that's only the maple rough stock. That's not counting the bits, all the power tools, so in THAT case, cheaper to buy. Oh and labor.

Sounds like you were getting a door quote from a custom shop. You can't compare that to a box manufacturer who buy thousands of sheets of plywood and BF of lumber at at a time and have specialized machinery and low dollar employees. Having someone make 4 doors is a custom order and will cost you. Going to the store and picking out a box that has 1000's of similar boxes made along side of it is how you get inexpensive cabinets.

[Rick Potter]

For what it's worth, when I was building my first (working on the second now) kitchen 15 years ago, my neighbor redid his at the same time. He bought the white melamine european type cabinets at HD. It cost him $4000 for the cabinets, and installed them himself. The counter was extra, and he had no drawer pulls or knobs.

I built mine out of oak plywood, with solid red oak doors and end panels and face frames. My cost was about $2700, and included the knobs and pulls which were $500. Counter cost was not included here either, and I also had some oak left over.

At the time, I figured I had saved enough to buy my new Unisaw, as well as making the kitchen exactly like my bride wanted it. The down side was that it took me a lot longer to build mine than it took him to install his. I built the boxes first, installed them, and put a temporary counter top on, before making the drawers and doors.

Rick Potter

[John TenEyck]

Everyone who hasn't built a kitchen yet thinks it's a job where they can save a lot of money compared to hiring a contractor. Everyone who has built one knows how much work it was. Yes, you can save money over hiring a contractor, for sure. You can even save some money over buying stock cabinets, but not a lot. And you can't save any money over buying custom made doors. You read that right. Seems impossible to believe but take a look at rawdoors.com, for example and compare that to how much it will cost you just for the wood.
I built my own kitchen about 15 years ago. Complete tear out, wiring, plumbing, 27 custom made cabinets, the whole nine yards. Took me almost a year. I worked a lot of nights and weekends a long the way. I saved a lot. I learned a lot. Mostly I learned that I had to move tons of materials, multiple times. It came out great and I wouldn't change much about it. I'll never build another, but I would install one. I'd try to use stock cabinets as much as possible and I'd buy them from IKEA. I like white melamine boxes so that's not a compromise for me. I'd build the few number of custom cabinets required to fill out the room. I'd probably build my own doors and drawer fronts, even though it's cheaper to buy them, just because I wanted to.
Whatever approach you take, think it through completely before you commit. Do you have the tools, skill, energy, and time to take on such a project? Do you have means to transport and store all those raw materials and finished boxes? Do you really, really want to build it, or is your motivation only saving money? Good luck.

[David Larsen]

I have done a few kitchens. Some custom, some semi-custom, and some stock. If I had my ultimate choice it would be custom all the way. The stock cabinets just don't compare in quality! I build all of mine with 3/4 oak plywood for the carcases and 1/4 inch plywood backs if against a wall or 1/2 inch if on an island. The melamine and chipboard just doesn't have the strength for the life of the cabinet.

Here is the test. Buy a stock cabinet and make a custom cabinet. Drop each one off the roof of your garage onto the driveway and see what happens. I am not saying my custom cabinet won't damage, but I think it will take a hit or two. Second test: soak the custom cabinet and the stock cabinet in your kid's swimming pool and put it out in the sun to dry and see which one holds up.

And for those considering building their own kitchen. I say do it, but keep in mind that it does take time if you want to do it right.

[Bob Wingard]

This looks to be an EXCELLENT opportunity for you to gain the experience of getting a pencil & paper and drawing out exactly what you want to build and how you want to do it. Then you can analyze your plan to come up with a cutlist that makes sense. There are just WAY too many variables involved in a project like this for anyone to be ably to know exactly what you have in mind. Do you plan modular cabinets or full length boxes ??? Frameless or face frame construction ??? Shelves .. adjustable or stationary ??? Joinery techniques ... what are your plans and what do you have to work with ??? Back about 40 years ago, I built a REALLY nice kitchen with not much more than a contractor was and a router. It took a long time and involved LOTS of planning, and it certainly is not how I would do it today, but it worked, and I got LOTS of compliments on the project, including one from a cabinetmaker who I had gotten a bid from. When he first gave me his bid, I told him I could buy all the tools and materials for the job for less than his bid, and I would still have the tools left over when I was finished. He assured me that what I said was true, and he even offered to help out or pick up and finish the job if I got in over my head. He said the one big thing to remember is that fancy kitchen cabinets are nothing more than simple plywood boxes with lots of attractive stuff added on to them.

Take measurements ... draw it out ... PLAN your cuts ... determine your needs ... HOPE to not ruin any materials.

[Leo Graywacz]

I have built quite a few kitchens, on the order of 50+. It is a lot of work if you do everything, and I do. Starts out with a pile of plywood, a stack of hardwood, a few gallons of stain, sealer and finish, a pile of hinges and drawer slides and a lot of time.

I make the doors and drawers, a few times I used custom bought doors. Most kitchens take me on the order of 6 weeks to make and 2-3 days to install depending on size.

Lots of work and most of the days are 10-12 hours.

[Peter Quinn]

Ok, just think it through. Lowers are 23 3/4" deep, 23" of that is plywood, about 36" tall so you get two verticals per 1/2 sheet plus some horizontal partitions from the drops, so figure each box, almost regardless of length takes 1/2 sheet of 3/4" prefinished maple at $80 per sheet, thats @ $40 15'-36' box. Multiply by how many boxes you want, done. Uppers are 12" deep, so they get 1/3 sheet per box.

I figure 3-4 BF of solid stock per box for FF and four piece door frame, pick your species, add more waste for something like walnut, and more still if you buy a grade lower than FAS, though you may be able to cut around a lot of crap even in #1 common in some species. But pick your grade, pick your species, get a price locally, multiply by 4, that is your lumber cost per box minus the panel. If you want to make solid raised panels, you have to do a bit more figuring, if you want to go with plywood or MDF flat panels, the cost is pretty marginal, but figure one sheet every 10' lineal, maybe better depending on your actual door widths? So say at worst $50 every 10LF for flat panels.

So say you want soft maple, thats about $12-$15 in materials per box for solids PLUS the panel cost. Then add hardware, which can vary from $20 for epoxy slides and ameroc hinges to $200 per box for a pull out cab with solid doors hanging on white chapel brass hinges with blum undermounts. You are going to have to sit down and put pencil to paper for those calculations, but just figure out what level of hardware you will use, then multiply by the number of boxes. So simple even I can do it.

It seems you have gone to the big box to get prices? Take it one step further, have them come out to the house and design your kitchen! They will give you a drawing that is hardly a construction or shop drawing but from which you can easily develop your own cost estimates baste on local materials costs and the above info. My mother went to lowes to design her kitchen then asked me if I could build it. I looked at their estimate and told her to buy it from them! I might have been able to build it a bit cheaper based strictly on materials costs, but not by much, and they delivered much faster! Either way you get a good reference to help focus your plans.

[jack duren]

You can save a lil money building your own cabinets but you need the know how and tooling. Before and after...

[frank shic]

i'd recommend buying a copy of danny proulx's book on building kitchen cabinets although please don't use construction grade plywood for the slab doors! the cutlists are extremely helpful. you might want to start with a smaller project first like a bathroom before tackling the kitchen. if you do decide to go for it, i'd strongly recommend having the cabinets built and ready to install before demolishing the kitchen... like i did a few years ago :(

[john bateman]

1/2 sheet of 3/4" prefinished maple at $80 per sheet, thats @ $40 15'-36' box..

The prefinished ply is what's killing me on this. Around her I'm seeing $125/sheet. I didn't want to use melamine coated particle board.

[jack duren]

Whats wrong with melamine coated pb?...

[frank shic]

melamine is hard to get a nice clean cuts on both sides of the material unless you invest in slightly more expensive tooling (modulus 2000) or time in masking off the cut line or using a scoring cut.

[john bateman]

i'd recommend buying a copy of danny proulx's book on building kitchen cabinets although please don't use construction grade plywood for the slab doors! the cutlists are extremely helpful. you might want to start with a smaller project first like a bathroom before tackling the kitchen. if you do decide to go for it, i'd strongly recommend having the cabinets built and ready to install before demolishing the kitchen... like i did a few years ago :(

The kitchen is the last room in the house to renovate. I've gutted every room in this 120 yr old house, including 2 baths, and rebuilt from scratch...plumbing, electrical, floors, windows, drywall.
Now with the wife unemployed, I'm trying to keep the kitchen rehab economical and in keeping with the style of the house. It's not gonna be 5/8" melamine like in the Danny Proulx book. I bought that book for $2 at a used bookstore. Even though it was published about 14 years ago, if you watch the DIY channel on TV, they tear out kitchens all the time that look just like his, because they were outdated..and in some cases falling apart. Melamine particle bd doesn't do too well when it gets wet.

Somehow it just seems wrong to put a granite countertop, which is millions of years old, on top of some particle board boxes which probably won't last 20 years.

[Steve Griffin]

Wife's unemployed? Maybe she could do the finish work, and you could save buying unfinished ply.

Or if you have a spray gun, finishing the insides of the boxes is hardly any trouble. Might add a half hour to the job.

-Steve

[Leo Graywacz]

Or if you have a spray gun, finishing the insides of the boxes is hardly any trouble. Might add a half hour to the job.

-Steve

That is utter nonsense. If you want to have a descent finish inside the cabinets it will take a many many hours. First coat and then scuffing everything and then second coat. It would be wise to use a third coat. Half hour is only going to get the first coat sprayed and that isn't counting the masking, and cleaning up the equipment. Figure on a full day if you are using lacquer or water based poly. And a lot longer if you are using an oil based product.

[Steve Griffin]

That is utter nonsense. If you want to have a descent finish inside the cabinets it will take a many many hours. First coat and then scuffing everything and then second coat. It would be wise to use a third coat. Half hour is only going to get the first coat sprayed and that isn't counting the masking, and cleaning up the equipment. Figure on a full day if you are using lacquer or water based poly. And a lot longer if you are using an oil based product.

I do this for a living and have finished dozens of kitchens with unfinished interiors and 1/2 hour is about right. Maybe an hour additional time at the very most.

-Masking? Thats the best part. Spray the cabinet with the faceframe on, and no time spent masking. I hate masking.
-Clean up? Zero additional time--you need to clean up after each coat anyway right?.
-Sanding? Time me if you like, but I can hit the bottoms and sides of 20 LF of kitchen cabinet with 220 in about 7 minutes. I don't bother sanding drawer banks. Cleanup of dust is the same as if I just sanded the Face frame.

I put the cabinets on carts or dollies and roll them around during finishing. IT's easier than having to deal with faceframes off the cabinets.

Now if a guy is brushing it on, it's going to add hours. Divide those hours into the extra cost of prefinished and it's still a good deal.

I guess there are reasons I price out well--I'm successfully doing what others think is "nonsense"

-Steve

[John TenEyck]

The kitchen is the last room in the house to renovate. I've gutted every room in this 120 yr old house, including 2 baths, and rebuilt from scratch...plumbing, electrical, floors, windows, drywall.
Now with the wife unemployed, I'm trying to keep the kitchen rehab economical and in keeping with the style of the house. It's not gonna be 5/8" melamine like in the Danny Proulx book. I bought that book for $2 at a used bookstore. Even though it was published about 14 years ago, if you watch the DIY channel on TV, they tear out kitchens all the time that look just like his, because they were outdated..and in some cases falling apart. Melamine particle bd doesn't do too well when it gets wet.

Somehow it just seems wrong to put a granite countertop, which is millions of years old, on top of some particle board boxes which probably won't last 20 years.

I think mine looks pretty good. Built 15 or 16 years ago. 3/4" melamine boxes, maple plywood doors and end panels with solid maple stiles and trim, Blum drawer slides and hinges, and black granite countertops and back splashes.

I find the comments some have made about strength and water resistance pretty humorous. Melamine boxes are plenty strong by themselves, and once you screw a row of them together they are incredibly strong. And water resistance? I've had a leaky drain trap that took me at least a couple of days to discover. There was water all over the inside of the cabinet and on the floor in front. The cabinet was fine. If you edge band melamine correctly it will take almost anything short of immersion. Once melamine cabinets are built, they're done, no finishing required. Mine look nearly new after 15 years. I don't think they are going to fall apart any time soon.

I don't think it matters much what sheet material you use. They are all strong enough for kitchen cabinets. What does matter is how well you build and install the boxes.


https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8Z9h8WpM_js/TEooscLRvRI/AAAAAAAAAZE/XgNnwclKjIs/s640/IMG_0017.JPG

[Leo Graywacz]

If you are spending that little time on the finishing then I guess your clients are getting what they pay for.

I have been finishing for quite some time now and I know I could never get a glass smooth finish on the cabinet interiors in a half hour. It takes me about 3 minutes to sand the inside of a cabinet. I am using MLC products, what are you using.

[Peter Quinn]

The prefinished ply is what's killing me on this. Around her I'm seeing $125/sheet. I didn't want to use melamine coated particle board.


OUCH. I just bought a few sheets for a small job for $80 per sheet here. I''d look around a bit more. My local borg now stocks it in a grade good enough for interiors of boxes for even less. My first post was just to point out that if you don't see this as a large problem but a series of very small problems, it quickly becomes manageable mentally from cost estimation to construction. Kitchen cabinet construction is really a pretty crude form of wood working with a few specific basic techniques for success. Hardest part is lifting the plywood honestly.

[frank shic]

Kitchen cabinet construction is really a pretty crude form of wood working with a few specific basic techniques for success. Hardest part is lifting the plywood honestly.

this is so true... it's mainly just butt joints and building a LOT of boxes...

[David Larsen]

I think mine looks pretty good. Built 15 or 16 years ago. 3/4" melamine boxes, maple plywood doors and end panels with solid maple stiles and trim, Blum drawer slides and hinges, and black granite countertops and back splashes.

I find the comments some have made about strength and water resistance pretty humorous. Melamine boxes are plenty strong by themselves, and once you screw a row of them together they are incredibly strong. And water resistance? I've had a leaky drain trap that took me at least a couple of days to discover. There was water all over the inside of the cabinet and on the floor in front. The cabinet was fine. If you edge band melamine correctly it will take almost anything short of immersion. Once melamine cabinets are built, they're done, no finishing required. Mine look nearly new after 15 years. I don't think they are going to fall apart any time soon.

I don't think it matters much what sheet material you use. They are all strong enough for kitchen cabinets. What does matter is how well you build and install the boxes.

Do we think particle board cabinets will still be a viable cabinet in a house when it is 125 years old?

[Steve Griffin]

If I were a betting man, I'd say particle board cabinets are more likely to last 125 years than plywood.

And plywood is more likely to last than traditional solid wood interiors.

The reason is wood movement--solid wood needs a combination of luck and excellent construction methods to survive the test of time.

-Steve

[frank shic]

i love melamine now that i actually have the means to cut it without chipping on both sides (modulu$ 2000) as you get a nice prefinished and durable surface although i don't know how much longer my body can lift the 3/4" material...

[David Larsen]

I agree that Particle board is a very stable product and it does have it's uses, but practical for long-term cabinetry is where I would have to draw the line.

I would use particle board as a substrate for laminate countertops anytime. It proves superior to plywood in my opinion. Yes, it has a chance of getting wet around a sink location, but a laminate countertop isn't meant to last 125 years. If you want that kind of longevity then a stone product would be superior.

As far as cabinets go, even with good screws, particle board just doesn't provide the strength of plywood. A leak under a sink will disintegrate the the particle board. The plywood could delaminate, but it would still hold up better in my opinion.

Particle board is heavy.

Drop it and the corners mush out. Plywood would take a hit or two.

My previous argument is to take a particle board cabinet and a plywood cabinet and drop them off the roof of your garage onto the driveway. I pretty much can tell you what the answer to that will be.

Take a 3 foot by 1 foot section of particle board across your knee and kung fu it. Betcha it breaks! It will take more effort to snap that same piece of plywood.

Plywood finishes out nice with a rich wood interior. Particle board with malamine is a nice clean finish, but to me looks cheap and plastic-like.

Plywood with stain can be quite forgiving if you happen to drill a shelf pin hole in the wrong spot. Malamine isn't so forgiving.

Duck your head under a plywood upper vs. particle board. To me a finished plywood edge is more visibly pleasing vs. the particle board edge even if it is edge-banded.

Plywood makes a superior match to wooden face-frames.

To me it just seems that Plywood is superior and will give you the best of everything in a cabinet unless you specifically want the malamine interiors.

[Steve Griffin]

Excellent points David,

I'd still say the main reason I prefer ply is weight and aesthetics, not durability/longevity.

Sometimes a good choice is both--I've done nice cherry ply interiors on uppers, but melamine for bases.

-Steve

[frank shic]

there have been multiple arguments over the melamine/particleboard vs plywood issue. i think snapping the particleboard across your knee is a nice dramatic way to market cabinets to a customer so that they pick the plywood upgrade but realistically, are you going to be kicking or punching your kitchen cabinets once they're installed? the most stress that they're going to take is from vertical loading. to the original poster: try them both and see which one you prefer. you can buy a smaller sheet (2 ft x 4 ft) piece at the home improvement centers if you don't want to waste a whole sheet during the learning process. i prefer lifting plywood but i'll take the prefinished melamine finish any day over plywood.

[John TenEyck]

melamine is hard to get a nice clean cuts on both sides of the material unless you invest in slightly more expensive tooling (modulus 2000) or time in masking off the cut line or using a scoring cut.

I don't see much difference cutting melamine or plywood. A scoring blade setup would be nice, but you can get excellent results without one if you use a blade designed for it. For me, there is no more chipout on melamine than there is tear out on plywood. I have more trouble with plywood, actually; some of the new stuff I've used over the past year is just awful. Moreover, there are very few places in a cabinet (none, in the box itself) where both edges are exposed. Shelving is the only place I can think of where you will see both edges. Whatever material you use, melamine, plywood, solid wood, using the correct cutting tools is key to a quality job.

[frank shic]

the scoring blade isn't without its own drawbacks either as it makes a slightly wider cut than the main blade so you often get a faint rabbet on the scored edge but i'll take that over the chipping that i'd get otherwise. i should add that a sliding table has revolutionized cutting sheet products for me and i highly recommend it if you have the space (my current setup has a footprint the size of an SUV maybe even wider!).

[Karl Card]

Depending on what cabinets you are looking at, if you are building to save money you probably wont. The hardware is expensive and the time you have in it is alot. Now if you are doing it because you can save some money and you really want to do it for experience, bragging rights etc, well, needless to say you wont get hurt. I have 22 linear feet for cabinets in my kitchen. I am going to use plywood for the carcass and face it out in brazilian cherry, I will have around 1400 dollars in the complete deal. But I did call in some favors too... But in the end I will end up with cabinets that should be in a high end house. Project starting in September.

[Dave Lehnert]

I will toss this in for you to review.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?145717-IKEA-cabinet-parts.

[frank shic]

don't ikea cabinets have a different hinge designed by blum just for their cabinets?

[John TenEyck]

Do we think particle board cabinets will still be a viable cabinet in a house when it is 125 years old?

How many kitchens have you been in lately that are 125 years old? Any that I've seen that are even 50 years old I would be ripping out to replace if I bought the house. And why would I even think that someone 125 years from now would want the kitchen in my house? I've been in a lot of houses in Europe that are centuries old. The oldest kitchen I saw was certainly only a few decades old, at most. Planning for that time horizon is time wasted, IMO. But, yeah, I suspect if my house is still standing 125 years from now and no one's ripped it out yet, my melamine cabinet kitchen will still be serving it's function well.