kitchen cabinet repair

[Joel Goodman]

Two of my grown son's kitchen cabinets fell apart and I want to advise him on the repair. Sadly he lives 3000 miles away or I would just rebuild or replace them myself.
Here's what happened -- the doors and the face frame basically fell off. The doors are hinged to the face frame which was attached to the particleboard or MDF cabinet boxes with glue and a few staples! What crap! The objective is to improve what he's got rather than a complete redo.
Anyway my thoughts are for him to remove the doors from the face frame and tack the face frame in place with a few finishing nails, and then use a Kreg jig and pocket screws to attach it properly. I'm not sure if the box is 1/2, 5/8 or 3/4s. Will pocket screws work in 1/2? Clearance for the drill will be tight but perhaps a right angle adapter will help or a compact drill. Any other ideas for a sturdy repair? I thought of biscuits but am concerned about alignment issues.

[carl zietz]

Kreg will work in 1/2 inch, the instructions are part of the kreg book. just as a little overkill, I would be tempted to add some glue along with the pocket screws.

[Todd Burch]

I doubt the cabinet will support Kreg joining. I would have him remove the doors (merely for ease of work), remove any hot melt glue or staples that were used in the original assembly, and just use good 'ol yellow glue to glue the face frame back on - in all the factory grooves (sides and top and bottoms). If you can actually take the cabinet box down, that would ease his work task.

[Joel Goodman]

I doubt the cabinet will support Kreg joining. I would have him remove the doors (merely for ease of work), remove any hot melt glue or staples that were used in the original assembly, and just use good 'ol yellow glue to glue the face frame back on - in all the factory grooves (sides and top and bottoms). If you can actually take the cabinet box down, that would ease his work task.

Due to the poor quality of the cabinets I'm worried that taking them down will open up further issues. God knows how they were installed -- old victorian house badly renovated. I'll ask him about whether the face frame has a dado in it -- my son didn't mention it. Carl indicates that pocket screws will work, and I'd like to beef up the attachment a little. I agree that glue should be used as well.

[Peter Stahl]

The cabinets in my last house did this so what I did was take 1 X 1's (actually 3/4" x 3/4") and glue and screw them where they wouldn't be seen. Worked surprisingly well. I didn't have the money and planned on replacing them if I stayed in the house. Cabinets even got painted but never replaced. I also took them off the wall when I did this to make it easier.