refacing kitchen cabinets

[Josh Goldsmith]

I am getting ready to rebuild some cabinets for my parents. i have plenty of experience building cabinet doors but i have never refaced any cabinets. Does anyone have any tips the could give me. I would really appreciate it. Also is there any special tools i need? I am going to build the doors out of superior alder (with less knots that regular alder). Thanks

[Jim Becker]

The best tip I can give is that you need to really, really, really...clean those cabinets thoroughly before you do any refacing work. Adhesive veeners and even paint will not stick properly and "permanently" if you don't remove the years of dirt, grime, cooking debries and even finger oils from the surfaces. Windex will not do it...you need to use a product that is strong and designed for the task.

[jack duren]

im not sure what method you will use for refacing but maybe something here will be useful. http://www.woodshopphotos.com/gallery/album16 ....jack

[craig carlson]

Hi,

I refaced mine 17 years ago and they came out just fine. The cabinet ends that showed I used oak door skins the rest I used paper backed oak veneer. Everthing was glued with the smelly rubber cement (17 years and still no problems). Special tools were an exato knife, a roller to press the veneer and sand paper. All the surfaces were prep'ed with a course grain sand paper. I made the doors and drawer fronts (20 doors and 11 drawer fronts) Estimates that I had (in 1988 dollors from a refacing outfit) were in the $5500 range. it cost me $800.

Craig

[John Gregory]

About 12 years ago we hired a cabinet company to reface our kitchen cabinets. We were not doing any wood working then.
They constructed all new drawers, doors and hardware. To re-face the face frames they used 1/8" thick hard maple. On large areas, the snack bar, they used maple ply 1/8" thick. They did a very good job.

Since then my wife and I have taken up woodworking as a hobby, We have refaced our bathroom vanity, our daughter's kitchen and my inlaws bathroom vanity. I do not use PSA veener. I mill up strips of wood 1/8" think and glue and nail to the existing face frame. I use a brad nailer or a pin nailer. With this method, the cabinets are solid wood.

John