Help With Built-In Planning

[Wes Henson]

My Wife signed me up for an ambitious project; I'm putting built-in cabinets with books shelves around our gas fireplace.
Between my old Workbench and Wood Magazines I think I'm set except for one thing.

When I'm scribing a face frame stile so that it fits tight to the wall how do I account for the loss that is going to occur?
I’m thinking I start with an extra wide stile, scribe the stile and then see how long the rail needs to be to make the face frame come out the proper dimensions

Am I on target here?
An advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks for your feedback.

Wes

[Craig D Peltier]

Take a level to your wall your talking about and see how much its off in front and back. Then make sure you make it wide enough, it doesnt really matter how much as long as its enough since it will be getting cut off anyhow. I would just make my stile normal width of others plus 1 inch , rabbett the back side of it whatever the overhang is going to be so its easier to scribe too. Your wall shouldn't be off more than a half inch and your not going to be able to really notice it if that stile is 1.2 inch wider than the one on the right wall say.
Building your cabinets 3/4 inch shorter than overall width of wall is a must as well or half inch if your confident your wall isnt too wacky. A lot of times it pinches in the back corners due to the mud.

Hope this makes sense, I rewrote it 3 times, have a hard time explaining it :)

[Brett Bobo]

Wes,
I'll try to keep this short and understandable but I recently went through a similar process for a closet built-in. I followed the procedure you mentioned of scribing the stiles first and then cutting my rails to the exact lengths for a tight fit. It was quite a tedious process to get it right but worked out well in the long run.

A couple of initial questions:
1. Will this be a painted project? If so, you have some leniency on scribing a tight fit since you can caulk any gaps that may exist.
2. Do you intend on building your bases/platforms separate from the carcases? If so, you can install your bases level and then use them as a reference to plumb your stiles before you scribe them to the walls. It's best to have a second set of hands while doing this and try to avoid bending the stiles to follow the contour of the walls, which can be easy to do with ~8'-9' long stiles.

In my opinion, another advantage of building the bases separate is that you can take your reference dimensions for the rails from the top of the bases, measuring from the walls to the front of the bases and then subtracting out the widths (stiles, face frame, etc.) to get your rail lengths. This will give you a level reference point to determine the exact lengths of your rails. I'd suggest using a digital caliper to measure the width of the stiles at the point of where you measure for your rails (e.g. at the bases) so you can get an even more accurate measurement.

Also, Craig makes a good point on leaving a good extra inch to the width of your stiles for scribing, as well as rabbeting the back of the stile equal to the width of the amount you plan to remove. Depending on how you plan to cut the scribes, say with a jigsaw, give yourself enough width to work with so the base of the jigsaw isn't teetering off the edge of the stile as your make the cut. You have one shot to make the cut so try to limit the "variables" and make it easier on yourself. Any inconsistencies can be cleaned up with a block plane, sandpaper, card scraper, etc. On the rabbet in the back of the stile or even back-beveling the cut (angling the jigsaw or titling the bandsaw table), the point there is you want a tight fit on the outside face so you minimize any inconsistencies in the wall for the thickness of the stile that may cause gaps.

Working with as-built conditions can be frustrating but take your time and you should end up with good results! Hope that helps!