I built two cabinets for a built in project in an alcove. Take everything to the site today, get the site prepped and go to lay the base in place and it doesn't quite fit. Hmm, that's strange. OK, I'll take off the 1/2" spacer I had on one end, still wondering why that was necessary. I leveled the base and set the first cabinet in place then measured the remaining gap, then compared that to the second cabinet. Huh? The cabinet was 1" too wide. How the heck? Later, checking my drawings, I found one instance where the total length was 82-3/4" and all the others, including the ones I used to build off of, were 83-3/4". No clue how that happened other than I goofed.

There wasn't much to be done other than bring one cabinet back to the shop. So I choose the one that's pretty much a simple box with face frame. No way to cut down the other one; that would be a complete rebuild and I didn't want to do that. With some careful work, I was able to cut an inch out of the face frame rails, then the bottom. The top stretchers I did by hand and that freed that side. I removed the cut off stubs of the rails and stretchers from the sides with a handsaw and pared them flush with a chisel. To reattach the face frame rails to the stile I drilled dowels holes then glued and screwed it back together. Nearly perfect.

I think it will fit OK now.

John