Building your own kitchen cabinets

Builing your own kitchen cabinets

Wether you want to build your own kitchen
from scratch or just add a kitchen unit in
for extra space,it's always handy to know
how to build one.

  ..........................................................

You also don't want to build a skew cabinet
so I've decided to add a page to my site
teaching you how to build one the right
way.

Building your own kitchen cabinets isn't as difficult as it looks all though the installation proccess can be.All you need is the rght tools and materials and it's as easy as counting to three.

Tools and materials needed to assemble the cabinets.
1.Cordless drill,combination square,screw drivers,pencil.
2.6x40mm chipboard screws,25mm wide head nails,plastic corner blocks.

Let's assemble a 500mm wide floor cabinet.The height of the floor cabinet' sides will be 720mm and the depth 560mm.

The bottom of your cabinet you will make 560mmx468mm.The width of the bottom is the
468mm size(you will get that size by taking the width of the cabinet -32mm.)
The top kleets of the floor cabinet will be 468mmx70mm.They are not as wide as the
bottom because you will place a countertop on top of the floor unit so you won't see
the kleets.
The shelf of the floor cabinet is 540mmx468mm.It's not as deep as the bottom.
And last the backboard for the cabinet is 718mmx498mm.It's 2mm smaller than the
floor cabinet top ways and bottom ways so as to prevent the backboard from overlapping
the sides of the unit and touching the cabinets next to it.

So here is our cutlist to build a 500mm wide floor cabinet

1.720x560 (x2)sides
2.560x468 (x1)bottom
3.468x70 (x2)tops
4.540x468 (x1)shelf
5.718x498 (x1)backboard

Let's start by screwing the side marked A onto the tops marked B.When
building the kitchen cabinet make sure you use 3 6x40mm chipboard screws
to mount the bottom panel and 2 for each top kleet.If you are unsure about
how the 2 top kleets look and how they are possisioned you can have a look
at the cabinet at the top of the page.

After you have fixed those panels you can fix the other side marked A2 onto
the bottom panel marked C and onto the top kleets marked B.
Great!Now you have a box to work with.But your're far from being finished.

Next you will place the masonite backingboard onto the kitchen cabinet at 
the back.Make sure that you place it 1mm from all sides of the cabinet.If
you fail to do so the kitchen cabinet' backing will push against the next 
cabinets backing and leave a gap at the back between the two kitchen 
cabinets.

In the picture below your will see how I measure out the distance and spacing
of the legs below the kitchen cabinets.

The front of your kitchen cabinet is marked A and the back B.I make the 
distance from the front of the cabinet 60mm back.It's best to have a nice
big space because if you cut your kickplate abit skew you won't see the
gap at the bottom between the cabinet and the kickplate because the 
kickplate sits so far back.When building your kitchen cabinets make sure
you fit your adjustable legs at least 40mm from the back of the kitchen cabinet
.The reason for this is so that the adjustable legs don't push up against the 
skerting on the wall.

Building kitchen cabinets with 150mm high adjustable legs is much better than 
ones with 100mm high legs because allot of skirting these days are higher than
100mm of the ground.

Rather have the space to play with otherwise you will have to cut out the back of
your kitchen cabinets and that could look really badly finished off.

This is probably one of the most usefull tricks I've learned in the kitchen industry.
When building your own kitchen cabinets you have to make 4 marks where you
will knock shelf nails in.But getting the marks level with one another is another
story all together.

You could probably use a tape measure and mark out on your kitchen cabinet
with a pencil where the shelf nails should go but holding that tape measure still
could also be a difficult task.

Here's a very easy way to do it.

Build your own template by using a piece of chipboard 400mmx70mm in size and  
a 6mmx40mm screw.Fix the screw 330mm from the bottom of the wood in the 
centre of the chipboard.Make sure the screw goes right through the chipboard
and stick out the other side with about 2mm so you can make your mark with it.

Place your shelf nail template on the bottom of your cabinet and knock it against
the side of the cabinet where you want to make your mark.Once you've made
your mark on the cabinets side use a hammer and fix a shelf nail to it.Repeat
this step for the rest of the shelf nails.After you have that you can put your shelf
in place.