Building kitchen cabinets

[goodmund]

Okay, I foolishly decided to save about $5000 and build my own kitchen cabinets. So far, so good, but the level of difficulty is only going to rise as I get closer to making about 50 rail and stile doors and drawer fronts. I've made them before, just not this many that will all be in one place, side by side by side. I guess the pressure is getting to me, so I'm starting to second guess decisions I've made long ago.

I have about 70 feet of hard maple ready to be cut up and assemble into doors, but it's all 13/16 and I don't have a planer. I decided that this extra thickness would be fine, plus I'll be sanding a hair off of it as I go, so I'll just have nice, thick, sturdy doors. Right?

Is there really a down side to going with the estra thickness? I don't think the difference will be noticable to the naked eye, but I'm just wondering what y'all think.

Thanks for your two cents.

 

[DaveO]

Goodmund, I moved your thread to the General Woodworking Forum, as this is as woodworking as it comes. I believe most raised panels are generally from 3/4" thick stock, so you talking about only a 1/16" greater than that. Most likely they will protrude out from the frame a little farther, but if you are going to do all the doors the same way, no one will notice that slight difference.
I say go for it, it shouldn't hurt at all :icon_thum
Dave

 

[goodmund]

I should have added that they are flat panel doors, and the thickness is actually a little over 13/16. Too many small marks to count on my metal ruler.

Thanks!

 

[DaveO]

As long as you plan to cut a tongue to fit into the frame you should be OK. How thick are the rails and stiles going to be ~13/16" also?
I have some doors that I made for an entertainment center, and all I could find at the time was 5/4 stock. I didn't plane it down to 3/4" but left it at 7/8" with a 1/2" ply flat panel. They are solid, and close quite authoritatively.
Dave

 

[jsjordan]

I applaud your initiative for tackling such a big project. :eusa_clap Look forward to seeing some pictures as you move through the process. :icon_thum

I'm also considering building new cabinets for my kitchen but my skill level is nowhere near where it needs to be to accomplish this. I've got some shop cabinets, bathroom vanity cabinets, and a scrapbooking desk on the slate already so I'm hoping these will give me enough practice to feel reasonably confident about it.

However, LOML has been watching Norms "Build a Dream Kitchen" series this season and the heat is rising. Thanks goodness I've been able to distract her with shiny things so far. :wwink:

 

[skysharks]

Hey Buddy, I have built many stile and rail cabinet doors.
You should not worry about the 13/16" for your stiles and rails, they'll be fine.
I do wonder if you have enough lumber for your doors though. Depending on the width of what you have and the width of your stile/rails. 70' will get eatin up in a hurry.
width of your rails usually are 1 5/8" on up, depending on design/cabinet/door size, etc. But average for cabinets like this .

Recommendation, do your calculations for all the stiles and rails that you are going to need. Figure out if you have enough lumber. If you do, run the profile for them all at one time. ( do a few feet extra for boo boo's:thumbs_up )Then do your set up for your cross cuts for your rails.
Set up for the cross cuts can take a bit to get it just right.
HTH

Have fun.

 

[junquecol]

Not to throw a blanket on you job, but have you considered BUYING your doors? Kay and Sons in Wake Forrest, along with Decortive Accessories in the Charlotte area will make them for almost what you have in materials. Also, the Hardwood Store in Gibsonville offers a door making service. Just some other choices.

 

[goodmund]

Hey Friends

Thanks for the feedback. I'm feeling better about the thickness. I started with 70 bf, but I know I'll probably have to pick up a few more sticks later on. I looked into buying the doors and I figured a door I can buy for anywhere from $30-$60 i can make myself for under $10. With 50 doors/drawer fronts, it was an easy choice. And besides, if I bought them, I'd still have all my fingers when it's done. Where's the fun in that?
Thanks again for the help!

 

[Jim Murphy]

I looked into buying the doors and I figured a door I can buy for anywhere from $30-$60 i can make myself for under $10.

Assuming you're building normal sized cabinets with 30" height and 24" width, that's 5 bf.

Wall Lumber lists hard maple at $2.80/bf.

If you were completely lucky and had no scrap at all (due to ripping stiles to desired width and cross-cutting rails to proper length), you'd have $14 in lumber in each door.

I don't believe I've ever (in my admittedly limited experience) had a situation where I didn't end up with a rip offcut that was a half inch or so too narrow for use for anything.

How did you work the numbers to get under $10 per door?

 

[skysharks]

I have debated this same thing over and over again in my head.
Building the doors or purchasing them.
Yes sure one can build them for less than purchase price. However that is only pertaining to material costs.
Once you figure in labor cost it doesn't add up. In the end it would be cheaper and faster to have the doors/drawer fronts made for you.

Now, in saying all of that, we are a group of woodworkers and craftsman.
I still have not bought a single door/drawer front to date.
I always build them. WHY, do you ask? lol
Cause it's in the craftsman in me to do. The satisfaction is there knowing that I built it from start to finish.:icon_chee
As I am sure Mr. goodmund you will feel after your kitchen is complete.:eusa_danc
Good luck with your project and if you need any guidance jot it down here. There are plenty of skilled folks here that can help you figure it out.

 

[Steve W]

Go for it!

There's nothing like the satisfaction of rolling your own. I wimped out this time around in the interest of getting the kitchen done quicker. I'm wishing I had held out and built my own. The ones I did in my previous house taught me a LOT.

:kermit: Steve

 

[goodmund]

Fernhollowman:
You're assuming the entire 30x24 door is made from hard maple. Take into account that the rails and styles are only 2.25 wide. Rounding everything up, that's only about 1.75 board feet, not 5. Throw in about $5 dollars for the maple plywood panel and it comes in at about $10. Same door is $53.78 at hardwoodstore.com.

 

[Dutchman]

goodmund,
If you would like to run them thru my planer, you are welcome to. If you bought the lumber planed to 13/16, I would be willing to bet there might be some that did not clean up all the way if it came out of 4/4. If your sure everything is exactly 13/16, then you will be fine, but make sure before you start, or you'll be doing some heavy sanding on some of your doors.

 

[Gofor]

I am currently making cabinet doors for my five 48 x 32 hanging shop cabinets. I'm using pine (five 2x8 x 8' syp @ $3.50 each, and two sheets 1/4" BCX @ $16.68 ea = so it comes out to ten 45 x 15 doors @ $5.18 per door (not counting hinges which adds another $4.29 per door), so you are doing exceptional at $10 door out of maple.
I would recommend milling at 2 extra rails and 2 extra stiles (3 if there is a center stile). Perform each process on the extras and use them to set up the jigs, etc to fine tune mortises, tenons, rabbets, hinge mortises, etc. Makes it much easier when you have a board exactly dimensioned to the work piece. Also will give you some spares if you happen to mis-cut something.

Some statistics for ten rail & stile flat 2 panel doors with center stiles:
20 rails
30 stiles
20 panels
60 mortises
60 tenons (that's 240 cheek cuts and 240 tenon jig cuts)
50 pieces to dado for panels (ctr stiles are both edges)
30 pieces to rabbet if doors are inset (3 edges each door if rabbeted after assembly. 4 for single doors)
and 50 pieces to edge profile if you are doing round over or ogee and 60 ends to relieve for inset and 60 insets to mill into rails.
You may want to plan ahead as to sequence of operations and run all boards as needed through each operation as a time economy measure.

Just a thought

Go

 

[BobcatBob]

Do it! It is much easier to say "I built those cabinets" than to have to say, "I built those cabinets, except for the doors". See what I mean.

When I built my kitchen cabinets for our new house, I had to install
them when the builder said it was time. I didn't have the time to get the raised panel doors done, so I just hung the cabinets. After we moved into the house and put all our "stuff" in the cabinets, my wife said she kind of liked not having doors yet because it made it easier to find everything. Three months later, when I got the doors installed, she already knew where everything was.

Bob

 

[Travis Porter]

One word. Powerfeeder.