buying plans for kitchen cabinet construction, and other question

18 years ago

hi,

i'd like to make my own kitchen cabinets. i've done quite a bit of woodworking and know that i can do it. but i also know that i need a good plan. (i once made a slatted cedar deck table without a plan -- i designed the construction myself -- and it fell apart after a few years.) mostly, i need to know the strongest joints to use and where.

the style i want is frame and panel construction on the doors, and either true F&P sides (the ones that show, anyway) or at least planed boards placed over plywood to look like F&P on the visible sides. i plan to use poplar, and paint the cabinets. i also want the doors and drawers to be inset (flush with the frames.) and i'm planning to use marble countertops on some cabs, wood on others.

i haven't found a good book at the bookstore that has actual plans.

my questions:

1) does anyone know of a source for high quality plans for traditional-style kitchen cabinets?

2) i'm also wondering where a cabinetmaker buys all the hardware that goes with all the kitchen features you see these days, like pull-out shelves, appliance garage door hardware, etc.

3) i know it's unusual these days, but one CAN make solid wood cabinets that will last, can't you?! my preference is not to use plywood.

any help is greatly appreciated! thanks,

debbie

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Comments (5)

Jon1270
18 years ago
The hardware is easily available. Poke around in the hardware section of leevalleytools.com for a sampling.

Kitchen cabinets get a lot of their strength from being attatched to walls, floors, counters and each other. Joint strength may not be as big a deal as you're supposing, but that depends...

It is possible to build without plywood or other engineered materials, but I can't recommend it. Particularly for the boxes, solid wood offers no advantages other than a certain grooviness factor, which only you will appreciate, and it would mean a lot more work and expense. (LOTS AND LOTS MORE!). You're not finding plans to build kitchen cabinets this way because [almost] nobody does it.

How wedded are you to this all-solid idea? The methods and joinery depend completely on this choice. What kinds of equipment do you have access to?
tetrazzini
Original Author
18 years ago
i'm not wedded to it, but it appeals to me for a couple of reasons. in the end, tho, i probably will go with plywood. i realize the drawers and inset doors will be pain enough.

as for tools, i have a 10" table saw, 12" planer, router, compound miter saw, and a bunch of hand held power tools. also a bunch of clamps... probably more that i'm not thinking of. if i decide to build my own cabinets i'd get a jointer, a drill press or maybe a mortiser, and a better dust collection system.

i know there are various methods to use, just as there are various reasons for people wanting to build their own things. my motivation is partly to save some money, while still making high quality stuff. but it's also because i enjoy the process. because of that factor, i want to use the methods that appeal to me, like using mortise and tenon joints, etc. not to put them down, but using techniques like biscuit joinery don't appeal to me...

as far as strength goes, i could figure out how to put a cabinet together in my own way, but why reinvent the wheel? there must be plans out there by people who know how to design a foolproof cabinet. i can adapt it stylistically, if need be. the question is, where do you find a good selection of plans?
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Jon1270
18 years ago
The cabinets I recently helped my brother tear out were solid pine, about 100 years old, painted, with inset doors and drawers. The cabinets themselves were clearly sticked in by a finish carpenter -- no fancy joinery there, just nicely fitted butt and miter joints fastened with lots o' nails. The end panels, shelves and vertical dividers were wide, clear pine boards; no frame-and-panel there. (Try and find a 22" wide, clear, straight-grained piece of pine today, though...) The doors were clearly made in a millwork shop somewhere else, all joinery cut with a shaper setup similar to modern cope-and-stick router bits; they weren't old enough to attribute to fancy hand molding planes. Drawers were rabbeted and nailed too (no dovetails), and their joints had lasted longer than the softwood wear surfaces they rode on.

Five or ten years ago I remember finding some reprints of very old carpenters' guide-books, containing a lot of diagrams and note about how things ought to be assembled. Something like that might be useful. I know that Lee Valley carries a selection of reprints of old woodworking texts, so perhaps you can find something there. Maybe you could find an old house in your area that still has its original cabinetry, and get a look at how it was done.
tetrazzini
Original Author
18 years ago
wow, it seems these plans are harder to come by than i imagined. i'll probably give up on the frame and panel idea for the carcasses because, for one thing, drawer slider hardware seems like it'd be trickier than with a solid sheet. maybe i'll try to get a hold of some old fine woodworking magazines for some plans...

was your brother's cabinetry salvageable at all? sometimes you can reuse some of the wood.
Jon1270
17 years ago
My brother did hang on to some of the old hardware and glass doors, but the cabinets themselves weren't worth it.

I recently found a reference to a book that might help you. It's called "The Motion Minded Kitchen" by Sam Clark. I haven't read it, but it apparently includes a description of "...the lost art of building cabinets in place, which is a traditional and quite economical way to build cabinets." That sounds like it might be up your alley.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sam Clark books

buying plans for kitchen cabinet construction, and other question

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buying plans for kitchen cabinet construction, and other question

Comments (5)

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Jon1270

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tetrazzini
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