Sorry I don't have much help but we are thinking of doing the same so I am very interested in the answers. My uncle builds cabinets so I will share what I have learned from observing him. I know one thing, your savings will depend partly on what tools you already have.
A good quality table saw will hep. Also depending on whether you get dimensional or rough sawn lumber you may need a jointer and planer. Pocket hole jigs can be handy. A router for doing any interesting edges. Perhaps a biscuit cutter or doweling jig.

This site discusses lots of different topics:
http://www.woodweb.com/KnowledgeBase/KBCabinetmakingCustomCabinetConstruction.html
Another short but interesting site on the topic:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Building-Cabinets

Elyse,
Email me and I can answer those questions for you in more detail.
The cabinets we built can be bought at EXPO for about $700-$1000/ft!! We did not want to spend $25000 on cabs so we built them instead.
Absolutely essential tools - Good table saw, router, drill press, miter saw, sander, power driver, biscuit jointer, pocket hole jig.

Most important is to have plenty of patience. Then plan, plan,plan ahead of time. Draw everything out on the computer.
It took us about a month to build all the cabinets and doors. Plus an additional month to do the finishing (by hand,no spray).
Very happy with the results and they are build like a tank! all 3/4" plywood boxes (full top, not hollow), solid red birch doors and drawers, solid wood edging on the shelves, all blum hardware.

I would love to see those answers also pharoah if you don't mind.

Bob Lang's book called the complete kitchen cabinet maker is an amazing book. I think of myself as relatively handy-- made furniture, redid a bathroom, etc. For the bathroom, I made the vanity out of cherry. Lang's book was terrific at guiding me through every step. That vanity is finished and sports a green cement countertop with crushed glass that I made. So it is plenty strong. That said, I have a day job and the bathroom took a lot of time (hence why my DW says I'm always overlyoptimistic).

In terms of tools, I have a lot, but few things were needed for the vanity. I would argue that a really good circular saw with a jigs (Festool makes one) is as good or better than a table saw. If you get a table saw, you will need to buy or make a cross-cut sled. The cuts need to be totally square, and as crazy as it sounds, square cuts are tricky on a table saw, especially with large sheet goods.

I would also argue that you buy a great saw blade ($100+ ballpark).

Depending on where you are getting you lumber, you may need a jointer. And a planer is very helpful for getting the stock into the right dimensions. I also used my biscuit joiner. Lang walks you through the options if you don't want a biscuit joiner. The drill press was handy for the blum hinges.

I debated making the kitchen cabinets. We're probably going to use red birch, but I'm not going to make them. I don't have the time right now and I'd rather do other things, like make the countertops.

I don't want to speculate on the price of the wood and materials. That varies a lot from place to place. I'm guessing that you'll spend $2500 or more on tools, if you don't have any.

Any thoughts about making the cabinets out of bamboo. Plyboo makes a really nice bamboo ply. Amazing stuff and really durable. You also don't need to edge band it, unless you want to. I prefer the edges raw, because this is not like most ply you've seen...

Adding to the tool list--clamps, lotsa' clamps. But that is prolly redundant, lol, because anyone who is into woodworking already knows that 'you can never have too many clamps.' ;-)

And, on the supply front, Industrial Abrasives is a great source for sandpaper. I've ordered from them for years and highly recommend them. Specifically, I've used their garnet paper, silicon carbide waterproof sheets & sanding belts. Also, it's worth the small upcharge to get the sheets precut from them to fit your sanders. However, that said, I've recently used some of the 3X offerings from 3M, Norton and love that stuff because it really does last longer between changes.

One of the most important things is to know ahead of time what drawer slide hardware you plan to use because you need to know the tolerances and exactly what size to make your drawer boxes. Don't ask me why I know this...

I'm pretty much a rookie at cabinet bldg but I have built three vanities (wall to wall) for our bathrooms with countertops. It's difficult, esp. in those small out of square places. You constantly gotta' be thinking & anticipating. I plan to build our kitchen cabs and really think that it will be an easier, albeit much larger, project than the bathrooms because, in my case, I'm working with two open-ended runs and an island so, if I goof and end up a little longer or shorter, etc., it'll still work.

Here is a link that might be useful: Industrial Abrasives

You'll need to decide on either face-frame or frameless cabinets, and clarify whether you'll be making your own drawer boxes, doors and drawer fronts. If you will be building doors and drawer fronts yourselves, what sort of style do you prefer?

You might consider building the cabinets in place rather than constructing modular boxes in the shop and installing them as if they were factory cabs. Such stick-built cabinets are relatively quick to build and use less material.

Hubby built ours out of trees that we had to take down after a huge hurricane. ItÂs a mixture of pine & ash so the cabinets are painted. The biggest expense was the stain grade plywood for the boxes. IÂm not sure exactly how many we went thru but approximately 15 sheets at $28.00 each. I used 2 coats of a wipe on poly inside, worked out pretty well & was easy to apply. The savings were enormous. The cabinets go up to the ceiling with a nice size counter pantry & crown moldings. I will say that it took forever to make them & they are HEAVY (IÂm still missing one too). I think he got bored. Hubby purchased New Yankee Work Shop 9 part Kitchen series DVDÂs. He also made a prototype before forging ahead with good wood.

Good luck!

WOW... thanks all for such helpful responses.

pharaoh... it's ironic. Last night when we discussed this Bob (DH) asked me how much do you think these cabs would cost retail and I said about 25K. He said he's up for the challenge and LOVED the idea of saving loads of money.

To all else who responded. I know he already has a couple of table saws, circular saws, and more then one drill press. I'm not sure about a planer or biscuit joiner. I don't know what a cross cut sled is but he will. But if doesn't have them we'll buy them. I used to tease him about all the clamps and bungies he has...guess I won't do that anymore.

I know I want frameless doors and since it'll be mostly drawers I"m assuming a bit easier to make then the doors. The style?... very similar to pharaoh's. I love clean lines, transitional/leaning toward contemporary. Probably classified as shaker. Not sure if I want all the drawers slab or mix them with some shaker style. I've seen doors that are mitred flat panel with just a small amount of beading and rope molding that I like but that might be a little too traditional for the look I'm going for. I do have a thing for rope molding... does that make me dated?

We'll be getting blumotion and I'm not sure as to the best hinges yet... I haven't researched them yet. Luckily, the home we're building these for is
now empty so we have the luxury of completing the renovation and remodel while we live here. I expect the entire process to take at least a year.

After viewing photos I know I want red birch. It's nice to have made at least one definitive decision which will help guide others. I love the idea that he can customize things as he builds. For example, since I'm only 5' tall I always loved the thought of a slightly lower cooktop. If I use a large pot (like last night) I find myself up my tippy toes to scoop/stir/whatever. I've seen staggered height in base cab and like the look. DH really liked the look of pharaohs' granite return and suggested doing that along the sides of the
cabinet next to the proposed cooktop. That'll be unless we decided to lower the entire run of base cabs 3 or 4 inches. The design qualities will be another thread.

Pharaoh, I'll email you with more specific questions once I get them from Bob. Thanks so much for your offer of help.
Elyse

Thanks for the heads up on the mostly helpful books and DVD's. That'll be very helpful.

I think you have it backwards. Drawers are harder to make than doors. Doors are fairly simple and just have to be the right size and straight in two dimenions; drawers have to be that in three dimensions.

thanks maxdel... show's what I know. Thank goodness it'll be DH making the cabs and not me.

My brilliant, gifted carpenter is sitting in my basement this very moment making me a corner cabinet -- I'm retrofitting a set of used cabs and adding on as necessary -- he just shouted up that you MUST invest in the Festool circular saw with the Festo guide rail attachment and most importantly, the Festool vacuum. I can attest that he's been doing a lot of actual sawing in my kitchen and the dust is extremely minimal, which is worth its weight in gold.

For the construction, we got some high quality birch plywood that looks indestructible and is lovely even before the veneer goes on.

Go for it! I can't imagine anything more pleasurable than knowing you made your very own kitchen. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Festool saw

PS: Rockler Woodworking carries all the Blum hardware, there may be one in your area or you can easily order online.

One 5' x 5' 5/8" sheet of nice birch plywood cost me about $65 and makes about 1.5 27" cabinet frames, if that helps calculate. I'm in Maine though, and prices likely vary around the country.

PPS (she won't stop, help!):
One thing my carpenter is doing is building bases out of the plywood first, then levelling them and placing the cabs on top, which is apparently a more precise way to level them than building integrated toekicks. But the really great thing about this method is that he can make these separate bases recede more than average toekicks, allowing us to paint them black, then put feet on the cabs! It looks really fantastic so far, I can post pics when it's done.

circuspeanut... I don't want you to stop! The information is more then helpful and greatly appreciated. Tool purchasing to DH is like candy to a child... or granite and backsplashes to me. I can say with more then a little certainty that it won't take much arm twisting to convince him to purchase some more high quality tools.

I'm looking at approx. one 10' run of lowers with maybe 6' of uppers above that. A 6' island, and two 5' run of lowers . I may put some glass uppers above one of those runs. Now I might be calculating this wrong but I'm very roughly figuring 45 linear feet of cabinetry. If one board makes 1.5 27" cabs, let's say I round up to 36" cabinets and divide the 45' by 3'. That would equal 15 cabinets. Are you telling me the birch plywood for the frames would then only cost us around $1000? That can't be... How much should I estimate for the red birch for the doors and drawers? This is getting me so excited... I pity the poor man when he gets home. He's way more laid back then me on this!

I'd like to recommend Scherr's as a resource if you want to do-it-yourself, but not do-it-all-all-by-yourself. You can decide where it makes sense for you to do the work and where it makes sense for them to do it for you.

You might have them cut the pieces for the dovetailed drawer boxes and then assemble and finish them yourself. Or you might have them make the cabinet boxes and you make the doors, or you make the cabinet boxes and have them make the doors.

I used them and originally intended to do more of the cabinet making myself, but when we decided to forgo the contractor and do the entire kitchen remodel ourselves I decided to shift the line a little and have them do the finishing of the doors and drawer fronts.

I highly recommend their adjustable cabinet legs as opposed to building the standard solid fixed toekick and shimming it to level. The legs allowed me to get the cabinet tops perfectly level so that the granite installation really went smoothly.

Yes, if you make the boxes yourself, I think you can save an awful lot on the plywood -- you can customize your cabinet walls right there without the sometimes extra (doubled-up) sides of pre-made cabs.
It's foolish to compare jobs (please don't rely on this for your final estimate!), but the plywood for two new 27" base cabinet boxes and all the 4" bases for about 30' total of base cabinetry cost me $240. Clearly, you'll have to estimate quite a bit more for goofs and last-minute changes in plan. But overall, yep, I think it costs vastly less than if you ordered them from a large company at $500/box.

The cost will really lie in the framing wood (your proposed red birch) and veneer, if you use it for returns & sides or innards. Do a little digging around to see what your local lumberyards offer -- best to find a higher-end lumber supplier that caters to the trades, rather than a big box type store. With what you'll save on the boxes, it will be worth it to spend a tad more on the right lumber!

My father built my cabinets last summer/fall, and I'll try to answer some of your questions.

1. Any good resources/books/sites you found particularly helpful?

He was already en experienced wood worker, but most of my reading, to keep up with things and learn on my own was done at sawmillcreek.org

2. How much of a savings can we expect?

I guess it is all relative- savings compared to 15K or 50K cabinets? :) My costs:
$80 waterlox finish x4 (exteriors)
$90 waterbased finish x2 (interiors)
$55 bushes/applicators/steel wool/sand paper
$82 shelf supports/brackets
$32 glue
$1600 -ish wood
$460 hinges and slides
$160 drawer handles

We used certified sustainable mahogany that I *think* was about 6/BF, and plywood was about $60-100 each(1/4" vs 1/2") and 1/2-3/4" birch ply for the interiors at about $40 each

The total above is about $2560. This was for an 11x13 kitchen, framed shaker cabinets, lots of drawers.

3. Level of difficulty or learning curve?

For me it was tremendous, but for my "boss" not so much

4. Absolute must haves, should haves, and would have made it so much easier if I had tools?

I cannot think of any thing to add to the tool advice you have already gotten, except that having a big, usable work area and a lot of room to store the cabinets as you make them is really helpful.

5. Time frame?

you dont want to know mine......LOTS longer than planned.

6. Tips?

As already stated, PLAN everything as well as you can, measure twice, cut once.......:)

7. How much should we expect to pay for wood?

You saw my costs, but I really dont know how regional lumber tends to be, or what red birch costs. I got to know several lumber yards, but it was my dad's old standby favorite that served us the best.

8. Good sources for blumotion hardware and good hinges?

cabinetparts.com
Rockler (walk in store, or online)
I got my handles on eBay.

Good luck!!!!!

Chelsea,
Please email me and I will send you my answers as well.