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Medium difficulty kitchen cabinet upgrade


fizzy

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Kitchen is 25 years old, particle board construction. So not going to spend a lot of money on this. Also, you don't need fancy tools. Basic table saw, cordless drill, orbit sander, jig saw.

 

1.  This part is almost not worth mentioning. Change the "euro style" hinges to soft close. Do not buy from the big box store. They are silly money. Bought online, 30 for £29.95.  Only advice here is to make sure you get the exact right ones.

 

2. Install undermount soft close drawer guides. This requires brand new drawer boxes to work. Then mount the old drawer faces on the new drawer boxes. I used blum brand guides. These are not available at big box or local hardware store.  If you live in a large enough town there may be a retail cabinet specialty store where this stuff can be purchased, along with advice to which style/size you need. Otherwise, order online and hope for the best. I messed up here and had to reorder. The blum brand is excellent quality, but there are no name brand eastern knockoffs for less money. They may be fine, who knows.

 

I had 4 drawers to make, so I purchased 1 sheet of 1/2" or 12mm cabinet ply. I used this for the sides and the base.  With this type of drawer guide, the box must be made width and depth to within 1/16" or better.  In order to figure out what these dimensions are, there are a few things you must do.

 

1. Throw away the instructions. This is important for your mental health and the safety of those around you.

 

2. Width measurement: mount the guides in the cabinet, pull out the moving part of the guides and measure outside to outside....see pic. Add 1/16". This is the inside to inside measurement of the width of the drawer box.

 

3. Depth measurement: Click orange clip onto guide. Measure end of orange clip to base of rear pin. This is inside to outside measurement of depth of drawer box. See pic with hammer. It shows me marking the small hole to be drilled for this pin.  

 

 

 

4. Bottom of drawer box to underside of base MUST be 1/2" or 12mm. 

 

I bought the cheapest blum unit 3/4 extension (not full) and only adjustment up/down on the face. Can spend more and get more adjustability. £11/drawer vs £39+.

Box construction, simple 1/2" wide rabbits x 1/4" deep, screwed and glued. Pocket screws would be fine too. Bases cut 1/16" smaller the rabbeted recess they live in, this makes/keeps the box square.  

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Edited by fizzy
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16 hours ago, SwampNut said:

It's impressive with handheld tools.  I work to a 64th but on highly precise stationary machines.

 

Not handheld tools. Everything was done on a table saw.  A lightweight portable one. Takes longer and with more care to set up accurate cuts vs heavy shop saw, but results are almost as good. Only handheld tool was a jigsaw to cut out rear notch (see pic with hammer). Post was really to show that accurate and useful projects can be built with basic power tools. Thanks for looking.

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Ah, so yeah, better than handheld, but not like a real cabinet saw.  I've gone through many iterations of light contractor saws and now have a Unisaw.  What you said about careful setup explains the precision.

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 10/14/2022 at 12:58 PM, blackhawkxx said:

Working to a 1/16" with wood has never been a strong suit of mine  is fucking retarded since tomorrow it'll be different anyway.

I'm possibly exaggerating, depending on the size and flavor of the board and the climate.  Working with wood almost always pisses me off and I admire those who can do great things with it.

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