Cabinet building questions

[BuckeyeDennis]

I really would not try to cut dadoes on both sides leaving "at least on vertical-grained ply intact" since I believe cutting the second dado would destroy the first.

I am of the opinion (thank goodness we can keep that freedom - at least on this sight:rolleyes: ) that option 1 gives you a stronger unit and can even be made stronger with screws if need be.

Forrest

Why?

If you get the "web" in the "I-beam" too thin, I'm sure that it could blow out when making the second dado cut. But what I really meant to be saying was was that even a single vertical-grain ply in the web would provide a lot of strength in tension, but that horizontal-grained plies would have almost no strength.

BTW, I also prefer option #1, but do believe that #2 could be satisfactory.

[heathicus]

I went with option #1 mostly because it was quicker, but I cut the dado shallower than pictured. I borrowed my brother-in-law's brad gun and used some 18ga, 1-1/4" brads along with glue all around (sides to sides, sides to divider, sides to bottom, bottom to divider). The one (yes, only one!) drawer I got assembled seems to be very strong. There is zero movement and it is perfectly square.

Although I didn't get this project finished this past week, I got pretty close. I'm frustrated that I didn't get finished, but even if I hadn't had this project to work on, it was still a very busy week. And I'm really proud of the work done so far. Everything is perfectly square and very solid. Left to do is assemble the other 5 drawers (all the pieces are cut), and install them and paint the whole thing except the top.

The next job is shelves surrounding the cabinet and then that room will be done.

[heathicus]

This project is taking me so long!!! I didn't finish it on my staycation. I didn't get it finished this past weekend. Real life just keeps getting in the way!

Anyway, in the evenings while the wife is cleaning the house and the kids are showering and stuff, I've been trying to work on installing the drawers. But these things are going to be the death of me!

My cabinet is square. My face frame is square. My drawers are square. But I'm having a dickens of a time getting my drawer fronts to be flush with the face frame all the way around. They keep going in crooked. I haven't put the drawer faces on yet, but I know when I do one side is going to be cocked out 1/4" or so on several of them. I just don't quite know how to tweak the slides to get them to line up. So I guess something really isn't square somewhere, or I'm just going about this in a retarded manner or something.

Anybody have any tips for installing drawers to get the fronts to be flush with the cabinet face frame?

["Wild Bad Bob"]

Screw/nail to face frame!!LOL Not a clue, without figuring out the why? Made a cabinet for under my work bench, 4 draws on one side, cabinet door on the other. Same thing, one drawer is off a bit. First "cabinet" with drawers I made in years, and it was the first of the 4 drawers thats off a bit. All is square? I think that drawer front is "racked' a bit to the drawer sides.

[JPG]

This project is taking me so long!!! I didn't finish it on my staycation. I didn't get it finished this past weekend. Real life just keeps getting in the way!

Anyway, in the evenings while the wife is cleaning the house and the kids are showering and stuff, I've been trying to work on installing the drawers. But these things are going to be the death of me!

My cabinet is square. My face frame is square. My drawers are square. But I'm having a dickens of a time getting my drawer fronts to be flush with the face frame all the way around. They keep going in crooked. I haven't put the drawer faces on yet, but I know when I do one side is going to be cocked out 1/4" or so on several of them. I just don't quite know how to tweak the slides to get them to line up. So I guess something really isn't square somewhere, or I'm just going about this in a retarded manner or something.

Anybody have any tips for installing drawers to get the fronts to be flush with the cabinet face frame?

Not having it in front of me, I can only say the following.

Square is a two dimensional thingie.

Using a 'square' only determines squareness in a single plane.

Yes things can be square in more than two dimensions, but only do so if square in all three dimensional planes that are orthogonal. That is the three planes themselves are 'square' to each other.

So rigorous attention to the plane a square is held in is critical with three dimensional objects.

As a double check, opposing diagonal corner measurements(all 4 diagonals) may reveal where 'out of square' problems originate.

Tis easier to align the drawer face to an opening if it is attached to the drawer last as you are already doing. Consider shimming the face to the drawer as well as fit between sides. Not perfect, but 'a way out' so as to not redo 'everything'.

Make those diagonal measurements. They may prove enlightening as to how to prevent future consternation.*

* Measure ALL of them! Cabinet, face frame, drawers.

[videobear]

Would this work? Clamp a flat bar across the face frame. Put a pair of slides on a drawer. Clamp the drawer front to the bar. Fasten the slides to the cabinet, or if no room, at least mark their position.

[heathicus]

* Measure ALL of them! Cabinet, face frame, drawers.

I measured everything on the cabinet before I put it in place and everything was square. As a double-check, I measured everything (that I could get to) last night and still, square. Where I couldn't measure diagonally, I checked with a speed square. No diagonal measurement was more than 1/16" off from the opposing diagonal measurement. This was true on the cabinet and the drawers. The only measurement that was more than 1/16" off was when I removed a drawer that was "crooked", fully extended the slides mounted to the cabinet, and measured from the back of each slide to the front of the opposite slide. That was 1/8" off. But there's at least that much "play" in those 22" slides fully extended with nothing between them so I think that's pretty darn close. Am I wrong?

Would this work? Clamp a flat bar across the face frame. Put a pair of slides on a drawer. Clamp the drawer front to the bar. Fasten the slides to the cabinet, or if no room, at least mark their position.

Not a bad idea. I might could do that for the upper drawers, but not the bottom ones. (My "grid" of drawers is three columns, two rows.) There's not enough room between the drawer and frame to clamp anything to the drawer front, but I could screw something to it. Those holes would be covered up by the drawer face. It's at least worth giving it a shot to maybe see what is going on.

[heathicus]

I finally got this cabinet finished! I'm very proud of it. It's designed specifically to hold my comic book collection. I did final manage to get everything tweaked so the drawer faces are all (mostly) flat against the face frame.



It's got 6 drawers and each drawer replaces two cardboard comics boxes made to hold about 230 comic books. My drawers are actually a little longer than the cardboard boxes they are replacing.





So I have extra space in each drawer and currently have one drawer that is empty. As slow as my collection has been growing the last few years with me being cheap and also switching mostly to digital comics, this should last me for a while. I guess I'll have to make another purge if I ever fill it up.

The next phase is a a ton of shelves above and to the right side of the cabinet.

[nuhobby]

Fantastic work! A "Marvel" of accomplishment .

[algale]

Looks great! You have every right to be proud of it!