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Thirdeye

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Anyone ever made their own kitchen cabinets? SWMBO and I want to update our kitchen without selling our souls to Satan. We're buying some nice Brazilian Teak flooring for the mid-level of our tri-level home that will extend into the kitchen. Problem is, our cabinets are crappy and not even close to matching the teak. And we dont really have wiggle room in the budget for buying new cabinets. So I was thinking I might try and make the boxes myself and then order the doors and drawer faces from somewhere.

I dont have any word working experience per se, but I am a quick learner, quite good with my hands, and have never failed to achieve anything I put my mind to.

Also, I have access to all the equipment...table saw, router, etc.

What say you HBT?
 
plan ahead, make up a cut list. When you set your table saw, make all of your like size cuts together, and rough everything in at once. If you can do the frames, there is no reason not to go ahead with the face frames and doors. check out www.mcfeelys.com for good prices on drawer slides, screws, door handle jigs, & pretty much everything you need. I built my cabinets in my house for approx $2000 and I had a cabinet company price them at $12000. I also have a pretty nice shop at my disposal (custom concrete form shop).
 
Man ~Good~ cabinets are hard to build and the saws that provide the accuracy and capacity are pretty expensive.

What material were you thinking?

Have you considered rehab'ing the cabinets you have now? Some drawer guides, hinges, pulls and a faux finish may be cheaper / easier.
 
5 Is Not Enough said:
Man ~Good~ cabinets are hard to build and the saws that provide the accuracy and capacity are pretty expensive.

What material were you thinking?

Have you considered rehab'ing the cabinets you have now? Some drawer guides, hinges, pulls and a faux finish may be cheaper / easier.

Material? Havent really thought that far ahead yet. Something that would go well with the teak would be number one priority, other than that, Im flexible. Live in Colorado where humidity isnt really an issue.

I have thought about refacing the cabinets I have now. It seems sort of ghetto though, slapping veneer(sp?) on 20 yr old cabinets. I would have to get new doors anyway. The door frames are Ok but the faces are that thin, cheap wood that you can punch a hole through with your finger like martial arts master in Remo Williams.
 
Dude, do yourself a favor and buy the cabinets. The cost of the frame is not where you get killed in the cabinets, it is the door's paneling. For the time/effort/quality of making your own, you are better off just getting some stock cabinets from a kitchen and bath store. Remember, everythin (outside of HD and Lowes) is negotiable. I did mine last year and paid 45% of list. Where are you located?
 
It is not hard to do if you have a good table saw. Maybe build a couple cabinets for your garage first to how it goes. If there is a good hardwood store in your area they can help you out quite a bit. I did a kitchen a couple years ago with MDF, you can get either veneered or laminated. Veneered looks much batter but requires staining.

As for the doors and faces, there are several options to consider, with or without the face frames. Making the drawers is relatively easy.

Go to your local Home Despot and take a careful look at what they have to see how it is constructed.

Good luck with the project!
 
I have no idea were you are from but if you want great cabinets and a good price contact your local Amish community if you have one....their craftsmanship here in Wisconsin is outstanding.

A friend of mine has them do work for him quite a bit, unfortunately he has to drive out to talk to them any time he needs something since they don't have a phones....lol
 
wihophead said:
I have no idea were you are from but if you want great cabinets and a good price contact your local Amish community if you have one....their craftsmanship here in Wisconsin is outstanding.

A friend of mine has them do work for him quite a bit, unfortunately he has to drive out to talk to them any time he needs something since they don't have a phones....lol

Funny you mention the Amish. Half of my family is Amish! Well, Menonite. Same thing basically. SWMBO's side of the family. I guess she was the black sheep. Unfortunately they are all out in Ohio.
 
Im going to be doing the same thing-

I reeeeaallly do not look forward to it. But I am not paying $15000
 
you might look into just getting a new set of faces and doors

also look in local yellow pahes for a 'habitat for humanity' restore. mine here sells 10-14 pc sets for under 1000 bones.
 
I worked for several years in a cabinet factory, making them from scratch. If it were me, with a full shop, and plenty of time to make the cabinet doors and frames and boxes, I'd maybe do it. Maybe. Making cabinets is not something I'd recommend a beginner to make.

What's so bad about the cabinets you have now? Is it just the color? Unless you don't like the layout of the cabinets, it'd be much easier to take the doors and hardware off the frames, sand it all down or use a stripper on them and stain/paint it the color you want. and do the same to the doors. I know the cabinets in my last house had craptastic fake-wood paneling in the center, so we just fakewooded over the front. It was ghetto, but still looked better than how it was before.

If you made the boxes, and ordered doors and faces to match, you're still looking at a custom job from any cabinet maker and won't save as much as you'd like. You'd still save money though. Making only the doors will be easier, but not by much. You're going to need a router that can make long even cuts and not wear out, so carbon steel is pretty much required. You'll need some stile and rail bits, and some outer door edge bits as well. Good bits can cost $100 each and you'll need several. Kinda pricey just for one job. The saw blades with 80 or more teeth in them can cost $50 easily, and usually run more than that. THEN you'd need to look into getting raw wood to run through your milling, at least 80 ft, probably more depending on the size of your kitchen.

PT934 is right, if you're crazy enough to make them yourself, make up a cutlist first and ALL the materials you'll need including tools.

Thanks for that link, Orfy! I didn't even know tx's other websites were listed at the bottom of every page. http://www.houserepairtalk.com/

So, tl;dr, refinish the doors you have now, otherwise buy new cabinet doors.
 
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