Replies

1. 
   JohnWW | Sep 17, 2004 07:55pm | #1

   Kitchen cabinets?  Door style?  Type of wood for facings?  Type of finish?  Budget?  What do you plan to build the boxes out of?  Overall dimensions? 

   As a general rule, unless you are trying to build something especially fancy or very cheap and crude, you are better off purchasing rather than building.  Factory made goods have efficiencies in time and material purchases that are very hard to beat.

   John W.

2. 
   gecko | Sep 18, 2004 05:55am | #2

   factory prices are hard to beat, no doubt. but so is the poor quality you get for those bargain basment prices. as is true in nearly every aspect of life -  you get what you pay for.  if you have little experiance, and dont want to spend any money, expect to redo it in short order, or pay someone else to redo it - costing you much more in the long run.

   Custom Cabinetry and Furniture

   http://www.BartlettWoodworking.com

    

3. 
   Telemike | Sep 18, 2004 07:15am | #3

   Built in place cabinets with rough frames and better faces can work fine, but the interior won't ever be high class.

   A warning: 2 x 4s as purchased almost anywhere will shrink and cup and twist and warp as they dry - even KD studs to a somewhat lesser degree. Use real kiln dried quality fir, pine, poplar, or KD studs that have been in your shop for months.

   Otherwise, buy some home depot cabinets with acceptable skins and face frames, buy el cheapo plywood doors for now. Later when things are less hectic, make some high quality doors and faceframes for the cabinets and they'll look very good.

4. 
   jackplane | Sep 20, 2004 10:58pm | #4

   A rush job is a bad job.

   Especially when you've not done this before. I'd buy pre-fab cabinets.

5. 
   vertis | Sep 21, 2004 07:07am | #5

   I recently had amy home built from scratch,and like the other people have noted either go custom or go to the large hardware stores like home depot etc. Thats where I went in Toronto and after 4yrs they are holding up great.Go and see an asociate and they help you put together a plan within your budget.Once you purchase your product the assembly is pretty straight forward and the quality is good ,and dont forget they will stand behind there products well, Good Luck and dont go chinsy.

1. 
   dustydog | Sep 21, 2004 04:24pm | #6

   Thanks, all - I don't plan on either rushing this nor going "chintzy" -- The 2x4 frames which I'm making out of kd studs from the same outfit I bought all my building materials from, will suffice (albeit with a temporary 3/4" plywood top and spacers holding the kitchen sink the right height to allow for eventual ceramic tile top) and I can afford the time to wait and add oak face frames, then doors & drawers over time.   Sure is a good thing the guy who built Julia Child's kitchen didn't ask you folks for advice -- Her kitchen might never have wound up in the Smithsonian.

1. 
   MarkRoderick | Sep 21, 2004 11:51pm | #7

   My experience is that "kiln dried" doesn't mean anything with 2x4 material. I'd totally stay away from it for cabinet material. Just use plywood or MDF or some other manmade material for the cabinet carcasses. If you're just talking about screwing up 2x4 material as a ledger or something like that it's a different story.

2. 
   vertis | Sep 22, 2004 06:27am | #8

   Dont misunderstand ,I am not a snob with a BMW just a truck driver making ends meet like everyone else but you asked .Good Luck.

1. 
   Curtis | Sep 22, 2004 12:19pm | #9

   Hello

   why not do a little bit of both? build a stick built cabnets and use a good wood for your face frame, then go to Sears, HD, ... and look into buying the door fronts, ( I belive Rockler also sells door fronts?) "any how" The factory made doors are nice and flat,and generaly the finish is rather nice to look at. so have them made and then put them on you face frame cabnets.

   I think its the best of both worlds. stick building is the fastest and the easyest way to make cabnets, thay are built to fit so working around a not so square wall is no problem, if you make the box stile cabnets,then you need to put a square box on a not so 90 deg wall.(ive never seen a square wall in anyone house, and I have a old plaster made house the walls are not square or flat,any thing but stick would be a real PAIN.)

   good luck.C.A.G.

1. 
   dustydog | Sep 22, 2004 04:33pm | #10

   For my 2x4's, I'm lucky to have a stash that's been in a dry place waiting to be used for more than five years (and they're still straight & flat!).  The aged oak I need to run through the jointer/planer should make a nice face frame, and I plan to make the doors & drawer fronts of the same material at my leisure after we move in.  I can live with open-frame stuff for the time it takes to make first-quality pieces instead of buying something just to get by that'll get scrapped later.   Thanks, all, for the various perspectives -- For what it's worth, one of my woodworking mentors reminded me that Julia Child's kitchen, which was dismantled and moved to the Smithsonian, was constructed with built-in-place cabinets.  If it's good enough for Julia....  

6. 
   Napie | Sep 22, 2004 05:43pm | #11

   I built three sets of kitchen cabinets that way, (framing lumber and cheap plywood done on site).  Then I went to the “Euro-box” type and never went back.  For the price of a dozen sheets of birch ply and the book “Making Kitchen Cabinets”, by Paul Levine, (Taunton press).  You’ll be all set with stuff that fits, looks great and is easy to build.  This would also work great with doors and drawer fronts from a re-facing supplier that you can get as the budget allows.

    

   Mrs. Child was a huge hero of mine, right there with Tage Frid.  They did things in much the same way, simple and direct, with the best outcomes.

1. 
   dustydog | Sep 22, 2004 10:13pm | #12

   Thanks for the words of encouragement.  I have that same Euro-box book, but that look won't work for the style of this house -- I pretty much need to go with face frames and full overlay doors.  I'm looking forward to making them though, and have multiple opportunities elsewhere in the house for built-ins of all kinds that will take me far in my development of the craft.  Just got my old Makita jointer/planer rewired and am eager to see what kind of oak my friends have gifted me with.

1. 
   Napie | Sep 22, 2004 10:31pm | #13

   There are ways of getting that look with the euro style, take a look at Jim Tolpins book “Working at Woodworking”, he uses spacers between the boxes, etc.  And, if you are using full overlay doors, very little of the face frame shows.  Frame and panel doors still look very traditional on euro box cabinets.

    

   Also, unless you really want to make them, buying doors and drawer fronts is the only way to go.

    

   Which Makita model do you have?  Those were great machines.

1. 
   dustydog | Sep 22, 2004 10:51pm | #14

   Considering the amount of built-ins I have planned, I actually do want to get to where the doors & drawer-fronts become almost an automatic process.  As to the model of the Makita, I'm not at my shop or I'd go look....It's an older model, I know that - I think the booklet I got with it (I bought it used) was from the 80s.  I'd had my heart set on a bigger jointer (it's a six inch, w/12" planer) but that's always something I can save for and move up to later.   Some of the boards in my 2nd pile of wood out there - the huge pine my friends had come down in a hurricane a few years ago -- are a good 16-18" wide.  I'm toying with keeping the bark on one of the 2-3" thick pieces and using it for a mantlepiece. 

1. 
   jackplane | Sep 23, 2004 05:16pm | #15

   BTW,

    Julia Child's kitchen cabinets were built by her husband Paul, and naturally she cherished them. Although they've lasted a long time, they were poorly built and took exceptional care to remove, repair, and reinstall.

   Edited 9/23/2004 10:19 am ET by JACKPLANE