Replies

1. 
   Eef | Oct 26, 2010 10:56am | #1

   nts,

   2" wide stiles is

   nts,

   2" wide stiles is traditional on kitchen cabinets.  a finished end, where it meets a face frame, ought to include edge mitered stiles so that one sees 2 inches of stile front and side.

   butting cabinets together will, of course, show wider stiles where they meet.  making full size face frames solves this.  if one has ten feet of base cabinet space to fill, than build a ten foot ff and base cabinet, not several small ones.

   hope this is clear.

   eef

2. 
   photonut | Oct 26, 2010 11:24am | #2

   Stock or Custom?

   Stock cabinets are made with stiles about 2-1/4" wide with 1/4" overhang to the outside of the cabinet box. Once doors are installed, there is about 1-1/2" of stile showing. When abutting cabinets, this results in a 3" gap between doors and only 1-1/2" on outside cabinets and cabinets that abut walls. End panels and filler strips are used in some cases to make things look more uniform.

   If you are making custom cabinets, you can design what you want in order to avoid this situation. Stock cabinet makers never know whether a cabinet will be on an end or abutted to another cabinet or a wall. The real answer is to build and hang the boxes without face frames. Then build a one-piece face frame for each run of cabinets. With proper grain matching, the result is far superior to stock cabinets. It will look like one custom cabinet instead of several stock cabinets screwed together.

   If you want great looking face frame cabinets, you must make custom face frames where one stile covers both abutting cabinet sides. This also eliminates the unsightly seems between cabinets. Use the extra overhang on cabinets that abut walls for scribing. Place an end panel on outside cabinets behind the face frame. This way you wind up with consistent width stiles with consistent reveals between doors everywhere.

1. 
   non_trad_stu | Oct 26, 2010 12:29pm | #3

   How do you fasten ff to carcase when they are in place?

1. 
   photonut | Oct 26, 2010 02:23pm | #4

   Face Frames

   First, Mock up the cabinets in your shop. You can use most any method for attaching the face frames. Biscuits are usually good for alignment.  Limiting the biscuits to the horizontal parts and cutting elongated slots allows play for scribing and fitting while lending a 3rd hand (and 4th and 5th).

   For final install, I would probably use an adhesive like Liquid Nails and tack it in place with a pin nailer while the adhesive sets. The pin nails might not even be necessary as the adhesive is pretty thick and is designed to hold fast without clamping. If pins are not acceptable, you can purchase a bunch of edge clamps made specifically for the job. They are sort of a "C" clamp with directly opposed screws and a 3rd screw perpendicular to the other 2. Pad the jaws with cork or leather.

   After a good mock up in the shop, you can finish as normal. Use masking tape to keep finish off areas to be glued later. You don’t have to be exact. It’s easier, faster, and looks better to let the finish cover a little bit of the joint. With Liquid Nails, you may not even need to mask parts off. It will probably be fine as long as you scuff and clean mating surfaces before gluing. I prefer to mask though. Test it out on some scraps before committing to it.

3. 
   hammer1 | Oct 27, 2010 08:29am | #5

   One of several differences between custom made kitchens and manufactured kitchens is that manufactured cabinets are a bunch of boxes attached to each other. On a custom job, a single cabinet may be made to fit the space. It may be that the cabinet comes apart for ease of installation but it will go back together so the break isn't seen. There are numerous ways to accomplish this. Custom cabinets can be made so the math of a space is equally divided. Instead of having various size cabinets and doors, you can make all the doors in a run identical, if you want to. There is a noticable visual difference between custom and manufactured kitchens. You don't see joints where cabinets are connected to each other and there can be a balanced uniformity in things like door widths. You aren't restricted to stock sizes with custom work, if you want the counters to be 38" tall or the upper units to be 14" deep, no problem.

   If you are using Euro cup hinges, you need to use the correct mounting plates for the style of the doors. These attach to the face frame, not the cabinet sides. Drawer slides connect at the front to the faceframe, the backs can be mounted on adjustable brackets. There is no need to attach the slides to the cabinet sides. If you mount the slides on fillers and your drawer or cabinet is slightly out of square, you may be pulling off the fillers and tapering them to account for any discrepancy. With the brackets, you just loosen a couple of screws. Whether the faceframe projects 1/8" or 1/2" isn't of any concern.