I need to get glued kitchen cabinet fronts apart!
Greetings! I purchased a gorgeous kitchen from a home and missed the fact that the cabinets were glued at the fronts, as well as screwed.
How can I get them apart at the fronts without ruining the cabinets?
Can I attach a straight-edge as a guide and run a fine carbide blade in my saw, along the glue seam and cut them apart? I am not worried about the 1/8 or so of an inch that I will lose to the blade-cut.
Should I try a vinegar or some other kind of solvent to try and lessen the grip of the glue? i have seen that although it does not disolve the glue, it weakens it and the cabinets can be pulled apart.
I have been a fan of Fine Woodworking for years and years and this is my first question to the “community.” I wanted to repurpose this fine kitchen, but have run into a snag.
Please advise.
Replies
Liquid may penetrate not only the glue seam but also the wood and push off the finish from the inside, maybe not. Sawing the seam may be difficult, and I'd try it with a saw and guide combination such as Festool for the best results. But I can't guarantee you'll be able to cut the seam all the way to the floor without trying it to determine clearances.
Cabinet Front Glued and Screwed
If it was hide glue then heat would loosen the glue bond; however, the chances are nil for hide glue. Screws need to be removed first.
(1) A thin blade handsaw may work if you can find a opening to start the saw.
(2) Dremel with router bit mounted between two guides to keep it straight might remove enough glue for break away.
Just some thoughts! Good luck!
Rex
Assuming these were prefinished cabinets, I don't see how the glue would be holding since glue doesn't stick to most finishes
the cabinets are prefinshed, but I think they were custom made...........
If the glue was Liquid Nails I think you have a huge problem. You might try posting in Breaktime over on Fine Homebuilding as well as here. Good luck.
Go to tool
I would consider the Fein Multimaster. They have a good assortment of Fine Fein blades with thin kerfs. Then when the cabinets are appart hit the raw edges with a plane.
I'm a little curious why you bought the cabinets if you want to saw off the face frames, just wondering. They seem decent and if the ff's are glued on well then they are likely good units. If it was the color or the doors, they could be changed.
If you need to saw them off, I'd take off any of the frame overhanging the box with a flush trim router bit. Then you'd have smooth outside edges and could do the rest on the tablesaw. Watch out for an pocket screws, nails etc. Maybe use a blade you don't care too much about.
Good luck
Could you mean that the units were attached to each other with screws and glue at the front and are not talking about the face frames at all?
............................perhaps i have used the wrong wording....the fronts OF SOME of the cabinets are glued where I am accustomed to the being screwed together.
Length of cabinets
Custom cabinets will be full lenght, not 3' cabinets screwed together. The sink cabinet could include side cabinets. So you could see the stile of the side cabinet glued to the finished end of the sink section during construction, before the finish.
What joints are you talking about? From your pictures, it looks like you have one lower cabinet that goes from the wall to the pantry (includes a laze susan?). Then the sink cabinet that butts against this cabinet with the joints I described above. They would have made up the joint to the pantry cabinet ( that's on a removable toe kick unless you have room to stand up the cabinet) on site.
The upper cabinets would typically mirror the lower cabinets into the corner.
If the sink cabinet was made as one unit and you cut it side units off, the sink unit will be fully supported. But the side units may have been build using the sink unit for the side support. You may need to work on any cabinets you cut a part.
Good luck,
Doug
Curious as to why custom cabinets couldn't be separate boxes screwed together during installation. But I wouldn't question that a "unit" of 2 or 3 cabinets with a common bottom, face frame, and back would not be factory work.
Subtract the total overhang of the face frame from the face frame width to see how thick the cabinet side(s) is behind the face frame. If the thickness of the cabinet side(s) behind the face frame is only 3/4" then the two cabinets are probably built as a unit with a single layer divider behind the face frame rather than individual cabinet sides. Don't know if individual cabinets are built with 1/2" or 5/8" thick sides.
Marvin:
Ditto Doug's reply, these don't look like "stack a box" cabinets to me either. I would need a lot more pictures with closeups of the seams between boxes to know for sure. If they are indeed separate boxes glued and screwed together I would propably remove the countertop first, unscrew the base cabinets from the wall, pull them out some for clearance, and carefully run a thin Japanese saw down the glued joints to separate them. Then do the same with the wall cabinets, you'll need lots of help to lower them to the floor before separating. You could always build new cabinets and recycle what you can, the doors, drawers, and hardware.
gdblake
Great suggestion, thanks, so much!
I will have more information after Saturday, as i am not where the cabinets are.
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