bottom pieces. As always it’s a
good idea to go ahead and cut
one sample shelf and actually try
it in position on the cabinet, with
the cabinet shelf pegs in position
to make sure that you have the
clearance you need. If it’s too
tight, then it’s hard to get in
position and you can scratch up
the inside of the cabinet box,
Cutting multiple matching pieces
can speed the process of cabinet
construction.
We used a drill bit with a built-in
countersink to pre-drill a single
hole in the middle of each one
of the triangle gussets for all of
the toe kicks. Because all of our
cabinets had plenty of ceiling
clearance, we were able to
attach all of the toe kicks to the
cabinet boxes. The toe kicks can
be removed if we ever want to
install them in an 8-foot ceiling
location.
With the cabinet boxes all
built, we cut the shelves. The
shelves for the cabinets end up
being slightly shorter than the
top and bottom pieces for the
cabinet boxes, and about an
inch narrower than the top and
Because most of our cabinets
were in a garage application
with no doors, we decided not
to face-frame the cabinets at
this time. We did have one cabinet slated for inside the house.
Since this cabinet was not
going to have doors, we decided
to use matching hardwood
strips to edge-band the front
faces of the cabinet box and
the shelves rather than building
a face frame. We ripped strips
on the table saw, cutting them
to length, gluing them and nailing them into position. After
each rip, we jointed the board
with the power planer before
making another rip. A full-sized
jointer is the best tool for this
operation.
EDGE BANDING
