Kitchen Storage Screw Up

[ajmoran]

Screw up as in it's held together with screws and done quickly.

I needed some kitchen cabinets of specific dimensions and decided to make them from Melamine Faced Chipboard and build them in the kitchen using pocket hole screws as a weekend project. Here's the design (click to visit large version):



And here's a photo of the cabinets on their way to completion:

One of my customers operates a cutting service so I sent them the cutting list and their Beam Saw cut all the components for the project out of some very nice Egger MFC. All showing edges were edgebanded with 2mm matching PVC. The end result will be a robust carcass that any German Pharmacy would be proud of

First off the doors and sides were laid out on the floor and the position of the shelves and hinge locations marked. The 'client' got involved directly with the shelf positioning so we know it will fulfill the storage brief

The doors were dimensioned for 5mm separation so a 5mm drill bit spaced them at the right relative position.

Then I used a simple jig to drill pilot holes in door and side. Note the two rough holes on the left of the jig are 'viewing holes' so that I can see pencil marks made on the MFC where the hinges are needed.

The hinge holes are on the right. I'm using Blum Inserta which need three holes drilled. You can also notice the texture of the MFC in this picture.

After drilling the pilot holes, this piece of ply holds the door and side in position whilst I get on with the other hinge locations

For drilling the 5mm shelf pin holes in MFC I advise against using cordless drills (well my cordless drill anyway). Here's one done with a cordless drill:

And here's one done with a corded drill brought to full speed before touching the melamine:

I'll follow up with how the cabinets were put together with pocket screws.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Lons]

Looks good

As a matter of interest, i've got a jig set which I bought about 25 years ago as a DIY kit to build a kitchen and I wouldn't part with it.

Pretty hard to find as I searched for a relative last year and only one (s/h) available was from the US.

So easy to, and accurate and quick. Maent for cabinets screwed from the outside but I've used dowels and can be pocket screwed.

Called a "CABINET MATE" manuf by Pentabridge Ltd in the UK

difficult to explain fully but can post pics if anyone is interested

 

[Chems]

I was reading all that waiting for the screw up. I see now you meant screw as in actually putting together!

Lovely work so far looks very neat and saves all the hassle of painting MDF!

 

[pren]

That looks really good! It just shows the difference between the B&Q conti board that I used to make my kitchen units from and the decent, Egger stuff!

I've almost finished hanging the doors for my kitchen. I used one of these hinge jigs to mark the screw/ 35mm mortises. Spot on every time and only cost me a £ or so. 8)

 

[ajmoran]

Thanks for the comments.

Here's how I joined the cabinets with pocket hole joinery.

I used the most basic Kreg jig available.

It worked fine but if I was buying again I'd get the more substantial versions that include clamping capability.

Carcase screws from Screwfix fitted well in the pocket:

Jumping ahead to the finished result you can see how the cabinet is joined together:

The carcass included 18mm backs which meant that the sides could be fixed with pocket holes in the backs without any screw holes showing through the sides.

The thing to look out for when screwing this together is to prevent movement of the two pieces. So note the board placed to prevent this joint moving left as it is tightened:

Other joints are easier to clamp:

And when you're feeling ambitious compensate for the tightening movement by starting the joint slightly out of line as in these two photos
Before tightening

After tightening

Or the safe way using a backing board to constrain movement:

Cheers
Andrew

 

[paininthe]

Very good WIP and timely for a project I have upcoming. Thankyou. Just a shame you are not using the 35mm hinges as I would like to have seen how you did them.

 

[ajmoran]

35mm hinges? This design uses 22 of them 8)

The jig is shown in the pictures above and here is the template to make it:

The doors and sides are drilled simultaneously with the jig to ensure the hinge locations match up. On this design there didn't seem to be any advantage to using the 32mm system to space the hinge positions vertically so it was just a case of positioning the jig by eye.

3mm pilot holes were drilled using the jig. On the door piece these pilot holes guided the position for the 35mm and 9mm holes for the hinge. I used a 35mm Forstner bit in a drill press.

On other projects I've used a variation of the jig that holds the 35mm bit in position so it is suited to handheld drill use:

Here are the hinges fitted:

These are Blum parts that clip on and off and retain their adjustment settings. Also fine adjustments can be made with a screw driver which makes aligning doors easier. On this design the three carcasses sit directly on the uneven floor (I didn't want to put screws through the side to joint the carcasses together), are shimmed level and then the hinges adjusted to make all the doors line up with each other.

 

[paininthe]

Thanks again, pictorial instructions.

Not much excuse not to start now. Have bought some of the Blum hinges for trials before project gets underway.

 

[ajmoran]

Using some kind of jig you should be able to do a trial fit within about 10 minutes so it's well worth doing.
Also personally I'm always happy to spend money on good hardware. This project used about £60 worth of hinges but I think the quality,adjustability and function is worth it.

 

[chippy1970]

You shouldnt really use carcase screws with pocket holes you need washer head screws not countersunk ones. Looks like you got away with it this time but if you use countersunk screws they will split the panel wheres as washer head will pull the joint up nicely.

Hope im not teaching you to suck eggs just thought I'd mention it :wink:

 

[ajmoran]

You're completely right Chippy, washer head is the type to use with pocket hole joinery.
Having said that i found the Screwfix carcass screws work really well, with the Egger material at least. The screws have a very aggressive thread which pulls the joint nice and tight. And the countersink head doesn't appear to damage/cause splitting in the pocket hole. In fact when driving screws through the bottom into the back (straight through drilling, not pocket hole) I had to use a countersinking drill bit first to get a flush result.

I guess all in I used around 100 carcass screws in this project and none of them caused splitting of the MFC.
But yeah, if I was using a suspect material I'd use the washer head. Well actually I wouldn't use pocket hole at all and screw straight through the sides in that case!

Cheers
Andrew

 

[chippy1970]

They are quiet handy those Kreg jigs, I bought the bigger one a couple of years ago and it does come in handy. Only yesterday I used it I was doing some work for someone and they had some custom made furniture that they had made before they knew me. It was solid reclaimed oak furniture and it looked like it was made by a five year old :shock: :shock: . There were no joints as such and the oak was butted and glued together with polyurethane glue. Where it was all coming apart I used pva and Kreg screws to fix it and the finished job was much more solid with no visible screws from above.