Recommended Special Hand Tools

The first one is a pocket jig. Once you get one of these you'll wonder what you did without it. It's useful for all types of applications. It makes creating a nice, solid butt joint, simple and fast. You'll use it for building the face frames for your cabinets. It's possible to build the face frames without it, but they're about $30 and will save you so much time it just makes sense.

You want to cut a dado/rabbet ¼" deep and exactly ¾" wide so that your top and bottom pieces will fit snugly. Here's what your rabbit will look like:
[fig-1]
And here's how you'll do it on your table saw: [fig-2]

First, set the height of your blade so that it cuts into the wood ¼" deep, not all the way through. Use a tape measure to check the highest point and then test on a scrap. Measure the cut into the scrap and adjust accordingly.

Cutting The Dado

Now for the dado. Rabbets are cut on the end of a board, dadoes are cut somewhere in the middle of the board. To cut the dado, set your saw to ¾". This time, it's ¾" from the right side of the blade. Run the other end of one of your sides through. Make sure you cut the dado on the same face side of the board. Here's what you're cutting this time: [fig]

Building a Custom, Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinet

First let me state that this project is not what you would find on your typical home improvement website. But we're not typical, are we? Most home improvement warehouses and websites are going to push one of two things, pre-built new cabinets or refacing. I wanted to give you a third option. Build the cabinets yourself.

The Dilemma

So we want quality and we don't want to max out our credit cards to do it, right? This is something that my wife is a master of. She wants the best, for the lowest price. Well, usually, I tell her, "You can't get that." You get what you pay for, most of the time. In this case though, investing a little time in the evenings can pay off.