Kitchen Basics

By Danny Proulx, rideau@capitalnet.com

Contents

  1. EDITORIAL Letters and responses
  2. CABINET LEGS
    An alternative to the wood base
  3. GUEST RESPONSE AND ARTICLE
    A reader's review of a scoring table saw
  4. BUILDING DRAWERS
    A simple and efficient method of drawer construction
  5. EDGE TAPE TIP
    How to get better looking taped edges on MPCB
  6. INSTALLING CABINET DOORS
    An easy way to install doors without jigs
  7. CABINETMAKING BUSINESS
    A reference series of articles
  8. EURO DRAWER GLIDES
    A simple drawer system
  9. BASE CABINET PULL-OUTS
    A pull-out shelf system using Euro drawer glides
  10. SINK CABINET FLIP-OUTS
    A simple and efficient method of using space
  11. PAINTING, STAINING, OR POLYURETHANE?
    A few comments on cabinet finishing
  12. COUNTERTOPS
    A simple way to brighten up a kitchen

EDITORIAL

I want to thank everyone for the response to the first issue of Rideau News. Your supportive letters were very reassuring. It certainly was rewarding to read how some of you found particular topics useful.
Many comments and suggestions have been received and I will try my best to incorporate them into future issues. I'm very busy working on a few magazine articles as well as putting the finishing touches on the kitchen cabinetmaking book that will be published by Betterway Books in the summer of 1997. But, I've always got a few minutes to discuss woodworking with those who write.
Thanks for now, and I hope you enjoy this issue.

CABINET LEGS

This article is a continuation of the overview I presented on the hybrid North American kitchen cabinet in issue 1. Other features of this cabinetry system will be detailed in upcoming news letters.
The traditional North American kitchen cabinet used (and some manufacturers continue to do so) a wooden base system to support floor cabinets. It consisted of a wooden frame , faced with a finished toe kick board to match or compliment the exterior finishes of the cabinetry. Other cabinetmakers and manufacturers simply extended the base cabinet gable ends (sides) to the floor.
The Europeans developed a plastic adjustable leg system, to replace the support frame for base cabinets. Many traditional North American cabinetmakers realized the many benefits of this support system and modified their building style to incorporate the adjustable cabinet leg. It should be noted that some North American cabinet manufacturers have adopted the total 32 mm Euro cabinet system. However, some including myself, have incorporated the cabinet leg along with other features of this system and developed the hybrid North American cabinet with a traditional cabinet wood face frame.
There are several cabinet leg manufacturers. Most supply a leg made out of plastic that will adjust in height from 3 3/4" to 4 3/4". Kitchen base cabinets up to 30" in width have four legs installed while the wider cabinets normally have six legs. The 36" lazy susan corner base is fitted with eight legs. Cabinet legs can be secured to the base bottom board with screws on the underside or with a through base board bolt that threads into the middle of the leg. Either method is common and acceptable. The toe kick board is fitted with a series of spring clips, called plinth clips, that attach to the front legs. Installation and removal of the toe kick board, when necessary, is a simple task. If you weren't aware of this clip-on toe kick board system, you would think it was a conventional North American traditional cabinet base.
So, what makes these legs so popular? Well, simply put, they make everyone's life a lot simpler. The installer levels the cabinet base by adjusting the legs as required, eliminating the need for shims. Water pipes, heating ducts, and electrical conduit can easily be installed under the cabinets. And, water damage to the cabinets, caused when the water "wicks" up the cabinet side boards, is eliminated. The worst water damage will only ruin the toe kick board which is easily replaced.
Flooring installation is a dream with the cabinet leg and removable toe kick board system because you can tuck new flooring material under the area where the toe board will be replaced. And, for those of you who love spring cleaning, simply remove the toe kick board, and vacuum to your heart's content. How about cost? Well, the leg system is more expensive than the materials needed for a cabinet base frame. Each leg assembly retails for about $2.00 in Canada and $1.25 in the US, for a total per cabinet cost of $8.00 Canadian. But, when you consider the labour needed to build the base frame or extended gable ends, combined with the grief of using cedar shims to level cabinets during installation, the added couple of bucks are well worth the investment.
Is the adjustable cabinet leg system worth the added cost? I believe so. When you look at the advantages you, like myself and the majority of my clients who buy legs from me, will never return to the wooden cabinet base system.

GUEST RESPONSE AND ARTICLE

From time to time, I'll pass on information I've received from those who are commenting on my articles as well as an occasional guest contributor. I hope some of you will find this information useful.
Michael Sabourin, a professional cabinetmaker in Montreal, sent me these comments following the first newsletter. And, I agree with Michael's observations. However, in fairness to the manufacturer, I have eliminated the brand name. The comments are worthwhile if you plan on buying a scoring table saw or a scoring blade attachment. An actual trial of the equipment, before you lay down a lot of cash, is well advised in this case.

To Danny Proulx
"I enjoyed reading your newsletter and do not mind receiving it again. I would though, like to let you know what I think of the scoring saw you talked about in the newsletter. I build kitchens for a management company here in Montreal. We have 680 apartments and one by one I'm replacing the old kitchens (it should only take me about 14 years, ha ha.)
We bought the XXXXX table saw. It has the 4 inch scoring blade in front of the 10 inch. It seemed like the ideal machine for cutting melamine without chips on the underside. What looked good in the store (and according to the salesman) wasn't to be. First of all the scoring blade turns the opposite direction of the 10" so therefore it pulls your workpiece into the 10" no matter how low you adjust the scoring blade. The forward motion of the scoring blade also has a tendency to pull your piece away from the guide from the back which will cause the piece to bind up in the front between the 10" and the guide.
The smaller the piece the more dangerous it is. You have to put a lot of pressure on your piece in different places to guide it through. I'm sure you know that you should never have to be putting a lot of pressure on your piece to have to cut ie; feeding pieces through a dull blade.
You can just imagine what could happen if your hand slipped with that kind of pressure behind it. Second, you can't imagine the amount of time spent trying to keep the two blades perfectly aligned. This system will only work properly if the two blades are perfectly aligned and when I say perfectly I mean micro millimetres or else the piece will look like @#$%@ and be useless. The scoring blade is turned by a belt (it might be improved if it had it's own shaft) so when you lay a big piece on it, it has a tendency to stop turning rendering it useless. I had a guy from the store and a service person from XXXXX in to make it work properly but no one could make it work. In secret the guy from XXXXX told me they have discontinued this machine and suggested I try something else. I now use the XL-4000 from FS-TOOLS and I like it (so do my fingers and hands) I have never felt so paranoid about using a table saw or had so many close calls as did when I used the scoring saw system.
If you're ever in Montreal and would like to try something really scary let me know and I'll introduce you to the most dangerous 4" of blade you've ever seen, ha, ha".
Michael Sabourin, msab@total.net

Thanks Mike, they are good observations. If anyone wants brand names, etc., write to Mike.

BUILDING DRAWERS

I receive many questions each month concerning drawers and pull-outs for kitchen, bath, laundry, and workshop cabinets. It appears, to many people, to be a very difficult process. In reality, there is a simple, yet very good method you can use when constructing drawer boxes.
As many of you who watch the how-to programs know, cabinet drawers built of solid wood with dovetail joints are considered to be the mark of a quality cabinet maker. And, I don't dispute that fact, they are beautiful and strong. However, in a more practical sense the drawers for today's modern kitchen cabinets must be easy to clean, stain resistant, and yes - inexpensive to build.
Many kitchen cabinetmakers, including myself, have adopted a drawer style that's suited to all "work" cabinets. I include kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, and workshop as "work" room cabinets. Simply put, the drawer box I use is a four sided frame with a strong bottom, using butt joints and particle board screws.
I recommend using 5/8" thick industrial or cabinet grade melamine coated particle core board (MPCB) as your standard. Construct the box with the back and front pieces, butt joined with 2" PCB screws, inside the side pieces. By inside I mean, looking at the box from the side does not allow you to see the ends of the front and back piece. In effect, if the drawer box had an overall width of 16 inches and a depth of 22 inches, you would need two 22 inch long side pieces and two pieces for the front and back at 14 3/4" long, the overall width minus the side board thicknesses. The bottom of the drawer is also 5/8" melamine coated PCB. Given our example, it would be 16 inches wide by 22 inches long, and attached to the sides, back, and front board edges with 2 inch particle core board screws at 4 inch centers.
Apply edge tape the exposed edges, attach bottom mounted drawer glides, and you've got a strong drawer box that's ready to take a lot of abuse. I use this drawer box style with an applied hardwood drawer face for all of my kitchen cabinets and it has proven to be a very functional, long lasting, and sturdy drawer that resists racking.

EDGE TAPE TIP

For a cleaner, better looking taped edge on melamine boards, apply the iron-on tape before you cross cut the final "to size" length. For example, if I'm building drawer boxes I'll edge tape an eight foot length of particle core board (I've ripped the board to it's proper width at this point), then cut the board to length.
By using this method, I'm letting the saw blade cut the edge tape square and clean. And, the butt joints will look better at each intersection because of the sharp clean cuts on the tape.
I've received a lot of mail asking how to efficiently trim the tape. The easiest method I've found is to use a double edge trimmer, made specifically for this procedure, that is available at most hardware stores. Two sources are the House of Tools in Canada at 1-800-661-3987 or The Woodworkers' Store in the USA at 1-800-713-0289. It has two knives and is drawn the length of the tape to trim. They'll normally handle boards up to 7/8" thick, but make sure the tape is well secured to the board by using a small roller to seal the glue. Always keep the knives sharp and clean. Any rough edges can be smoothed with a fine file held at a forty-five degree angle to the tape. When completed, run the pressure roller over the tape once again to ensure a good bond.
Edge tape trimmers cost about $20, however they're a very worthwhile tool. After using the trimmer, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

INSTALLING CABINET DOORS

Have you ever wondered whether or not there was an easy way of installing cabinet doors with European hidden hinges without buying a hinge installation jig? Well, yes there is - and I've used this simple method successfully for years.
First, I mount the hinges and the hinge plates on the door in their 35mm holes. Then, I hold the door in place (in it's fully opened position relative to the cabinet) and put two screws in each hinge plate into the cabinet side. I then remove the door and hinges from the hinge plates and finish screwing the plates to the cabinet side.
To get the door to cabinet spacing I place a 1/4" strip of wood between the door and the cabinet face frame (while I'm holding the door in it's correct "open" position). Depending on the hinge style, you may have to increase or decrease the spacer. And, as you know, the European hinge can be adjusted in three directions so you can fine tune the installation after fitting the door. The only exception are the wide opening hinges such as the 170 degree hinges. In that instance I use 120 degree hinges to mount the doors and locate the hinge plates. When the plates are mounted I exchange the 120 degree hinges for the 170's as the plate position is identical for both.

CABINETMAKING BUSINESS

For those of you interested in the cabinetmaking business watch out for my series of articles in Cabinetmaker magazine (http://www.cabinetmag.com). Beginning with the January 1997 issue and continuing on throughout the year, I will be writing a series of articles on "Why Cabinet Shops Fail". I'd be very interested to receive your comments on these articles.

EURO DRAWER GLIDES

In the last two issues, we discussed the hybrid kitchen cabinet and Euro cabinet base legs. In this issue I want to look at the Euro drawer glide system which has become the defacto standard in the North American cabinet industry.
Years ago, when I was learning the cabinetmaking trade, drawer runners and glides were made with hardwood support members. Drawers rode on these waxed wooden frame supports or in dado grooves on the drawer. They were prone to binding and were not always ideal.
Over the last few years, the introduction of bottom mounted European drawer glide systems have revolutionized the building process. Simple to install, easy to operate, and virtually trouble free - these drawer glides offer many benefits. Particularly, in high usage areas like kitchen cabinets.
In general, most manufacturer's's drawer glides require that the drawer's total width be 1" less than the drawer opening width. For example if I was putting a drawer in a 24" standard base cabinet, which has an inside width of 22", the total width of the drawer must be 21". The total height of the drawer must also be 1" less than the height of the drawer opening. If the opening height of the drawer space is 6", the drawer , in total, must be no more than 5". Drawers for standard bases in most systems are 22" deep on 22" bottom mount drawer glides. Given the above, I would need the following pieces to construct a drawer as discussed, last month:

2 PCB sides @ 5/8" thick x 4 1/8" high x 22" long
1 PCB back and 1 PCB front @ 5/8" thick x 4 1/8' high x 19 3/4" long
1 PCB bottom @ 5/8" thick by 21" wide x 22" long
2 solid wood strips 1/4" thick x 5/8" wide x 22" long
2 solid wood strips 1/4" thick x 5/8" wide x 19 3/4" long
1 solid wood drawer face 3/4" thick x 23 1/16" wide x 6 3/4" high

The solid wood drawer face width should equal the width of the door or total width of the doors plus the gap between the doors when mounted in a drawer over door(s) base cabinet. Clearance dimensions are general and dependant on the style of drawer glide used. Refer to the manufacturer's specifications for the brand of drawer glide that you plan to use with your cabinets.
As we discussed in the drawer building article, use two 2" PCB screws at each corner joint and 2" PCB screws at 4" centers on the bottom. The kitchen cabinet hardware supplier in your area should stock small plastic colored screw covers to hide the screw heads on the drawer sides. Remember to use countersink pilot holes for the PCB screws.

BASE CABINET PULL-OUTS

Pull-outs in base and pantry style cabinets have become extremely popular over the past few years. They are a very effective storage option and increase the ease of access, when compared to the standard fixed shelf in a base cabinet. And, because we now use European hidden hinges, base cabinets do not need a center stile (vertical face frame member). This allows us full access to the base cabinet interior so that we can install pull-out shelves. I have constructed many styles of pull-outs over the years. Some styles are directly dependant on client requirements. If a deep pull-out is required, I use the drawer style as described previously. It can be as deep or shallow as required. Deep pull-outs may be needed for pot storage, dry good storage, or storage of items such as plastic containers.
In the last couple of years I've constructed the majority of pull-outs using a 5/8" sheet of melamine coated PCB mounted on European drawer glides. The front exposed edge of the PCB is covered with plastic cap moulding which is available at most home stores. The exposed sides of the PCB are conveniently hidden by the bottom mount drawer glides and edge tape. A rail system is installed on the PCB pull-out. This is a very effective system for pull-out construction and one that I recommend as the standard design.
There is an extremely important design consideration when constructing and installing pull-outs in a cabinet behind doors. The European hinge, that is often used, has the ability to open in less than the space it requires for door overlap. In effect, the door mounted with these hinges opens in a space less than 5/8" which puts the edge of the door slightly inside the face frame opening. While this feature is extremely beneficial, particularly when two doors are close together, it means that a pull-out will rub or hit the door. To prevent this, 1" by 2" cleats are installed on the interior of the carcass, and the drawer glides are mounted to the cleats. The space occupied by these cleats must be taken into consideration when determining your pull-out size.
If you cannot afford to reduce the width of your pull-outs by using the cleat method, you can use 170 degree opening hinges that clear the interior width of the face frame when fully opened. However, the cabinet door(s) must be opened past the 90 degree position to clear the space. The issues of instructing everyone to fully open the door(s), as well as the added cost of the 170 degree hinges, may be a consideration. I tend to use the cleat method with the less expensive 90 degree hinges in almost all situations.

SINK CABINET FLIP-OUTS

Sink cabinets, normally a 36" standard base, are not usually fitted with full cabinet height doors. They are built as a drawer over doors cabinet so that the underside of the sink is not visible when the cabinet doors are open. Obviously the "drawer" is not functional because the sink occupies the space needed for the drawer carcass. The "drawer" is a false face and non-operational. Up until recently this space has been lost.
Various suppliers now sell a flip-out kit that comes with hinges and a plastic tray. You can install this kit on the false drawer front and have a functional flip-out drawer face with a plastic tray inside that can be used to store scrubbing pads and dish soap. It's a very popular option and a very easy item to install. Your local kitchen hardware supply outlet should stock these kits.

PAINTING, STAINING, OR POLYURETHANE?

I get many letters concerning cabinet finishing and re-finishing through my home page free advice service on the Internet. Are they difficult question? You bet! Can I answer them and offer solutions? Not very often!
Painting, staining and clear coating wood is by far and away one of the most difficult subjects to address accurately. Sometimes I'd like to leave the wood unfinished so I wouldn't have to face the inevitable question. How do I finish this piece? As you know, you can build the best cabinet ever built, finish it poorly, and it will look like a piece of junk.
As an example, years ago I built a gorgeous dresser for a client. I was really pleased with myself and the client loved the unfinished piece. We wanted a white washed antique stain with a clear coat of polyurethane to protect the cabinet. I asked the paint "expert" to recommend finishes so the stain and clear coat would be compatible. He told me to use two products and guaranteed me that the "clear coat would absolutely never yellow". Guess what? It yellowed and ruined the cabinet.
How do you avoid these problems? First, make sure you are willing to live with the chosen finish. It's very difficult to remove if you're not satisfied. Second, particularly with wooden kitchen cabinets, staying neutral by using clear polyurethane is always a good choice. If you want a color change in the kitchen, it's a simple matter to change cabinet door handles and kitchen accessories or even the countertop.
And third, spend a lot of time searching for a reputable, knowledgable paint supplier in your area. Pay a little more at the specialty shop because their advice is invaluable. And finally, do what I should have done with the dresser. Test the finish (all base and top coats) on an area that cannot be seen or a test board before committing to the final application. It's a bit of extra effort, but remember, you're going to have to look at the work for years to come. Next time I'll smarten up and listen to my own advice.

COUNTERTOPS

Most people don't realize that installing a new kitchen countertop is an easy process. It is also relatively inexpensive and a nice way to give new life to your kitchen.
Take accurate measurements of the old top and bring them to a local countertop supplier. They'll custom cut new tops ready for installation. Most countertops are attached to the base cabinets with screws on the underside. Additionally, you may have to score a line, with a sharp utility knife, to remove the caulking where the top meets the wall. And in some cases the new top may have to be scribed to the wall and contoured with a belt sander. Scribing is simply running a pencil along the contours of the way and drawing a line on the countertop backsplash.
The common style of countertop is called a roll top. For ease of installation, try and match the old roll top profile with the new style. This is particularly important if the wall between the upper and lower cabinets has been tiled.
Other countertop styles, such as the wood edged top that's in my book, can be installed. For those that are planing to install a new countertop and want something different, let me know and I'll include a detailed explanation in my next newsletter.
If the process is a bit intimidating, any of my fellow kitchen cabinetmaking shops in your area can do the job quickly and at a reasonable price. It's a great way to get a new look in your kitchen for the holidays.

Regards,

Danny

Danny Proulx
Rideau Cabinets
P.O. Box 331
Russell, Ontario. Canada K4R 1E1
e-mail: rideau@capitalnet.com
Phone: 1-613-445-3722
Fax: 1-613-445-1085

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