So, cabinets: First was the sink cabinet. I designed this with a recess for the trash can and pet food containers (on the floor under the sink); we'll see how that works. I gave it a solid top, cut out for the sink, with a recess routed in around the rim to support the sink so that the top of the sink rim is flush with the underside of the countertop. Typically, undermount sinks are supported with small screw inserts glued into the underside of the countertop—the screws attach small metal brackets. I suppose strong enough, but I'd rather have the sink supported by a 3/4" plywood top. Here is the sink cabinet being assembled on top of my tablesaw (the only really flat surface in the house; the garage floor is not close to flat).
The bases had been installed for some time, and even though they were straight and all cut to 7.25" width, by now they had dried out and had changed dimensions. They weren't kiln-dried, and some pieces were heavier (wetter) than the others, so they shrunk more than the drier pieces of 2x8. So I had to spend some time getting the bases acceptably flat and level before installing cabinets (trimming and shimming).
My stainless steel countertop is a standard 25" deep, which means the supporting plywood cabinets were less than 24" deep, which meant that a single $50 4' x 8' sheet of cabinet-grade plywood could be cut to provide the top and bottom and two ends. All my other cabinets are 30" deep, which meant for them I could only cut one length per piece of plywood; the other half was about 21" wide. So I had a lot of 21" wide pieces of expensive plywood leftover. For these new kitchen cabinets, I decided to use these too-narrow pieces by gluing two narrow pieces together to get one wide enough. I used biscuits to strengthen this joint (I use them for other applications as well). The biscuits (small flat football-shaped pieces of wood—see photo) strengthen and align the joint.
The photo shows a biscuit and the slot cut with a "biscuit jointer," which you use to cut opposing slots on both pieces of wood. (Hold the pieces together dry and mark a pencil line across the joint first to assure proper alignment, then cut the slots using the pencil mark as a guide.) Put glue on the joint and in the slots and clamp the two pieces of wood together. Here's a photo of the biscuit in the slot:
The other type of joint I use at the corners of the box is the tongue-and-dado joint. This joint aligns the edges (top-to-side, etc.) and makes the joint a lot stronger than a butt joint. Both the tongue and the dado are cut on the table saw, using a dado blade set, which contains inner and outer cutter blades and a number of stackable chipper blades that go between to give you the desired thickness. But a photo explains what the joint looks like (usually they are tighter than this, with good glue contact on all surfaces):
I assembled the sink cabinet in the garage because it was small and light enough to carry (with a dolly) into the house. The other cabinet would be almost eight feet long and had to be assembled in the kitchen, just barely big enough to do that work. I glued and screwed the pre-cut pieces and sub-assemblies one at a time, clamping the remaining pieces (no glue) to ensure (as much as possible) that the cabinet would end up straight and square and not twisted. After the glue dried, I would disassemble the dry-fit pieces and glue another piece.
At some point, gluing one piece at a time was not possible; I had to get all the remaining pieces together, with the 1/2" plywood back in place to hopefully hold it all square.
After cutting holes in the backs for wiring and plumbing, I slowly maneuvered the heavy cabinets into place, making sure the tops were all flat and in the same plane, as the one-piece Corian top will need to be uniformly supported by the tops of these sectional cabinets. I also had to fabricate and install a top over the dishwasher bay (it does not get a separate cabinet). I put the sink in position for the photo.
The next post will cover the installation of additional drawer partitions, attachment of maple edge trim on the front of the cabinets, installation of the sink and dishwasher shut-off valves, and some finish work on the inside of the sink cabinet. The post after that will see the Corian countertop (and backsplash) and sink installed by the Home Depot people, and the addition of the cooktop.
As always, the all-important drawer building and install will come sometime in the future.
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