I need to knock together some cupboards and cabinets for my workshop quickly and easily, probably out of 3/4″ birch ply. My question is do I need to set the bottom shelf in a dado for extra strength or will more pocket hole screws or a mixture of pocket holes and screws work without the dados? The other option I though of is having the base the full width of the cabinet and fixing the sides to the bottom with pocket holes, that way the risk of the bottom falling out from loading the shelf would be less than if it was suspended between the two sides. I’m planning to put the cabinets on castors so I can move them around.
Thanks in advance
Roger
Replies
pocket screws and glue will be fine. The last set I made I used 4 pairs of pocket screws each side and I'm sure its over kill.
I used biscuits for a similar project - only because my Kreg kit was out of the way. My cabinets are 31 inches high, on casters, and have a benchtop drill press on top. No issues for me. Frankly, I'm wondering why I didn't do this sooner. Mortiser is stored below, DP on top. Easy to move and more storage.
Get to it.
Thanks to you both. Good to hear what you use yours for Rhino in terms of weight - my primary one will have my mitre saw on top and router table inside at the bottom with whatever else I can get in above it.
Roger
I would either Dado or butt joint with the sides on top of the bottom and a seperate toe kick. Cutting dados is as fast as drilling 4 or 5 pocket holes for each dado, for me, and assembly is a lot easier with dados. No aligning and clamping to get the parts straight before screwing.
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
Mike & Roger ,
Very true about a dado making assembly easier faster and more accurate , no lines need to be marked and the strength in this application is superior to most others .
I have a TS dedicated to the dado head so it makes it extra easy , even if you need to set the dado up each time run all your parts for the entire job if possible at one time .
regards dusty
I've been using dadoes as a staple in cabinet building for years. I do like the ease of pocket holes but tend to keep them for face frames etc.
I have a Jet table saw with router lift in the extension table. It really makes it easy to setup a 3/4" straight bit and use the table saws fence for router operations.
I used Dado's on some of my shop cabinets. On some recent ones I made for a friend I used biscuits and screws I found it was a little faster (at least for the size of his cabinets).
You could always make the bottom the full width screw directly through the bottom into the sides. If you're going to go with castors then this might make the most sense, otherwise you're trusting the botom shelf dados to hold all the wieght of the cabinet and contents (I assume the castors would connect to the boom shelf). The cabinet I made for my planer was built like that.
Not to undermine the other comments, but I agree with the dado will give you more of a stronger base and shelves. When I build a cabinet for the shop, I want to make sure it's as storng as I can get it. You never know what you'll put in it.
hi roger, this is my prefference, i would use a rabbit on the bottom to gain the strenght of the sides. if you cut the rabbit a little large then you can use a flush trimming bit to remove the excess. it will be easy to align and strong. if the cabinet will be over lets say 32 in tall and you are going to put a lot of weight on top then i would glue and screw a self in the middle for extra strength. good luck
mike h
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