if this is your first attempt at making a cabinet either for a kitchen or built-in let me show you
the fastest way to get that project done there are many different techniques used today to
build cabinets and some of them may require more tools than you may have therefore we're going to
keep things really simple today by using as few power tools as possible making all simple
straight cuts and assembling almost everything with Craig screws what we're building today is
known as a base cabinet meaning that it's designed to sit on the floor and oftentimes be attached to
a wall it measures 25 inches wide by 37 inches tall by 18 inches deep and it's sized to fit
into the corner of my shop where I'll be able to store all my pink hands that would otherwise be
disorganized the base cabinet is also made with a toe kick cutout so that when you're standing
close to the cabinet your toes don't hit however if you're making built-ins like what I have in
my office you may not need or like the look of a toe kick and if that's the case I'll show you what
not to cut to make that happen to get started and cut both cabinet sides to your desired width and
height the material I'm using here is 3/4 inch paint grade cabinet plywood because the bottom
shelf and three support pieces fit in between the sides their length or width depending on how you
look at it is an inch and a half shorter than a cabinets overall width the support pieces are all
three inches wide and the bottom shelf stops short of the back by a half an inch and you'll see why
later with the support pieces and bottom shelf cut to the correct size it's time to move on to
the layout when it comes to laying everything out it's really important to mark the Front's
then book match the two side pieces like this it's important to book match the sides for two reasons
first you can keep track of the good side if you have one or if you're using a prefinished plywood
that only has the finish on one side the second reason is because it's very easy to make a mistake
and make two rights or two less and then when you go to put everything together surprise moving on
the first thing the layout is the right side toe kick the most common size is three inches in from
the face and three to four inches in height and here's a perfect example of how easy it would
be to jump over to the left panel and layout it's toe kick in the same location but if you
were to do that once you book match these sides you can see that the toe kick on the Left panel
would now be on the back side of the cabinet so bottom line layout one side first and then the
next and then book match the size to verify that you got it right the bottom shelf sits right at
the top of the toe kick and I'd like to make a mark with a framing square so I can get a good
visual on its location to layout for the support rails measured from the back of the cabinet in
1/2 inch then draw a line down a few inches and then transfer that same line to the top
as well this line represents the back of both rear support rails and the edge of the quarter
inch dado which holds the back panel the other support rail gets laid out tight to the cabinet
top and face as I mentioned before the back panel sits in a quarter inch dado and runs the whole way
down the back of the cabinet now that the right side is all laid out transfer those marks over
to the left panel making a perfect book match set with that done it's time to cut out the toe
kicks and melt the quarter inch dedos as a side note if you're making cabinets like I have in
my office you can go ahead and skip cutting out the toe kicks here and move right into milling
the quarter inch dado at the table saw make all the straight cuts for the tote kicks being sure
not to over cut beyond the pencil lines then finish in with a jigsaw or a handsaw now lower
your table saw blade down to about a quarter of an inch with the side panel facing down and its
back against the fence line up the blade with the half-inch mark and run both panels through next
grab the scrap of plywood and run that through as this will be your test piece adjust the fence
so that the next pass removes enough material so that the plywood panel fits into the groove you
may need to make a few micro adjustments to get a perfect fit and that's okay once you're satisfied
run both pieces through with that done it's time to drill out for all the pocket holes for this
cabinet there are four holes on each side of the bottom shelf two on each end of the support rails
and I've also added two more on the back support rail to fasten it up tight to the other rail to
assemble put the cabinet facedown on a flat table and locate the bottom shelf tight to the face of
the cabinet leaving it short in the back so that the plywood can by using a few clamps to hold the
bottom shelf firmly into position secure it with glue and screws from there remove the clamps and
spin the cabinet's so you can now work on the top support pieces with those clamps in place fasten
them to the cabinet sides to get the measurements for the width and the height of the back panel
measure from the inside right dado to the inside left dado and then deduct about an eighth of an
inch to get the height measure from the bottom shelf to the top of the cabinet to install the
panel slide it into the dado until it's flush with the top and flush with the bottom shelf
before you fasten the back panel to the support rail into the bottom shelf use a framing square
or measured diagonals to ensure the de cabinet is square once square fastened with small finish
nails Brad's or screws so at this point there's two options you can apply an edge banding to cover
the plywood edges or you can build a simple face frame and Craig screw it all together either way
you go you're gonna need to build some doors for your cabinet if you need some help with that I'll
leave my video right here so you can watch that now thanks for watching if you have any questions
leaving them below in the comments section god bless I hope everybody's well see you next week