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
