a few weeks back I made a base cabinet for the shop but I never had time to put the face frame on it so today I'll walk you through an easy way to get that job done to assemble today's face frame you'll need a few basic tools a Kreg jig set and like this one I got it for about 18 dollars and you'll also need some screws a square bit driver and a clamp the clamp I'm using is a $20 face clamp also made by Craig but if you already have some cheap clamps like these you can totally make those work too the material were using is 3/4 by an inch and a half pine then I rip down from wider stock but you can buy this material already sized at the lumberyard if you'd like when you're building face frames it's important to know the difference between the styles in the rails the rails on the face frame run horizontally while the stiles run vertically and if you take a closer look you can see that the rails fit between the Stiles this is really important to know when it comes to cutting and assembling the frame because I want my cabinet to have to finish sides meaning that once it's installed you're gonna see both sides I'm choosing to have the face frame Stiles overhang the box by quarter of an inch which leaves a half-inch reveal on the inside however they overhang for the top and bottom rails will be different from the styles and different from each other the top rail sits flush with the top of the cabinet leaving a 3/4 inch reveal on the inside while the bottom rail overhangs the cabinet by about 5/8 of an inch and leaves 1/8 of an inch for an inside reveal now by no means is this the only way to assemble face frames but for the purpose of this video we're gonna keep it easy to find the length of the stiles measure from the top of the cabinet down to the bottom shelf then add 5/8 of an inch for the overhang transfer that measurement to your face frame material and cut to pieces using a handsaw or a power miter box to find the length of the rails take one of the styles and hold it in place on the cabinet making sure to have the correct amount of overhang then make a pencil mark on the left side of the style this mark represents the end of the rail on the right side repeat this process on the left measuring and marking for its location well that all done measure between the two pencil marks to determine the total length for the top and bottom rales let me give you a quick tip when you're measuring between two specific pencil marks like what we have here instead of using the hook end on the tape measures the starting point for your measurement use the one-inch mark instead this gives you a better visual on the pencil marks and eliminates some of the guesswork because you're starting from an exact point on the tape measure just be sure to deduct one inch from your overall measurement again because you're starting from one in not zero with all four pieces cut the length it's time to drill the pocket holes pocket holes are made from a jig like this which is made mostly of plastic but it has a metal sleeve that directs a drill bit at an angle into the wood there are two important things is set up before drilling begins first you need to set the depth collar to the proper position on the bit craig recommends setting the collar at 3 9/16 for 3/4 inch material and that's what we're using today to set the collar position loosen the allen screw and adjust the collar either up or down until you've reached your 3 and 9/16 and then tighten everything back up the last thing the setup or know is – where to locate the jig on the material Craig recommends setting the jig flush to the end for 3/4 inch material so now that you've got the bit all set up and you know where to place the jig on the material it's time to drill four holes because the rails fit between the styles the pocket holes will only need to be drilled in the rails one on each end to do that locate the jig in the center of the rail flush to the end and clamp it in place with the bit tucked up in a drill and the drill set to the drill setting drill your first hole remove the clamp and repeat this process three more times to assemble add glue to the end grain of one rail and line it up with the style using the clamp hold it into position while installing your first screw the screws I'm using here are an inch and a quarter Kraig screws as you continue to assemble the frame make sure not to over tighten the screws so use caution while driving them and if you want it's a great opportunity to use the clutch on your drill before the glue dries do a final inspection which includes making sure that all the joints are tight and flushed then once you're happy and the glues had time to dry go ahead and do your final sanding the face cream can be attached in many different ways let's look at three methods the first and easiest method is to add glue and then add a few face nail Brad's to hold the frame into position while the glue dries and this is the method I'm going to be using on this cabinet of course if you're painting the cabinet like I am this is totally acceptable even in some cases where you're staining the cabinet face nailing still works the second method uses glue and multiple clamps to hold the frame into position until the glue dries this of course requires a lot of clamps maybe eight to ten for a cabinet of this size but if you don't have a lot of clamps there is a way to do it with less and that's what the aid of a call calls of pieces of material bought or made that have a slight crown to them and are used to help distribute clamping pressure over a longer distance for example this one call could be used on the left side here reducing the amount of clamps needed again because the call is helping to spread out the clamping pressure the last method is to use a Kreg jig to drill pocket holes in the side of the cabinet of course more planning would have to be done to make sure the pockets are either hidden or covered up regardless of what method you use be sure to check the fit of the face frame before adding any glue as you can imagine once the face frame is set in the glue it moves around very easily so if you can't get it fast and quickly like with a few Brad's then it can become a bit messy and a bit discouraging therefore one trick that a lot of woodworkers use is to put four Brad nails in each corner of the cabinet and then snip off each one leaving only about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch once that's done you can add your glue and this time when you position the frame on the box the nails hold the frame above the glue giving you the flexibility to move it around without a big mess then once you're happy with its position you can tap the frame down into the Brad's and into the glue securing it in place and you can get the clamps on whatever method you decide to do just make sure that you double check your work you take your time and when in doubt add another clamp thanks for watching if you have any questions leave them as always in t
