Laundry Room Storage Cabinets | How to Build

what's going on guys Alex zukan here from Mr builda welcome back to another week in the workshop the topic of today's project is shutter style cabinets for a linger Room Makeover so without wasting time let's get into the video now to get started for this project I went down to my local Home Depot and I picked up a couple of sheets of the 4x8 and the red oak uh the sheets are roughly about 49 bucks a piece now they're so big to put on a table saw to actually run them safely and accurately so what I like to do is break them down at least in halfes uh I use a tracks saww like you see here it makes it super easy and you know tear out free but if you don't own a tracks saww what you can always do is just clamp down like a piece of trim like a 1x two 1x3 and then use your skill saw preferably with a nice high tooth count skill saw blade so you don't do you know a whole bunch of tear outs and then just cut it in half and then you can start working on your table saw all right little Pro tip when working with cabinet grade finished hardwood veneer plywood so in my situation I'm working with a white oak uh that stuff is super super super flaky on top if you're not careful so three things that will help you have the crisp cut is number one brand new blade specifically something like like a higher tooth count blade so doesn't have to be brand new but at least a decent blade that has the high tooth count 60 teeth just fine number two go slow slower you go the better it cuts less tear outs happen and number three one of my favorite tips when working with flaky stuff is lay down some painters tape you know some uh like a the blue 3M whatever lay down on top and if it need be lay down on the bottom doesn't matter but that will TR tremendously improve your ability to create a nice crisp cut without tearing out that expensive expensive stuff the the two pieces that I'm doing for the sides they are 16 in wide by 48 in tall the back piece is 15 and 1/4 in by 48 in tall and then the top and bottom piece they are 14 1/2 by 15 and [Music] 1/4 y [Music] yeah so the method of mounting the cabinet on the wall it's going to be a system called the French cleat system what I'm doing is taking an old scrap piece that we've cut off I remember how I said Oak chips away so I placed down some 3M tape any kind of tape as long as it you know has good contact I ran it on my table saw at a 45 degree angle the 45 degree angle created is this and so what's going to happen is this part is going to sit on the back of our cabinet in this kind of fashion and this part is going to sit on the back of the wall in this kind of fashion so what's going to happen is when the cabinet is ready to be mounted all we're going to do is lift our let's see if I can show this we're going to lift our cabinet up and slide it right on top and that's going to sit once it's sitting I am then going to anchor in the rest the base of the cabinet to the studs of the wall so it doesn't move anywhere in case you haven't noticed but I'm using the same scrap piece of wood even when attaching the top and bottoms of the cabinet it creates this perfect 3/4 in spacer that allows for the 3/4 in space inset on the back of the cabinet to kind of hide the French cleat system perfectly and then it creates a perfect inset at the bottom and the top well in case you want to put crown molding on top or in case you want to put light at the bottom of your cabinet or on the top of your cabinet for like an accent but it just it's just speeds up the process one of the best advice I've ever heard a woodworker say it's not the ability to create a good accurate cut it's the ability to create a repeatable cut and well I think that system and Theory applies to even glue-ups as well and I laid down tape now this is the trick that I took me forever to learn uh maybe because I'm lazy or whatnot but the frustrating part when working with a finishing grade um plywood is that it tends to well every once in a while there's wood glue squeeze out and you can never always get all of it out and so sometimes when you stay and you still see it so a good habit I developed is when you put down the painters tape on both sides of the seam what's going to happen is when the glue does squeeze out all you got to do is just take off that tape and voila you just have a nice crisp clean corner that you just joined together all right boys and girls we're finally getting to the point point where we're installing the so highly spoken of French cleat system two things that we say about it number one I like to make them a little bit wider at least 3 to 4 in in width just allows for me to have more surface area to dry some screws into the studs number two when it comes to mounting them I like to put them to the very tippy top of the cabinet basically flush with the top and the reason I do that is it gives me a nice reference point a nice measuring marker from which part to which part can I hang uh basically when putting it on the wall one of my favorite practices now no cabinet no professional grade cabinet is complete without the key element and I believe that is the face frame now if you don't know what a face frame of cabinet is essentially it's the part that sits between the cabinet door and the cabinet plywood carcass itself it's the finishing touches it's the part that creates this overall three-dimensional solid feel of the cabinet and essentially what I did is I took the 1 and 1/2 in Oak that I bought at the Home Depot and I cut the dimensions to 48 in tall and 13 and 58 wide now the way I'm joining them together right all it is is a big fancy square or rectangle is I'm using this fancy tool called the festal Domino and simply all that does is it creates mot and ten and joinery in the fastest way possible now don't be discouraged if you don't have this tool you can use alternative methods like you can use pocket holes you can use uh just traditional Motors and tenons you can even use sometimes biscuit joiner if they're small enough inspiration behind the cabinet doors is I wanted to create this kind of modern shutter style doors and I took the 2 and 1/2 in Red Oak again local Home Depot and I cut 16 pieces now this is where the repeatable cuts are important so I just you know screwed in a little stop lock on my miter station and just made about 15 or 16 repeatable cuts and then the side rails were 48 in tall again that's the theme of the day almost everything here is 48 in tall and what I did is I spaced them out evenly half2 inch distance from each one another and then I clamped it down and then what I'm doing here is I'm marking them to make sure that top and bottom have this kind of lining up part where the motor intended will go now I'm using my again the festal Domino and it has a a nice little lining jig that I can line it up and go through the mark but again if you don't have this tool you could always use um the Craig jig you can create pocket holes with it you can create biscuit joints in fact I've done this kind of style using a biscuit jointer and it worked just fine so another key characteristic of a professional grade cabinet are the adjustable shelves and so to create these perfectly spaced out and even pins for the shelves I'm using this shelf pin jig from Craig jig again really handy tool now I'll be honest with you till this moment most of the shelves I've ever built were always permanent um I just kind of knew what was going to go there so this is the first time I've actually approached this concept and I'm not going to lie to you I feel really good I feel like I've created this really solid piece of Cabinetry that could be bought or it could be built by somebody far more talented than myself and this tool is super easy you make your first anchoring point and then you put in a pin and then you just work your way up super handy super easy to use after laying out all of our pins for the shelves we are now ready to install our face frame now the phase frame we are using wood glue like always and then clamping it in or securing with the pocket holes now remember like I said it's important to create those pocket holes for the face frame on the inside parts of your cabinet plywood car once everything's clamed down we're going to start the grunt work with the sanding now for the face frame you can work your way up from ad grid to 120 to 220 for your finishing but for the veneer for the rest of the cabinet be mindful there's not a lot of it there so by you working your way up from 80 grit you're probably going to lose a little bit of veneer and staining is going to be a pain so what I recommend is just do the 120 and then go into the 220 and it'll be more than enough to create a a nice solid smooth surface when it came to the finishing part of the cabinet I wanted something that would kind of allow for Oak to do what Oak does without kind of manipulating to be yellow too much so the best product for me was the tongue oil I went down to my local Home Depot and I picked it up it was like n bucks for the small little can I just the direction say applied to a lintree rag and just start wiping it in like a wax and it was true like I mean it was so easy to work with it kind of popped out the color from Oak but then once it to dried it lighten up a little bit which is exactly the way I wanted to look my wife loved it I loved it and it was just super easy to apply I feel like it was a perfect solution now when it came to building the shelves I used some of the scrap wood and I wanted to make sure they're not too loose and they're more of like a tight kind of fit so the dimensions that worked for me were 14 and 1/4 by 15 1/2 now the 14 and 1/4 is a little bit shy it's not as perfectly fit and the reason why was well you know how I told you that plywood has the exposed plywood kind of edges and you could you can use the edge bander and kind of iron that stuff on but I kind of wanted to work with what I got that would match the best so I just cut some of the trim off to be about4 in and then you know it's 3/4 in thick anyways and then I just glued it on and Ed some masking tape to hold it down and it worked so perfect and un sanded again took it through the ringer 120 grit 220 finish it off made sure the edges were flush and then it sat perfectly and the shelves actually look like they were born there because they're made out of the same material so I picked up this jig a couple of years ago and it came with this little yellow plate and this forer bit and it's specifically marketed to install hinges on doors now though it's a very convenient jig and I use it all the time you can make one yourself uh just kind of create your own spacings based off a door you already have in your cabinet and then just cut it out and voila from now on that's your jig and you know use a forer bit and to be honest you the majority of the hinges that I've used the diameter was an inch and 3/8 so pick one out at your local Home Depot for like 15 bucks or so and voila you have your own jig once I installed the hinges the way they should be I started realizing that the type of hinges I bought were kind of for like a different application they're for the cabinets that don't have a face trim to it and so or a face frame so I instead of going and returning them and buying different ones I just decided to save me a trip so I just put a piece of scrapwood glued it in screwed it in and then just moved the hinges a little bit out of the way this is something I'm dealing with it worked just great is just an extra step so moral a story be mindful of the type of hinges you're [Music] buying well that is it for me this week thank you so much guys for taking your time and watching one of my videos if you're brand new to the channel and you like these style of videos I encourage you guys to hit that subscribe button I'd really appreciate and if you want to be notified when I put a new video out which is every 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