Cutting Square Cabinet Parts

If you have ever been to a cabinet shop you no doubt were amazed at the vast collection of stationary tools and portable power tools present. While many of these tools are vital to a cabinet shop to remain competitive in the marketplace, a DIYer or homeowner is capable of building their own set of cabinets with a minimum set of tools.

Traditionally the primary tool in most cabinet shops is a cabinet saw or table saw. Now there are several more sophisticated tools used in production shops such as a sliding panel saw and even computer operated CNC machines. But for the homeowner building a single set of cabinets, it is possible to get by with a much more basic compliment of tools.

Probably the biggest challenge in building cabinets is cutting square and true parts. For the owner builder with or without a table saw this can present a challenge. One of the best ways to make sure your box parts are square is to use a pattern. I have found that the factory corners of MDF sheet goods are very square (this is not usually the case with plywood, by the way). By preserving the factory corners and carefully managing your cuts you can make some patterns the same size as the parts you require. Then there are a variety of ways to duplicate the size. One o f the easiest is to cut your parts a bit over-sized and use a router and pattern bit to reduce them to the final size.

Cutting square cabinet parts can be a challenge. But with the methods outlines above you can overcome one of the main challenges in building cabinets.