I concur. It is cheaper to make them!

There are drawbacks, and failures in the learning process. You also left out
a good table saw!

What I found is anyone can make anything but some peoples things look
better. I can make a door, but can I make it perfect or atleast with a
minimal of flaws! Then repeat that 40 times or so. If you're a novice and
you want a consistent well made fit and finished cabinet. Buy them. If you
want to learn (and remember wood is not cheap and either is time especially
fixing you mistakes!) and are willing to accept some flaws then be my guest!

To me, getting the them perfect in color consistency across the whole build
and the finish as well.... is the hardest thing to do!

Some people just shouldn't even be allowed to hold tools!






"BobS" wrote in message
...
Wayne,

You didn't say why you didn't want to make the doors yourself but to give
you an idea of some cost savings, read on. My sister-in-law volunteered
me
to make her new doors for her kitchen renovation - 40 doors and 8 drawer
fronts.

She wanted the beaded panel and wanted to paint them to match other
renovation going on. I selected ash for the rails and stiles and poplar
for
the panels. The sizes ran from the short ones that go over the fridge to
7'
long panel to go on the side of pantry cabinet and everything in-between.

We costed these out thru a supplier for Lowes for unpainted, hardwood
doors,
no hardware no hinges. With shipping, the cost was nearly $3,000 and she
still had to buy the hardware and do the finishing.

I costed out making them and for all the rough-sawn wood, Blum hinges,
ceramic knobs and pulls, primer, paint, brushes etc. came out to a tad
over
$500 for materials. Now I didn't charge any labor and I spent about 30
days
of my free time (evenings, weekends) making everything from scratch.

Sounds like you have enough of the basic tools if you can make the
cabinets
so making the doors and drawers wouldn't be that much of a stretch. If
you
can find a mill to purchase your stock, some will mill the stock for you
to
finish dimensions if you don't have a planer and a jointer. Having a
tablesaw is pretty much a must, a 2.5-3hp router, rail & stile set, a
homebrew router table and fence ( www.patwarner.com ), some clamps (
www.leevalley.com ) and some glue and sandpaper and you're good to
go....;-)

You do not need a lot of clamps but having about 6 Bessy K-body's or pipe
clamps of the right size is about a bare minimum. You can glue up 2 to 3
panels (or doors) at once with that many clamps. Depending on weather and
humidity conditions, you can unclamp panels after about an hour and let
them
set overnight. So you can get about 3 sets of glue-ups done each evening
with those few clamps.

Point being, if you're so inclined, I think you could make these yourself
and use the difference in cost to purchase a router, bits, planer,
jointer,
make a router table and fence, and even add in a dust collector if you're
making a fair amount of doors and drawers. In our case, it was nearly a
$2,500 savings.

Decent router - $250
Router plate - $50
12" Planer - $400
6" Jointer - $400
Clamps - Bessy's are on sale now - see Lee Valleys site and others ~$200
Kitchen door bit set - panel bit, rail and stile bits - $150
Other misc router bits for rounding over edges, etc. $50
Dust collector and hose - $200 - $300

Total - $1,700 - $1,800 (approx)

What better excuse do you need to get a few more tools? Making raised
panel
doors is not rocket science. There are spreadsheets available free for
downloading that you just plug in the finished dimension of the door size,
the width you want for rails and stiles and it spits out all the
dimensions
for milling your stock. And when you get done - just look at all the new
toys just waiting for the next project............;-)

Bob S.



"wayne mak" wrote in message
...
I will be making new cabinets for my kitchen, last time I did this I was
able to buy just the doors and did the rest myself. The company I did
this
with last time is long gone, does anyone know of a good company with fair
prices to do this with? I did a web seach but turned up the normal 50,000
returns. Any help would be great.

If anyone is looking for a old printers table saw my dad has one that he
will be selling, the machine is in CT and is about 700 pounds.