Hi Rob,

I am building kitchen cabinets using 3/4" oak plywood. I'm using dado
cuts into the side panels for the shelves. In a magazine i get, it
talks about using a biscuit joiner on cabinets. I've used biscuits to
attach faceframes to the box, but I've never tried using them to
attaches shelves to the side panels. Is this a feasable option? Can
biscuits hold the weight of heavy dishes on shelves? Most of the top
cabinets would probably get three biscuits on each end of the shelf.
If seems that there's not alot of wood to support the weight of the
shelf and the dishes.

I'm probably going to take heat for this, but I've built dozens of
cabinets for our house, office, garage, and more using simple butt
joints, glue, and finish nails. Once you attach the back and the face
frame, the case is very sturdy. We've loaded up many of our cabinets with
hundreds of pounds of stuff with zero problems.

I usually use 1/4" plywood for the back, inset in a rabbet around the
back edge of the case, glued and nailed in place.

I assemble the face frame with pocket screws, then glue and nail the
frame to the case.

If you're a purist, you could omit the nails and hold everything together
with clamps till the glue dries. But, it's hard to beat the speed and
convenience of an air nailer, even if you do need to fill the holes
later.

As for the internal shelves, I drill 1/4" holes spaced an inch or two
apart (I have a jig from rockler), then use shelf pins to hold the
shelves (I prefer the L-shaped clips rather than the basic posts). This
lets you adjust the shelves up or down as needed to accomodate tall
cereal boxes, pitchers, or whatever.

If you need more adjustability, you could inset metal shelf standards in
rabbets along the insides of the cabinet. I've done this for bookshelves
where the finer adjustment is handy, but it's a lot more work and cost
than I needed for cabinets.

I like to make my bottom shelf flush with the top of the bottom rail of
the face frame. This prevents the annoying lip I have seen on some
commercial cabinets, and it allows space under the cabinet to attach
under-cabinet lights.

I do add a mounting strip along the back bottom of the cabinet, as well
as a mounting strip along the top of the cabinet (inside). This gives
you a little more support for the cabinet as opposed to just screwing
through the 1/4" plywood backing. It you don't want the mounting strip
inside the cabinet, you could use 1/2" plywood for the cabinet back
instead. Either works fine, but it will cost more to use 1/2" plywood for
the backs.

Remember to use long 3" screws into the studs when mounting your
cabinets!

Good luck,

Anthony