I'm looking into building new cabinets for my kitchen, partially because
it has almost none and partially because I've been wanting to get back
into woodworking (and I like jumping in at the deep end). The design I
have is basically 5 straight and 1 corner base cabinets, and 3 straight
and 1 corner upper cabinets.

I'd really like to do full-inset doors and drawers, but I'm ondering if
that might fall into the more-than-I-can-chew category. I haven't done
serious woodworking since high school, but in the meantime I've built a
few things that came out well with a circular saw and hand tools, most
recently a largish CD rack.

If it wasn't for the existence of 3-way adjustable hinges and drawer-front
adjusters I wouldn't even consider it. Most of what I'm concerned about is
the doors and drawers sticking in humid weather. (I live in New England,
so the seasonal variation in humidity is significant, and I'll probably be
finishing the job in the winter.) Should I think about making
frame-and-panel drawer fronts as well as doors, at least for the larger
drawers (largest one will probably be 7" high)? Or am I just setting
myself up for untold pain and misery?

--
-Chip Olson. | ceo2 at thsi dot org | remove the 2 to reply

On Fri, 04 Jun 2004 21:52:13 -0500, Chip Olson wrote:


I'd really like to do full-inset doors and drawers, but I'm ondering if
that might fall into the more-than-I-can-chew category.

Build a practice set of parts out of MDF. Remake the parts until you
get it right. Use the MDF parts as patterns for the real thing.

MDF is cheap, comes "prepared", as it needs no jointing or planing,
and machines well.

Barry