Garage Cabinet Build - Advice Needed

[sharp21]

I’d like to build cabinets along 2 walls of my new garage and could use some recommendations on what materials and construction method would be the most economical.

I’m pretty handy but have never built cabinets.

I’d thinking to mount them on the wall using French cleats so that they sit 4” off the floor and I’d like to keep the costs to a max of $25/ft. Probably use white melamine for the doors to avoid painting.

Suggestions and pictures appreciated!


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[ddawg16]

I made my cabinets using gray melamine. But for doors, I got some solid oak doors from the in-laws when they re-did their kitchen. I made my faces frames to match them.

If you don't have any in-laws to steal cabinet doors from, consider making a trip by your local Habitat for Humanity store....or watch Craigs list.

For mounting....run a 2-3" tall board along the inside top at the back. You should also have another board about 3/4" to 1" tall at the bottom under the bottom shelf. This board carries most of the weight...the top board keeps the cabinet from pulling away from the wall.

Have a look at my garage thread...towards the end....you will see how I built mine.

 

[glentre]

Melamine is a good choice but understand the edges will chip if you use a standard table saw. When the pros cut it, they use a saw with an undercut blade which is a small wheel blade located under the table that scores the melamine before it gets to the larger saw blade. Most of the newer pro shops now use a cnc router to cut all the parts and there is no chipping with that machine.

If you have one or can set up one with a hand router, a router table can be used to get rid of the chipping. Just cut your material 1/32" or so larger in all dimensions and then set your router to cut off the same thickness.

For maximum protection from abuse in a garage environment, also suggest you use 3 mm thick pvc edge banding. It can be applied using contact glue and a rubber mallet. Of course, your part sizes would need to be cut figuring in what thickness banding you will use. The banding is available from a number of on-line suppliers to match almost any melamine color you are using. They also have hand held banding trimmers under 20 bucks.

As an alternate, you might want to contact a local mechanized cabinet shop which will have the ability to cut and machine all your parts including drilling shelf and hinge holes. All you would have to do is pick up the parts and assemble them. For these shops, nothing is standard. They just take the cabinet shapes and sizes you want, enter them into their computer and download the info to the machines in the shop.

Good luck with your project..........have fun.

Glen

 

[albaran]

An economical and no work solution could be cabinets from Ikea. They actually are more sturdy then some of those flimsy steel ones.

 

[isb cornbinder]

Here in the Lower Mainland of BC, we have a HABITAT store where used cabinet are often available at reasonable prices. Craigslist can be another source of good wall mounted cabinets at very reasonable prices. CL FREE often has a good selection of cabinets.
A friend asked the demolition crew at one of the local houses if he could take the kitchen cabinets and he got a good set for free.
For that person with classier demands, there are shop cabinet companies that can supply the stuff of dreams.

 

[sharp21]

An economical and no work solution could be cabinets from Ikea. They actually are more sturdy then some of those flimsy steel ones.

You mean like these? That’s what I’ve got now and that’s where my price cap of $25/ft comes in. If I can’t do it for that price I’ll just get some more of those.

But I’d like to build because it’s a project I’d like to have under my belt, and so I can have the space on top covered for a cleaner look.


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[sharp21]

You mean like these? That’s what I’ve got now and that’s where my price cap of $25/ft comes in. If I can’t do it for that price I’ll just get some more of those.

But I’d like to build because it’s a project I’d like to have under my belt, and so I can have the space on top covered for a cleaner look.


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Now with picture!



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[sharp21]

I made my cabinets using gray melamine. But for doors, I got some solid oak doors from the in-laws when they re-did their kitchen. I made my faces frames to match them.

If you don't have any in-laws to steal cabinet doors from, consider making a trip by your local Habitat for Humanity store....or watch Craigs list.

For mounting....run a 2-3" tall board along the inside top at the back. You should also have another board about 3/4" to 1" tall at the bottom under the bottom shelf. This board carries most of the weight...the top board keeps the cabinet from pulling away from the wall.

Have a look at my garage thread...towards the end....you will see how I built mine.

Great tip on having the weight supporting rail along the bottom.

As for doors I’m looking at big storage cabinets rather than kitchen sized ones. I’m just planning to do them out of a single sheet.


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[tarmy]

Like these...

3/4” plywood, cabinet grade. Glued and screwed together. Get get good door hardware too.

Doors are foil coated with white plastic...essentially. You can order them on line.

 

[zoepop]

Get a Kregg joiner.. They have them at the box stores. It's a jig to drill and fasten pocket screws. Makes it easy to build square boxes out of plywood. Usually use prefinished 3/4 then apply a face frame to paint or stain

 

[glentre]

These are my cabinets. Machined by a local shop and assembled on site. Will cost more than your budget but if you build them yourself, you could save some money. But, even building them yourself, I think $25/ft for tall cabinets is somewhat unrealistic for a quality project.

Glen

 

[Slednut]

I built these, 3/4 inch ply boxes, 1/2 inch ply shelving and melamine doors. On some I used the melamine for face frames but I would not recommend it.

I now use 3/4 ply and paint it but still use melamine doors. I never saw much chipping of the melamine and when I painted the sides it filled the chips so they are no big problem. Kreg pocket hole jig is great.

 

[GrayFlattop]

You might want to invest some time reading a few mega-threads here by lilscorpion. Both the tooling organization thread https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=174553as well as the tooling (re) organization thread https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=381487have a ton of information on cabinet building details as well as some insanely detailed OCD tool storage ideas. Allocate several hours if you wish to read every post.

Life in a garage can be tough on cabinets, but there is no "one size fits all" solution. Have fun

 

[jetnow1]

I took some old cabinets from a house I redid the kitchen in, took off the face frames which were in good shape, threw away the boxes(particle board) which were falling apart
and made new boxes out of 3/4 plywood. Easy to do, allowed me to make depth to fit my needs, and when I painted them they looked fine. I even mounted one face upside down
to hang on the wall up high, this put the drawers within reach.

 

[8mpg]

I agree with the Ikea route. They are fairly cheap and over lots of versatility.

 

[sharp21]

I built these, 3/4 inch ply boxes, 1/2 inch ply shelving and melamine doors. On some I used the melamine for face frames but I would not recommend it.



I now use 3/4 ply and paint it but still use melamine doors. I never saw much chipping of the melamine and when I painted the sides it filled the chips so they are no big problem. Kreg pocket hole jig is great.

Those look great! Exactly what I’m thinking of doing.

Any shots of the inside?


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[Vruck]

Thanks Slednut for posting the pics with the layout, not to complicated, and nice looking. I now have some ideas, for a cabinet wall of my own.

 

[Slednut]

Those look great! Exactly what I’m thinking of doing.

Any shots of the inside?

This is all I have for inside, they are dado joints, glued and screwed from the outside. I also use a Kreg pocket hole jig. To make the dados I made a jig for my router that clamps in place. I use router bits that make the dado for 1/2, 3/4 inch ply wood in one pass, they are from Rockler.

This cabinet has melamine face frames that like I said earlier don't recommend.

 

[Jakemedic]

Built these last summer with my pocket hole jig and some 3/4” plywood. Cost me about 450.00 to build. Used clear poly to finish them. Have pins inside to be able to adjust the shelves. Hinges from eBay for next to nothing. Had built cabinets befor, but not for a real long time. I use Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets Book by Danny Proulx. Easy and simple to follow.

 

[sharp21]

This is all I have for inside, they are dado joints, glued and screwed from the outside. I also use a Kreg pocket hole jig. To make the dados I made a jig for my router that clamps in place. I use router bits that make the dado for 1/2, 3/4 inch ply wood in one pass, they are from Rockler.



This cabinet has melamine face frames that like I said earlier don't recommend.

That’s great, thanks. I’m going to go with internal hinges and no face frames.


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[sharp21]

Built these last summer with my pocket hole jig and some 3/4” plywood. Cost me about 450.00 to build. Used clear poly to finish them. Have pins inside to be able to adjust the shelves. Hinges from eBay for next to nothing. Had built cabinets befor, but not for a real long time. I use Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets Book by Danny Proulx. Easy and simple to follow.

Those look great! I’ll check that book out


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[driftpin]

If you decide to do the fabrication yourself and choose the Kreg system of joinery, I suggest buying the set that has the lever-action clamp, it will speed-up your hole drilling immensely, and they will be more accurately-positioned. I did some cabinets from knock-down kits, using Kreg pocket screws and the cabinets went-together easily, being glued-and-screwed, they are very strong.

http://www.rockler.com/kreg-k4-with...MIsPbWkviH3AIV07fACh2C3wFAEAQYASABEgJybfD_BwE

 

[JMartel]

Here you go. Posted by a member here. I've built a couple of these cabinets and they are quite easy to do. My Home Depot even has a prefinished ply that's pretty good for $45.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=186358

 

[sharp21]

Here you go. Posted by a member here. I've built a couple of these cabinets and they are quite easy to do. My Home Depot even has a prefinished ply that's pretty good for $45.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=186358

Fantastic thread, thanks!

I’ve never used the kreg jig but will give it a try for this project.


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[bad_idea]

I built a set of these in my garage. I changed the dimensions to suit my needs. Held up well.

https://www.familyhandyman.com/garage/storage/giant-diy-garage-cabinet/view-all/

 

[kbs2244]

I am not a finish carpenter.
And have no desire to become one.

Therefor I like the salvage the face frames of old kitchen cabinets idea.

You can build shop sturdy cabinets for behind them.
(I do not trust kitchen cabinet strength in a shop.)

Paint them to match your choice.
Paint can blend different styles and woods.

 

[sharp21]

I’m going to do wood boxes with melamine doors. Recycling kitchen cabinets doesn’t work for me as I’m looking for large storage units


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[larry4406]

No expert here at all, so YMMV.

I searched on here and other sources. YouTube has good tutorials on using Sketchup for design of cabinets so I studied those and am self taught. I would rate myself at C student right now.

I'm using 3/4" Sande plywood from Home Depot.

I made a concept model of my garage. Then I started detailing the first main cabinet (adjacent side door) and between the fume hood.

The Sketchup tutorials I watched were consistent on using different colors for the various parts and then making copies of them to then layout on 4x8 sheets for efficient cutting. So I began.

I used a French Cleat at the top to hold the cabinet on the wall. Once the face frames are built, crown mold will hide the cleat engagement drop. Bottom of the cabinet uses a full width cleat for screwing to studs as well. I weigh 230 lbs and the unit fully supports me on the wall.

I incorporated bins at the bottom for the Harbor Freight storage bins. The shelf slots are such that it could be 5 columns of 4 bin rows, or I can use the double size bins.

Still very much a work in progress and am ashamed as to how long it has taken to get this far. My brother laughs and says lets just go cut plywood, we would be done by now!

 

[larry4406]

More Pics..

 

[sharp21]

Thanks for sharing. I love the harbor freight storage idea!

I’m planning on mounting mine the same way


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[larry4406]

Thanks for sharing. I love the harbor freight storage idea!

I’m planning on mounting mine the same way


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I liked the HF storage bin threads here and adapted some of the ideas into my cabinet build. I will be using 1/8” temper board as the bin dividers and will route the hand contour using the jig I made.