edge banding kitchen cabinet boxes

[thewalnutguy]

Finally about to begin building my kitchen after months of planning and acquiring materials. 

Suffering a bit of analysis paralysis about the plywood edges.

Using 3/4" pre-finished maple plywood for the boxes.. Base cabinetry is going to be almost exclusively pull-outs..  Basically trying to decide if I should use the pre-finished/pre-glued edge banding veneer, or if I should slice up solid maple into 1/8" strips for all exposed edges.  Clearly solid would hold up to wear and tear better, but I wonder how much wear edges get if all the storage is pull outs (the drawer boxes themselves will be solid maple with plywood bottoms)

Also need to consider what's the process for finishing the 1/8" solid strips (if I go that way) given that the boxes themselves will already be finished (factory pre-finished)...  Also solid edge banding will be more visible. 

What would you do?

The approach I'd recommend would be making a "V"  groove in the edge of the plywood and then cutting what will be the face edge from a compatible solid stock - maple if you're using pre-finished maple plywood - into a triangle which will be slightly wider than the plywood on its face surface glued into the edge of the plywood and then trimmed flush to the surface of the plywood.

[Cabinet Monkey]

The approach I'd recommend would be making a "V"  groove in the edge of the plywood and then cutting what will be the face edge from a compatible solid stock - maple if you're using pre-finished maple plywood - into a triangle which will be slightly wider than the plywood on its face surface glued into the edge of the plywood and then trimmed flush to the surface of the plywood.

While having benefit of stiffing up shelves, this technique adds little value to carcass edges.   It does add a LOT of time and material cost to the process though.

Mound - why go to the trouble of making doors and rollouts if your bases are exclusively rollouts ?   A drawer is more functional and easier to use.  Plus you gain a slight bit of storage space.

[mound]

While having benefit of stiffing up shelves, this technique adds little value to carcass edges.   It does add a LOT of time and material cost to the process though.

Mound - why go to the trouble of making doors and rollouts if your bases are exclusively rollouts ?   A drawer is more functional and easier to use.  Plus you gain a slight bit of storage space.

Generally they will all be drawers. Where they will be pullouts behind doors is where there are multiple short pullouts behind the doors, and the vertical position of the pullout(s) can be adjusted (like a pantry).. The drawer slides there will be mounted to runners which can be positioned vertically on pairs of notched vertical members attached to the cabinet sides, if that makes sense.

[Cabinet Monkey]

Generally they will all be drawers. Where they will be pullouts behind doors is where there are multiple short pullouts behind the doors, and the vertical position of the pullout(s) can be adjusted (like a pantry).. The drawer slides there will be mounted to runners which can be positioned vertically on pairs of notched vertical members attached to the cabinet sides, if that makes sense.

Yes, I’ve seen that before.  I think this is a cleaner look though :

https://www.cshardware.com/cc-xb150w.htm...gJk2vD_BwE


In my view , both types are more trouble than using full width rollouts attached directly to the carcass sides.  You have to use 155deg hinges, but the cleaner look and xtra storage are worth the bigger hinge.

[mound]

Yes, I’ve seen that before.  I think this is a cleaner look though :

https://www.cshardware.com/cc-xb150w.htm...gJk2vD_BwE


In my view , both types are more trouble than using full width rollouts attached directly to the carcass sides.  You have to use 155deg hinges, but the cleaner look and xtra storage are worth the bigger hinge.

Yup, that's essentially what I mean. Nice kit in that link you sent. Why do you need a 155deg hinge? Seems the pull outs would have plenty of clearance. No? Or are you referring to the 155 deg hinge if you DONT use such an adjustable kit?  Yah probably a bit more trouble, but I think for pantry purposes it can be helpful to be able to adjust them for spacing as needed.

[Cian]

I've always used 1/4" thick strips of hardwood glued and brad nailed to edges of cabinet boxes and front edges of shelves: has worked out well.

Same.

[FS7]

I used prefinished edging for my last shelving project, which used 1/2" prefinished plywood.



After ironing the edging, a slight chamfer cleaned up the transition and should prevent any potential issues from dragging and such.

[MstrCarpenter]

The approach I'd recommend would be making a "V"  groove in the edge of the plywood and then cutting what will be the face edge from a compatible solid stock - maple if you're using pre-finished maple plywood - into a triangle which will be slightly wider than the plywood on its face surface glued into the edge of the plywood and then trimmed flush to the surface of the plywood.

I've used the "V" approach a few times for 3/4" shelves. I cut the "V" on the router table with the only special set-up being a 2 x 4 under my featherboard. Filling the V's was easy too. I glued a 3/4 x 3/4 strip  between two shelves then planed one side close to flush. Ripping them apart leaves about 1/16 extra on each shelf. A few passes with a palm sander and they looked like solid boards.

[Cabinet Monkey]

are you referring to the 155 deg hinge if you DONT use such an adjustable kit? 

Yup, exactly.    If your sidewalls are drilled with 32mm holes the rollouts are just as adjustable as one of those “systems”.  Perhaps not as quickly, but still adjustable.    

And the added storage space can come in handy.  There’s also the ability to easily mix and match shelves and rollouts.  With the “systems” shelves can be used , but they become much more complex to fabricate and are very attractive.  

I've used the "V" approach a few times for 3/4" shelves

Except we’re really talking about the edges of the cabinet boxes, not shelves.  And for carcass edges  -  v-grove is a lot more time consuming , material intensive and doesn’t offer a huge benefit.

[MstrCarpenter]

Except we’re really talking about the edges of the cabinet boxes, not shelves.  And for carcass edges  -  v-grove is a lot more time consuming , material intensive and doesn’t offer a huge benefit.

Yes, I completely agree. I was only sharing a technique for a way to save some of that time. Clamping is quick too because the shelves act as cauls so I only used two per pair. I raised the pyl. off the clamps with 1/4" ply. to avoid black glue spots. My applications were for a china cabinet and a wall of bookcases (although not intended to be full of books).

To be honest, I prefer a face frame on Kitchen cabinets and if it was truly custom, each bank of cabinets would have a single face frame.