Well, you have enthusiasm and tools, sounds like an unbeatable combination to me. You will very likely have to buy or make some large clamps, to be used for holding things together while the glue sets. To get a good uniform finish, using stain, its important to prevent glue "squeeze-out" from contaminating the exterior surfaces that are going to be stained. What could go wrong?

Go to E-cabinets and get them to send you the program for free and you can get everything you need there. The program is easy and will build your cabinets (on the computer ):) not in your shop. and no I dont work for them.
Good Luck
Ray

Hey, guys. Thanks. I appreciate the encouragement.

Eric, actually DH just received a pair of 24" Quick Grip clamps and a pair of 36" Quick Grip clamps, and a 6' circumference/perimeter strap angle clamp for Christmas. Guess who gave them to him? ;^D. Oh, and that was after he opened up the Porter Cable air compressor, finish nail gun, brad nail gun, and staple gun. (Polishing my fingernails on my shirt front on that one.) I'm very good to him/us! lol.

Ray, nice tip. I will check them out. You guys make this thing sound actually not only doable, but not so crazy.

Since I posted this, I have fallen in love. I have fallen in love with a cabinet I saw on the Pacific Crest cabinetry site. The drawer front is lyptus, and the door front is lyptus frame with bamboo panel. I've got it so bad I went to bed dreaming about it. (I guess then I would have to agree with the husband on the kitchen forum who says that kitchen design magazines are porn for women! Ha! lol.) Any of you two familiar with working with lyptus? Or know sources for obtaining it, and/or the bamboo veneered panel? We see these cabinets in person on Saturday, and if I go into a catatonic meltdown over them those brothers will have to do some magic to duplicate them.

On the kitchen forum, I was advised that frameless cabinets, which we will be trying for, are especially difficult. That surprised me as there is no extra face frame to deal with. Any thoughts?

Again, you guys are great, and I will look into e-cabinets.

Thanks!
Sherry.

It sounds like you've got a real shot at this, Sherry. My suggestion is that you don't start off trying to do the whole kitchen right away, but first just make one cabinet all the way through finishing, mounting the doors, even setting it up in a room as if you were going to fasten it in place. Neither frameless nor face frame cabinetry is all that complex, but if you've never done it before there are bound to be problems you don't forsee that will become obvious through such an exercise. Better to screw up one cabinet than a dozen or so.

I sort of said this on the kitchen forum.

I don' t have any real woodworking experience, but I would think that frameless would be EASIER--esp. if you're working w/ plywood and not some sort of MDF (since MDF requires special fasteners, but screws will bite right into ply)

A frameless cab is really just 4 boards together--esp. if you do the Ikea trick and use legs for the toekick thingie.

You can make rabbet joints at the ends with a router; or you can do a butt joint if you can be sure you've got a perfect 90-degree angle on the cut. Each has its difficuties and needs certain tools, but not ones most woodworkers don't have.

You can brace them internally, and they'll hold each other up.

If you can set your saw to cut all the side pieces to the exact same height, it won't matter if you're off from the pro's 24" (or whatever) by a bit--as long as EVERY side is off the same distance, your run of cabinets will be level and smooth for your countertop.

I think frameless would be WAY easier than framed. Less cuts. Maybe less forgiving, perhaps, but fewer cuts. And the edges will be thin, and covered w/ edgebanding, so you don't have to be as careful as you would w/ a frame. Only the doors and the end panels (plus moldings, of course) will need to look pretty.

If you can, find a way to see how Ikea cabs are made. There' was a thread on the kitchen forum that showed the mounting strip they use (you don't have to) that shows how the "block" is mounted INSIDE the cabinet, so that the backing is simply tacked to the back, which increases usable internal space, and means less work, frankly--no routing out a channel 1/2 inch in for the back to rest in, and having to put it in before you glue and clamp.

(the "block" is simply a piece of 3/4 stock cut to fit snugly inside the cabinet walls at the top of the cabinet as if it were the back; it comes down about 4 inches. You use this piece to drill through when mounting the cabinet; it forms a "cleat" that the cabinet box rests on.)

(I think Ikea base cabinets don't even have the "rail" that often goes across under the top drawers--though you could add this stabilizing piece easily--no different than a permanently affixed shelf.)

Sherry,

As you haven't gotten much back in the way of practical advice, other than to practice, I suggest a trip to the library. Despite what you have heard, frameless really is harder than framed, you can't get as durable a finish as a pro, the height of your cabinets only matters if you plan to buy appliances, and "perfect 90 degree" cabinets take precise tools and the knowledge to use them. Believe it or not, cabinetmaking is a trade that takes a while to learn and shouldn't be dismissed so lightly. I have no idea what your DH or BIL have in skills, but you should at least have your eyes open. You may have more time then money, but the amount you seem willing to spend on tools, and what you will spend on materials, might buy a lot of local custom cabinet.

Bob, I think the trip to the library is excellent advice. The essential "tool" that can't be bought at HD is familiarity with the materials and techniques for cutting them and sticking them together. When considering all their supposed savings, Sherry and company should certainly weigh the cost of the learning curve. That said, I like seeing people take on a challenge, and I don't feel that industrial-shop standards are always all they've cracked up to be. Yes, square is a very good thing. Visible burn marks from a dull saw blade are better avoided. Conversion varnishes are better than poly, and no matter what they do DH and DBIL are unlikely to even approach the fetishistically flawless finish Sherry undoubtedly saw on the lyptus and bamboo number at the showroom, even if they could get similar woods at a reasonable price, which is also doubtful. Maybe that stuff is all critical. But maybe it isn't. Some friends of mine, a father and son, are college-town landlords. They rent out some of the nicest houses in town, which they can do because they've done the work on them themselves. They've built 35 or 40 kitchens, mosltly of the red oak that is so affordable around here. They're all built with an old table saw, a handheld sander, a pneumatic finish nailer, a router and maybe a small jointer. There's no planer, no widebelt sander, no bandsaw. Everything is brushed with poly. The tools (or lack of them) shows, too. You can see planer marks in the drawer fronts, which are just boards cut to length and the corners rounded. But so what? The drawers open and close, door hinges are plumb, shelves strong and spacious. When you come into one of their kitchens you know it wasn't bought at a big box... but that's a good thing.

Building on Jon's post above, you could give your approval to DH & DBIL to build cabinets for some small room, maybe the laundry room or a half bath.

You can then compare those results with the commercially available options prior to making a final decision.

Mike

So much appreciate the above advice.

If you checked my page you'd see I am a library fixture, practically.

Since I originally posted, DH has faded in his enthusiasm to build the kithen cabinets (thank g*d). I'm going to tell them to go to town with building the workshop in the garage, the cabinets for the office closet, and the cabinets I need in the craft/entertainment room. That should keep them busy.

That said, we are highly interested in two choices of cabinets. (the lyptus and bamboo line's dealer has gone awol, apparently and I don't feel like running him down.) Should I make the finish an element in making my kitchen cabinet decison? One is a local custom guy, very good, very experienced, but stains and "lacquers" as a finish, and as we are in California there are restrictions as to what he can use. The other option is a Canadian manufacturer and they don't have the air-quality restrictions that California, let alone the U.S., do. What happens when a finish isn't as "strong" or "durable" as these conversion varnishes that can be applied across the border?

I for one don't prefer those mirror-fine finishes that make one question whether it's really wood or not. In fact, we are leaning toward the rustic/knotty alder with the custom guy, so the more natural the look the better. And, do you think I could learn/manage the technique of staining and lacquering, to save us some money?

Sorry if I'm hijacking my own post. You guys are great.

Sherry.

Lacquer is a particular finish material, not a technique. It's been around a long time (Post-WW I) and uses solvents that aren't terribly ecofriendly. It is more vulnerable to water, alcohol and harsh cleaners(409 and the like) than poly or conversion varnishes, but there are a lot of laquered kitchens out there and it's not as if you can't cook in them. One plus with lacquer is that, because its molecules don't permanently link as they dry the way varnishes do, it is very easy to repair; new lacquer applied to a damaged area will soften and "melt" into the old finish, creating a seamless repair. Varnishes, conversion or otherwise, don't work that way. Depending on the type you get, it can be sprayed with a gun or brushed on and is fairly easy to work with.

Just for clarity:

Shellac is the waste product of the lac beetle, harvested from the tree branches where the beetle lives, dissolved in alchohol and filtered to varying degrees. It's what makes M&Ms shiny.

Lacquer is a mixture of resin, nitrocellulose and plasticisers, dissolved in a blend of solvents.

Varnish is a specially cooked up mixture of oil and resin that crosslinks as it cures.

Polyurethane is varnish made with a synthetic resin.

Conversion varnish is a mixture of different resins that crosslink quickly when a catalyst is added.

Bob Flexner's "Understanding Wood Finishing" is an excellent introduction to all this stuff.

Yes, you can learn how to stain & finish. The question is, how much effort do you want to put in? The actual processes aren't that hard, but the decisions & tricks involved can lead to a lot of "Next time we'll...".

First, learn if the wood you're using takes stain well. Some absorb stains unevenly and need either another product applied first, or a specialized technique for staining.

Next, pray for cabinets that are made of consistently chosen wood. Heartwood looks different from sapwood of the same species, and takes stain differently.

Next, pick a perfect stain. This is best done by making samples, the bigger the better. If you can get some scraps of the actual wood, great, otherwise try it on places you'll never see.

When you put it on, you generally wipe or brush or spray on a bunch, and then wipe off the excess. Stains don't really get darker with more coats, and you don't want to leave it on heavy, so pick the right color to begin with. Let it dry at least a couple days.

There are even more ways to finish, depending on what equipment you have. Professionals all use spray equipment, because it's easier to get smooth results, it dries very fast, and it's quick to apply. However you do it, you want to do these steps:

Seal the stain with either a special sealer or a thinned coat of the final finish. Sand lightly when dry, with fine paper.

Glaze if you'd like. Again, a special product.

Put at least two coats of finish on, sanding again after the first if necessary. This is also where pros have the benefit of a dust free place to finish. There is usually no need for them to sand after the seal coat.

Some hints: wipe on finishes are easier to get nice and keep from looking like plastic. Use satin only on the last coat if you want it. Oil-based finishes put a yellow cast to things, water-based don't. Finish inside the drawers too. Try to pick products from the same mfr so they are compatible with each other.

There are a million variations, but like anything, if you know your chosen method well, you can get the results you want.

Hi Sherry,

I'd like to make a few comments, since I'm in the wind-up stages of my own cabinet project - with just a couple more doors to build. Mostly, I'd like encourage your HH & DBIL that this type of project is entirely doable. Just don't overload them with your quest for exotic cabinets. I went with face frames & overlapping doors & drawers. That was the only way that I, personally, could make a nice looking cabinet. Inset doors & drawers are tough to make look good (I couldn't)

This type of project takes a LOT of time. If you're in a hurry to get a completed project, that could result in a strained relationship beyween you and the guys. Since you'll have two guys on the project, it won't go nearly so slowly as I working by myself. There are so many times that it is nearly impossible to accomplish the task at-hand with only two hands. But, I did tax DW's patience.

I'm concerned about your desires to have 'exotic' cabinets. You could end up overwhelming their abilities. You asked about baked finishes & 7-step processes. In the long run, you're better of without them. They look good on the showroom floor, but not in your kitchen after a few years take their toll on them.

There is no need (or point) in going to the library. They won't have what you REALLY need for building cabinets. "Building Kitchen Cabinets" (build like a pro series), published by Taunton press, is the best on the market - by far. I could NOT have done it without relying on this book. Another very good one is "Designing and Building Cabinets" (the best of Fine Woodworking series) also published by Taunton Press. The rest are of minimal value (to me, anyway).

Good wood is hard to come by these days, and terribly expensive (for the custom builder too, and he has to make a profit on supplies too). In my opinion, a plywood carcus is the only way to go. Don't get suckered into buying low-quality plywood. There's lots of it around these days. Consider 7-ply (3/4" plywood) to be the minimum standard. Lots of home centers are stocking 5-ply stuff. It will warp like crazy. While we're on the plywood topic, I've found that lots of woodworkers don't know about about plywood router bits. They're slightly undersize so that you get a tight joint fit. These bits are indispensible. You can get them from several sources -I got mine from Rockler.

While we're talking about Rockler (rockler.com), that is also where I order all of my hardware. It's mostly good quality (probably not premium quality), and it's what I can afford. They also offer handy jigs for installing some of their hardware (drawer slides, knobs, etc.). These jigs are invaluable for the non-pro (me).

You've got a lot of tools & clamps, but not all of what you need. I didn't see any pipe clamps on your list. I have a wall-full, and it wasn't enough of them. I didn't have any 8-footers, and I sure did need them. You'll want random-orbit sanders & corner sanders. You'll want to stock up on saw blades & router bits. The time to swap them out is while they're still cutting good! it saves a horrendous amount of sanding. You'll need a router table. Most purchased tables are intended for craft projects and not nearly long enough for cabinet work. I built an 8-footer, using plywood (for the fence too). You'll need agood shop vac. I accumulated a BIG black trash bag full of sawdust. I also put in drop cords, by hanging extension cords from the rafters.

Expect to make a LOT of design changes on-the-fly. You'll find that no matter how much preliminary research you do, you'll still make changes. DW made dozens of them. That's where the the DIY project really shines. It would cost you a small fortune to make those changes with a custom builder.

Expect to see some scrap. Not everything that built turned out the way DW hoped. Your DH & DBIL will figure out better ways to do things as the project commences. They (or you) may want to tear previously built stuff apart to make those improvements. That costs time & wood.

All in all, I would encourage any DIY couple to undertake such a project. You can afford to buy top-notch tools and all the supplies twice, and still come out FAR ahead of hiring a custom builder. You will need a LOT of patience, though. If you lack that, a custom builder is the ONLY way to go.

Larry (who has a horse farm with DW).

Here is a link that might be useful: Best cabinet book for DH & DBIL

Sherry, a couple of points that I failed to include in my first post:

Pocket joinery is the best way (in my opinion) to join both the carcase and the face frames. Kreg is the brand to get. You can buy it lots of places; I got mine at Eagle-America (eagle-america.com). I have both the pro pak and the rocket system (#400-3160). If you can only afford one, go with the rocket system ($60). The right-angle clamp (#448-6204) and face clamp (#448-6206) are also invaluable.

Eagle-America has the best arched door templates (#401-1202) for example; they have several styles.

I didn't dove-tail the drawers - takes way too much time. I used a 45-degree locking miter joint (bit #192-2812).

I also found that 1/2" drawer bottoms worked the best. Thinner was just too flimsy.

Sorry for being so long-winded,

Larry

Here is a link that might be useful: Locking Miter

Hey Sherry,

Since you seem to have most of the tools covered, the hard part is experience. I've been working with tools all my life and ran a contracting business for several years. I am currently in the midst of a complete renovation of a home my wife and I recently purchased.

I've done most of the work myself, however, I try to know when to step aside and hire a specific contractor for certain jobs as I've learned that with some jobs, you can't replace a pro's 15 years' experience. Our electrical panel upgrade was one such job.

Another was the kitchen cabinets. They're not that hard to build, but can be difficult to install correctly. We hired a specialist company and their installer did a perfect job installing them. They're all lined up perfectly and all the doors/hinges are perfect. No easy task given our kitchen walls are far from true. The installer had over 17 years' experience installing cabinets and it showed in the final product.

To try and get that level of craftsmanship your first time through will be very difficult and there will be plenty of "challenges" and learning curves. The question is - do you want to do this experiment on your own home?

Anyway, not trying to dampen your spirits, perhaps your DH and DBIL are very experienced woodworkers, but I suppose my final point is that it can be frustrating and unrealistic to do a job yourself and expect a professional result.

Good luck!

What a crew of helpers I've got here. Wow. This is one for the Save file!

I'm on both sides of the fence here. I really want us to learn to do some good woodworking, yet I'm not ready to have it be learned on the kithen cabinets.

We went out to look at the local custom guy's shop and the cabinets that he is currently building. Although he does face-frame instead of frameless like I had originally wanted, I could not disagree that his stuff was amazingly sturdy, solid, and the finishes were beautiful - and this was not in a beautifully lit and comfy showroom but out on the back acre. In addition, he is encouraging me to "think out side the box" and not be hemmed in to the stock cabinet sizes I'm used to planning around. (If I want a 20 3/4" by 25 5/8" four drawer cabinet without toe kick and locking casters, I can get it for the same price as a 21" by 24" regular base cabinet.) So while these might not by my exotic forever cabinets, this is not my forever house, neither.

What about the boys??? They will have plenty to do with building the garage set up, building cabs for the office, for the entertainment and craft room, for the laundry area. And in the meantime DH will gain the expertise for perhaps tackling a custom kitchen once we get into the forever house.

BTW, I forgot to mention, we do have four six-foot bar clamps, and an orbital sander.

Again, thanks for lending all your experience.
Sherry

You seem to be interested in trying your hand at finishing. I'd suggest you start with a piece of furniture or a free-standing piece for you kitchen. It's sort of daunting to finish an entire kitchen's worth of cabs and doors, front and back. More fun and can lead to bigger things when you start small. I refinished a ton of garage sale furniture and unfinished stuff when we were first married and learned a lot about the characteristics of various woods. You begin to learn to avoid pieces with a lot of sap wood if you can (which is the reason I hate most of the kitchen cabs I see...they don't mill the wood to cut this off of cherry or other woods which gives that very light strippy effect). You also learn how to overcome the blotchiness in cherry, birch and pine with certain staining techniques. Try using some Watco Oil Stain on some scraps or small items to see how you like that. Anyway, I love finishing furniture and am notorious for figuring I can do any job with enough research, BUT a lot of skills come with actually doing the work while the hints you read can be tried out as you progress. Some of them suck! Start small and build up.

Susan, thanks for the pointers. I appreciate the info. Good advice.

If you *do* go w/ framed, bcs you want this guy, talk to him about how he can minimize the lose of space in the drawers (base drawers are where it really hits you--that and the center stile, which can be eliminated on most cabinets except the extremely wide).

Maybe he can make a 1-inch frame, which would save you some space.

Back Yard Guy I am delignted to see your posts about building your kitchen cabinets. Lots of good info in these posts. A couple of days ago I checked out "Building Traditional Kitchen Cabinets", "Designing and Building Cabinets", "Building Kitchen Cabinets", and "Making Kitchen Cabinets" all published by Taunton. I agree with you Taunton books are very good.

My plan is to make one cabinet - probably the corner base with a lazy susan or just shelves, or??? to see how it all goes. That should either encourage me or be the end of the idea. I inherited my saw from my Dad, a 1937 Delta. Not a lot of bells and whistles but an interesting instruction book. A part on making molding with just the saw blade which though interesting, I am definitely not going to do. I have some other tools also.

My questions are:

What do you DIYers think about the products that can be purchased to make drawers - like Blum - that just require a drawer front? Have you used any? If so what brands? Would increase the price but probably speed things up.

Have you run into any custom craftsman doors?

Where do you look for wood supplies? We had an island built that is a combination of paint grade maple plywood, MDF, alder and hemlock.

We are going to have more drawers than doors - because we like drawers better.

Forgot to say - this house is a bungalow - inset doors and overlay drawers.

Can't think of anything else to ask right now. I'm going to read the design book and rework my design.

Appreciate the posts.

Edwena

Sorry up front if this is posted somewhere but I couldn't find anything. I HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM! I just had my soapstone countertops installed about a month ago and I LOVE them. Yesterday, after a very long awaited 2 weeks, I finally got what I thought was the PERFECT choice for my backsplash which is a creamy/yellowy crackle tile. I still love the tile with the backsplash but I realize that it doesn't look good with my cherry cabinets and light oak wood flooring. It clashes with the floor and there are too many colors going on.

My designer friend really thinks we need to paint my cabinets black and that it's the new thing. I think it's a good idea and I know I've seen black furniture around for a long time, but not black cabinetry. She has seen model homes starting to do this in the upper end neighborhoods here in the east bay area of the SF bay area in Cal. but it scares me. I do love black but that's a lot of black. On the other hand, I'm not sure I have much of a choice since I can't refinish my floors and stain it darker because I found out that Mannington flooring is not a flooring that makes that possible. And even if I did change the flooring color, it still wouldn't look right with maple cabinets in a cherry stain.

I wish I could send some really clear pictures that would really show what I mean but I don't think it would work and I dont' know how to post them. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated since I really respect peoples opinions here.

THANKS IN ADVANCE,

Randigirl

Randigirl, I love matte, aged, black cabinets, not glossy black. But to go through all that painting even if you're not the one doing it because you like a certain tile seems backwards to me. And if your soapstone in on the darky gray side, black cabinets I think would loose their impact. If you do decide you want to paint the cabinets, I would go with something that coordinated with the tiles you love so much - maybe a glazy aged creamy yellow to match, but throw in some sort of other color (a reddy rust, or a sagey green) first so it shows through the distressed parts - if you're going with the distressed look.

Personally, no tile would make me paint cherry cabinets.

edwena: I had Ikea cabinets w/ those sorts of drawers--the drawer box was a metal side, w/ particle-board bottom; slides were part of the metal sides. I'm sure they were Blum--all of Ikea's hardware it--but I don't know if they were the MetaBox or not. They would be 15 years old by now.

They were great! Plenty of interior room--very little lost to the construction of the drawer box itself. The slides functioned very, very well.

Shezzy,

I just got back from a little vacation and read your post. I know it seems awful to paint my cabinets and I would love to paint them a creamy color, but I'm afraid it wouldn't look right with my pinky toned floors. It's too light of a color. If they were cherry cabinets instead of maple, there's no way I'd even consider painting them, but painting maple cabinets doesn't seem like too big of a crime to me.

I think I'll make my decision after I go see these models my designer friend has been telling me about with black cabinetry. I need to see things in person.

ANYWAY, THANKS for taking the time,

Randigirl

Best of luck to you on your cabinet building project.

When my wife and I first got married we bought a house that needed a new kitchen. Having a little wood dust in my blood I volunteered to build some new ones; seemed like a great way to get some new tools to enter the marriage with.

I got to building a few cabinets and then decided to tear out the soffit which left a big gaping hole looking into the attic (got covered in insulation too).

Having bearly acquired my junior woodworker's diploma, I now had to think about hole-filling and plaster work; neither were on the original agenda.

I called my father to come to the rescue and help fill the hole which he quickly agreed to do. The next weekend he showed-up and we stared at that gaping hole for the better part of two days. He went home Sunday and we still had a hole.

That was just the first of several surprises in the project. A mere 9 months later we finally had a kitchen again and lucky for me it within about a month of my new bride threatening annullment! She was an understanding soul for quite awhile...

Now with another 20 years of maturity under my belt, I've learned there are some things best left to the pros and significant home remodeling ranks right up there. They come in and get the job done quickly and with lots better quality; no surprises they haven't seen, or can't deal with quickly.

Of course if you are not married, or are looking for a way out of the marriage, it doesn't really matter!!

Have been building cabinets for myself a few years, latest are bath vanity and matching linen cab with medicine cab to follow. Have pared down tools I used to table saw with panel cutter and Incra miter gauge, table mounted router and most importantly, a Kreg Jig pocket hole cutter. No clamps,no waiting and good strong joints, I use it on the cabs and the face frames and the doors.

If I could afford it, there's a small mill and cabinet shop not far from here who does outstanding work, and is accustomed to making cabs for really old houses with odd needs.

My kitchen is such an odd room I'd have to spend a fortune to have even simple cabs built. I can't afford it, so I'm doing it myself. This is an old house with many additions, and a kitchen that has 8 door openings and 1970s stuff done to it. After living with it for two years, I pretty well have figured out how to make it a workable kitchen without doing any major structural changes.

Many decades ago, my parents bought an old house with a kitchen my mother could not use because of the height of the counters and cabinets (she was even tinier than I am). My dad, his only power tool a rotary saw borrowed from my grandfather, built her a beautiful kitchen that fit her on what had been the back porch (the original kitchen became an informal eating space). Lots and lots of clamps.

My dad taught me how to use tools and do finish work. I'm not a master craftsman and if I hadn't learned as much as I did, I think this thread would intimidate me out of trying. I guess I could get myself worked up thinking I needed all kinds of tools and gadgets and special techniques. (I do have a few more power tools than my dad did, though!)

The cabinets will be built in place because, well, all the measurements are odd. No biggie. My brother IS a master cabinetmaker, who unfortunately lives 3000 miles away, but he has no doubt I can build cabinets (he's even given me a few more hints on how to simplify things).

I have no need for fancy cabinets and they wouldn't look good in my old house anyway. But if that's what I really wanted, I think I could do it.

I wouldn't let my sil do it, though. He's one of those guys who thinks he knows more than he does. I watched him tape and mud drywall in their living room, he wouldn't take any suggetions from me (I trained with a master drywaller). What a mess. After that, the only thing I'll let him do is jack up the corner of my barn so we can put in a new sill.

I'm 5 feet tall, weigh 105#, I've put in foundations, built additions, converted a garage, completely reroofed two houses, and now, in my 60s, am in the midst of reclaiming a sadly neglected old Victorian (not, I hasten to add, one of the big, fancy ones-- just a little house with a lot of charm). Yes, I am crazy. It's ok, though.

Hello and Happy New Year.
I'm also building kitchen cabinets.Being a toolmaker it will be familiar in many respects;start and stay square.I've also invested (as you did)in the best of tools;
Intn'l table saw (left tilt)Festool panel saw w/vacuum,2
routers;fixed and portable,planer,jointer,and all the rest
of the tools.I've already built the carcasses out of birch ply:dadoes,glue & screwed.3/4" stock.birch face.My next cabinet carcass is the lazy Susan.I'm investigating some of the new ideas with that cabinet other than the Susan.
Does anyone have any experience with these new builds?
Also,I'm stumped on the countertop to buy;granite,prefab,
etc.Also, I was going to build the upper cabinets 15" deep
opposed to the std. 12.The std. depth seems a bit shallow,
and as my kitchen is small,the extra depth will help.I'm also visiting the box stores & custom cabinet shops for ideas.One which is to build a bottom wide draw 5" high under the sink base:great for large flat items.I've invested also in many cabinet books from Amazon...most Taunton Press.They are great!When my retirement comes in 1 year,I'm planning on building simple furniture, and see where that goes.This website is great!
Paul

Built my own kitchen four years ago (I cheated, my son owned a cabinet shop at the time.)

If you haven't already fiished, you need a Kreg Jig set for pocket-hole joinery for the cabs. You can get a good, versatile set for between $110 and $150, depending on how carefully you shop. Try www.internationaltool.com

Mike