rob.hough

So the girlfriend decided she wanted wall cabinets mounted above the toilets in our bathrooms. Her kids and I have one thing in common for sure... All three of us are slobs!

Anyways she spotted this thing at one of those bed/bath shops that I've dubbed... "Sheets & Sh!t". It runs $80 and the picture below is what you get.




I was looking at the box and saw that it was made from 1/2" MDF. I was like... For $80 I should be able to make 2 of those things and still have wood left over. Well... She took that dumb statement of mine and put it to task.

Last night I bought a sheet of 1/2" 4'x8' MDF, one 4'x8' sheet of 1/4 hardboard, some cabinet knobs and handles, paint and primer. The paint and hardware was the most expensive bits of the group. I've got plenty of primery to cover 5-6 of these cabinets, lol.

I drew this up in sketch up last night. This is a spin-off from the design she was looking at. We made it a little longer and deeper than the original. We also did away with the visible shelf. I might actually alter the cabinet that is going in our bathroom to include the visible shelf, I'm still on the fence about that. You can click the image for a larger version.



I'm plan on joining the top to the sides with rabbet joints. Not sure it's necessary for this project but I need the practice anyways. The shelves will fit into a dado cut on both sides. I think this will help me line things up. The center divider... I don't think a dado is necessary there but I might actually use one anyways. Again - I think the added practice can't hurt (unless I get my fingers in the way!)

The two cubbies will be individual drawers. Those, I think, will be the hardest thing for me to build. The open space underneath will actually have a bar extending the width of the cabinet to be used as a towel holder.

I didn't think about it at the time but MDF doesn't really seem to take to screws very well. Any advice on securing the hinges and any advice on the types of hinges to use?

I've got the bulk cuts out of the way. In doing so I've decided that my next real power tool is going to be a dust collection system, and a respirator is on my xmas list now. Today I'm cutting all the joints and gluing this thing up. I told the girlfriend that if I don't have enough clamps (I might mysteriously need more, hehe) then I'm gonna be due an early xmas present. :)

The guy I bought my saw from was supposed to have a dado set for me. He couldn't find the blades but said he'd get them to me when he did. Well he found them and said I could come get them any time. This project would be put those to use today but after reading a previous post about Craftsman dado's... Not sure I want to bother with. I've got straight bits for my router. I might stick with those.

aclose

Rob,

i like your design. i'm gonna have to play with Sketch-up and figure out how to use it. are the tutorials fairly helpful? or do you just have to spend a lot of time playing with it to figure it out?

as for screwing into MDF, i think you're right, it won't hold screws like 'real' wood will. there are plenty of options though. you could glue hardwood trim along the edges of the MDF that you'll be screwing into. if you're going to paint it, you could use pine or poplar. i believe you can get screw inserts for MDF, kinda like the drywall plugs you'd use to hang pictures and things on a wall. you could drill out 1/4" holes and plug them with dowel that you'd screw into. the easiest would probably be using the wood edging though.

andy

rob.hough

Thanks for the tips. I'll have to think about them a bit and figure it out. I hadn't even considered some of those.

As for Sketch-up... I need to visualize what I'm doing and I can't draw to save my life, so it's the best tool I've been able to find at it's price. The tutorials are what I used to get started. It's really pretty simple for basic stuff. Everything else came from just playing around with it. I'm sure there are tons of features I haven't even tapped into yet. Probably for the better. I tend to play around in it far too much.

rob.hough

ok, using 1/2" mdf wasn't the best game plan. Trying to find a hinge that will work has been the bane of my existence. :(

neoshed

How about those edge type hinges that screw to the underside of the door? I think they call them knife hinges?

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frankp

Maybe it's just me but it looks like the doors in your picture are actually "hinged" with dowels. IE one dowel at the base of the door and one at the top. You should be able to drill into the MDF and glue (somehow) the dowels into place and drill mating sockets in the doors for the dowels.

Is it too late for that option?

rob.hough

Not too late at all. That's a pretty good suggestion. We're going to mount the cabinet without doors for now, but it's a problem I'd like to resolve. I've got some scrap mdf left. I'll setting up a doweled hinge and see how that works.

natemclain

How did it turn out?
Got any pictures?

I bought one like this from Lowe's a month ago. Very cheap design, I kick myself for it now. But the wife wanted something over the john and she wasn't waiting. :-)