How attach cabinet face frame to carcass?

[wayne86]

How do you best mount a cabinet face frame?

I have already made a carcass and it has raised panels on both sides. I now want to use a face frame to mount 3 doors (previously was just going to edge mount). How should I attach the face frame so that I dont have to drill or mar up the raised panel sides? The side railes are about 2" wide using 3/4" oak.

I was just going to build the face frame as a unit then attach to carcass. Face frame will probably be about 1.5" wide using 3/4" oak. I have a biscuit cutter I could use to biscuit around the edge of the carcass w/matching cuts in back of frame, then glue and clamp. But since there would be constant weight of doors/frame pulling frame away in line with the bisquits, it doesnt seem like the bisquits provide much strength in that orientation and its all glue for strength with no mechanical attachment.

Thanks for any tips.

[Upscale]

You're likely to get a number of suggestions, many of them being biscuits, but my preference is a blind nailing kit which with a little practice works extremely well in my opinion.

[Leon]

If the carcass is solid wood, just glue the face frame on.

[Swingman]

The "strength" provided by the proper glue without mechanical fastening will be the least of your worries.

Since you are doing it as an afterthought, you will very much appreciate the "alignment" that carefully placed biscuits will provide when mounting a FF on a carcase.

Besides biscuits, there are as many ways to attach a FF as there are to make one ... among them splines, pocket hole screws, dadoes/grooves, dowels, and the time honored, but much maligned these days, finish nail.

And, as Leon says, glued wood to wood should provide sufficient strength, combined with any of these methods, or in many cases, by itself.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Biscuits won't add strength but will help alignment of you think it will be a problem. More hassle than worth in my shop.

You can use pocket screws from inside th cabinet into the back of the frame if you have a portable pocket screw setup. I've seen lots of these done with just glue. The shop I am in has two big racks of pipe clamps just for this purpose.

Lots o' guys use finish nails but being a furniture person I just hate to see that but it is done in production of pretty highend kitchens every day.

wayne86 wrote:

[dan cordes]

Hi Wayne,

The best way is pocket screws. Very easy and very clean to use. I just finished a book case and the are wonderful. I use the Kreg set up. You can get these at Menards or the specialty shops.

[wayne86]

no duh

[lwasserm]

The biscuits will do fine. I've used them to install lots of face frames, though usually I will assemble the frame on to the case piece by piece rather than as a unit. If the back of the cabinet hasn't been installed yet, and if the design will hide the holes on the inside, pocket holes & screws might be an option.

[Joe Bemier]

I agree with Leon. Much of the work I do these days I use only a brad nailer along with glue. I've had people question the practice however, a decent glue joint is stronger that the wood itself. The brads are simply to hold position until the adhesive cures. Also, keep in mind that biscuits have a number of benefits. In this case a bicuit would increase the adhesive surface area.

[B A R R Y]

Please add me to the chorus.

[Joe Bemier]

Which chorus..? Do you disagree with the glue only method?

[B A R R Y]

The glue is fine group.

[arw01]

For the two sets of face frames I've made up, I used dowels and dowel centers to mark the locations on the face frames. Then glue was used to hold them on.

BUT if I was doing a whole kitchen I would look at pocket hole attachement as that would allow someday a simple face frame and door upgrade to the kitchen.

If one used dowels or biscuits, I suppose a one side flush cut off saw could be used to severe the face frame from the cabinets.

Alan

[B A R R Y]

I agree with you and Leon, as I quoted. Sorry for the confusion!

[Doug Miller]

Add my voice to the chorus, too -- and I'll also point out that the carcase doesn't need to be solid wood, either. Even if the carcase is melamine-covered particle board, glue-only still works just fine. Before actually doing this, to test the concept, I glued (Titebond II) a scrap of cherry to the edge of a piece of melamine PCB and allowed the glue to cure for

36 hours. Then I tried to remove the cherry, first with my fingers, then with a hammer. The glue joint held, and the wood broke.