Inset cabinet

The space

A 30" wide spot against a wall, filled wall to wall by one cabinet 34 1/2" high and 24" deep. In the wizard: Cabinets, a run width of 30, Wall to wall, then one cabinet in Sections at 30 × 34 1/2 × 24. Those sizes are the outside of the box; the face frame goes on its front.

The decisions

Each one is a wizard answer. Most were already filled in with a sensible value; these are the ones that make this cabinet.

• Stock. 3/4" birch plywood for the carcass and the doors, 1/4" birch plywood for the back, and 3/4" hard maple for the face frame, typed in the Stock step under Solid wood, Face frames: its species and thickness.
• Construction: face frame, with stiles and rails 1 1/2" wide, the frame flush with the sides.
• Top: a full top panel.
• Back: in a rabbet along the back edge of each side.
• Toe kick: notched into the sides, 4" high and 3" back.
• Shelves: one fixed shelf, its height left empty so the wizard spaces it evenly. The install notes give the height it chose.
• Fronts: two doors, inset, with a 1/8" gap all round, made from the front stock. Inset doors sit inside the face frame's opening, so the wizard sizes each door from the opening less that gap.
• Joinery: the Joinery step's first answers: the bottom and the top in 3/8" dadoes (at the top edge the wizard cuts it as a rabbet), the fixed shelf in a 1/4" dado, the back in a 3/8" rabbet, and pocket screws for the face frame.

Step back through the wizard

Open the example, then choose Edit design in the top bar (on a phone it is in the More menu, the ⋯ button). The wizard opens on its last step, Review, with every answer in place. The steps sit above it, each with a one-line summary: 1 What are you building, 2 Stock, 3 Sections, 4a Cabinet 1 (the cabinet's own questions), 5 Joinery and 6 Review. Tap any step to open it and see the answer that made each number.

The face frame's answers are in Cabinet 1's step (4a), under Construction: Stile width, Rail width and Frame sits. The doors are under Fronts, where the inset style asks for the Gap all round instead of overlays.

Change an answer and the drawings follow as you type: beside the steps on a wide screen, or below them under Drawings on a phone. Generate cut listPro makes the parts again and lays them out on the sheets. If you have moved or changed parts by hand since, the wizard asks first: Keep my changes updates the sizes and leaves your layout, Find the best layout again starts the layout over. Back to planner closes the wizard; your answers are kept, and no part changes until you press Generate cut list.

Free can open every example and look through all of its answers; changing a wizard example and generating it again is Pro.

The cut list

The plywood parts first, then the lumber list. Stiles and rails are solid wood, so they are never nested on a sheet: each line is a length, width and thickness with its species. In Cut mode they appear under their own Lumber heading, to tick off like any part.

Install notes

1. Cabinet 1, left side. Dado for the bottom, dadoes for fixed shelves at 14 3/16" from the top of the bottom panel; rabbet along the back edge for the back.
2. Cabinet 1, right side. Dado for the bottom, dadoes for fixed shelves at 14 3/16" from the top of the bottom panel; rabbet along the back edge for the back.
3. Cabinet 1, bottom. Sits in a dado in both sides, raised 4" for the toe kick.
4. Cabinet 1, top. Sits in a rabbet in both sides, flush with the top.
5. Cabinet 1, bay 1, fixed shelf. Sits in 1/4" dado in left side and right side, 14 3/16" from the bottom. Front edge flush.
6. Cabinet 1, back. Sits in the rabbet.
7. Cabinet 1, bay 1, door 1. Inset in the opening; 1/8" gap all round. Hinges on the left.
8. Cabinet 1, bay 1, door 2. Inset in the opening; 1/8" gap all round. Hinges on the right.
9. Cabinet 1, face frame stile. Pocket screws to the neighbouring frame parts; attach to the carcass with pocket screws.
10. Cabinet 1, face frame rail. Pocket screws to the neighbouring frame parts; attach to the carcass with pocket screws.

The sheets

The plywood parts nested with Max yield, a 1/8" kerf left open between them. The grain arrow marks the parts locked to the grain: the sides and the doors.

The drawings

The front shows the face frame and the inset doors inside it; the section shows the box from the side, with the toe-kick notch; the plan is the view from above. They print with the shop report.

Build order

1. Break down the plywood, following the sheet layouts, and cut the maple stiles and rails from the lumber list. Tick each one off in Cut mode.
2. Cut the toe-kick notch at the bottom front corner of each side, 4" high and 3" deep, making the sides a mirrored pair.
3. Cut the dadoes for the bottom and the fixed shelf, and the rabbets for the top and the back, from the install notes.
4. Glue up the box: bottom, fixed shelf and top between the sides. Square it by the diagonals and fit the back.
5. Build the face frame: the rails between the stiles, pocket-screwed from the back. Check that it is square, as wide as the box and as tall as the box above the toe kick.
6. Fasten the face frame to the front of the box with pocket screws, flush with the sides and the top, its bottom edge level with the top of the toe-kick notch.
7. Fit the doors last. Each one goes inside the frame's opening with a 1/8" gap all round; if the opening is a hair out of square, plane the door's edge to keep the gap even. Hang them, one hinged on the left and one on the right.

Make it yours

Open the cabinet, choose Edit design and try a wider stile, or switch the doors to overlay to see what changes. The how-tos walk through the wizard.

• Work out the sizes from a bare wall
• Pick your joints: dado, rabbet, groove, butt, pocket screws
• Mark parts off as you cut (on your phone)
• Print the shop report and part labels

Open this example