Cabinets and shelves

[grampahol]

Man! I've been staying busy of late. I took on a working partner and we're picking up customers over in gazillionaire acres in million dollar houses. Most of the houses are just a year or so old so they're wanting plenty of additions and customized closets and pantries.. We're about to rip out and replace a 15 foot pantry the customer already paid some chain closet and pantry company over $32000 to put in and everything we build is customized and built to last a long time. The junk we're ripping out was cheap MDF, knock together junk and we're putting in custom drawers and shelving they can pile tons of canned goods on top of..
The shelves are all free floating shelves with their own inner structure to make them strong enough for most anything they want to put in.. In addition a full 10x10 closet with 32 custom drawers and shelves all the way up the 12 foot ceiling.. We're having a hard time just keeping plywood in stock now..We have an account with the biggest cabinet supply house in the states so the plywood the public would pay over $80 per sheet we buy for about $52 per. .We just priced premade drawers @ over $100 each. We're paying $52 for material that makes 8 36" drawers with scrap left over and charging under $75 per and making out ok.. 
Just getting started..We hope to build a new shop by the end of the year and a delivery truck wouldn't be out of the question..
My only problem is I'm getting kind of old and I can barely pick up a sheet of plywood anymore..I'm strongly thinking about getting my grandson down here and teach him the business.. My shop is getting smaller and smaller with every piece of scrap wood I hang onto..lol
I started out with a cheap ass ryobi table saw just a few years ago and now I'm pretty much setup to build cabinets for million dollar homes..
Life is good!  My legs are not.. OH well..

[masonbengals fan]

Sounds like your grandson would be a big help to you & possibly setting up a future career for himself. If he's interested in that line of work.

[reuben.ahmed]

I'm happy with my Ikea Billy Cabinets that cost about $400. I think richer people would consider my cabinets junk, but they are functional. And also I find rich people save money and poor people spend it, I'm somewhere in between.

[grampahol]

(02-20-2023, 07:22 PM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: I'm happy with my Ikea Billy Cabinets that cost about $400. I think richer people would consider my cabinets junk, but they are functional. And also I find rich people save money and poor people spend it, I'm somewhere in between.
https://nextdoor.com/p/63sGCtWp8ckd?utm_source=share&extras=NTExMDEzNjk%3D

Looks good..The only problem I have with 3/4"  shelves is over time weight will eventually make them sag. We usually build a small plywood frame under them, about an inch or so,  cap the top with 1/2" ply and 1/4 under the frame and a facing to hide the frame...The frame is just strips of 3/4" plywood joined with glue and pin nails, sometimes a shallow dado housing for the cross pieces for a bit of extra strength. Makes the shelves thicker and a whole lot stronger.  Turn plywood (the shelf framing) on its edge and it doesn't sag to the typical weight people put on their shelving..
We're building a lot of pantry shelves and people like to pile lots of canned goods on them and canned goods get heavy stacked 4 and 5 deep..
Any way.. A bunch of drawers for someone's extreme closet..How many closets have 32 drawers? I don't think we have a single drawer in any closets here at home..lol
https://nextdoor.com/p/63sGCtWp8ckd?utm_source=share&extras=NTExMDEzNjk%3D

[reuben.ahmed]

I was thinking of putting drawers on the bottom of these, but I don't know why, lol. Hopefully these don't sag, but they are only 3/4".

[grampahol]

All those shelves for two clear plates and a small box of some random stuff? Man, that's living a frugal lifestyle.. LOL 

[samhain]

(02-20-2023, 07:22 PM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: I'm happy with my Ikea Billy Cabinets that cost about $400. I think richer people would consider my cabinets junk, but they are functional. And also I find rich people save money and poor people spend it, I'm somewhere in between.

I have similar ones.  Such a massive pain in the ass to clean when you actually have stuff on those shelves.

[reuben.ahmed]

(03-12-2023, 10:02 PM)samhain Wrote: I have similar ones.  Such a massive pain in the ass to clean when you actually have stuff on those shelves.

Can always use the ugly glass doors they sell that are inexpensive lol.

[grampahol]

Drawers are fairly simple to build, just boxes..Fitting them properly can be a bit of a pain. I typically use full extension slides so if you use them make the drawer box exactly 1" smaller than the openings...Slides are 1/2" thick, one on each side. When you go to screw them in cut a couple scraps of plywood to make spacers and make sure you have two the exact same size. There's no hard, fast rule about the location of the slides, top, middle or bottom of the drawer box, but most people put them at the bottom of the drawer. Make sure that you place the slides exactly, EXACTLY in the same location relative to the drawer box and the front of the shelf wall so when you close the drawer you don't get one side sticking out or unsightly lateral racking. Luckily slides have slotted holes so there is a bit of play to adjust them about 1/8" or so.. With any luck at all the drawer opening is nice and perfectly square to begin with.. Square is important in furniture building.. The real fun is the drawer facings.. That's when you pretty it all up and hope you get it  right. :thumbsup: We just spent a month getting 32 drawers installed straight..Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong, but it's done and we'll hopefully get paid today or tomorrow. 

[grampahol]

(03-13-2023, 10:29 AM)reuben.ahmed Wrote: Can always use the ugly glass doors they sell that are inexpensive lol.

Wood doors hide all your crap better..lol Last time I checked wood isn't transparent..Glass on the other hand typically is..and you can trim a wood door just in case the opening is ever so slightly not square..glass? Ever try trimming 1/4" off the edge of tempered glass? Good luck!