Video Transcript
Introduction
It's a glorious day here at Cabinet Joint. I'm Justin, and in today's video, I'm going to show you how to assemble a frameless base three-drawer cabinet. The same principles will apply with the rest of your base frameless cabinets as well.
Tools and Supplies
On screen are the tools you'll need for this assembly. Once you have those tools ready, we can get right into the assembly.
Assembly
First things first, I'm going to take both of my cabinet sides and place them mirrored to each other. That way, I know I have the correct orientation. Then, I'm going to grab my drawer glides and lay them out, once again making sure that they are all facing the right direction.
Once I have those laid out, I can take my Euro screws that will be provided with your cabinets. In every single hole that will already be pre-drilled, I'm going to install those Euro screws, connecting the glides to the cabinet side.
I'm going to repeat that same process on each of the six drawer glides that you see here.
Once all those screws are in, I'm going to put a little dab of glue in all of the dowel holes that are pre-drilled, only on one side of the cabinet. I'm also going to go and put the Titebond II down the back groove. Then I'm going to place the spreader strips in first, and then I'm going to place my cabinet bottom in.
With those installed on my cabinet bottom, I'm once again going to install some wood glue up that groove and then place my ¼" back panel in, making sure everything fits together nicely.
And then I'm going to come to the other cabinet side and place glue in those dowel holes once again, as well as that back groove. Once all of that is glued up, this needs to be a quick maneuver to make sure you don't get wood glue all over the place.
I'm going to quickly flip up my cabinet side onto the dowel holes. And then, once everything's lined up, I can just give it a simple pound, and everything should align in place.
With everything aligned, I'm going to take the longer wood screws that will come with your cabinets, and I will screw together the cabinet sides to the bottom and the spreader strips using those pre-drilled holes that are already made. It will be one hole per spreader strip and then three across the bottom.
Once I have all those screws installed on one side, I'm going to flip it over and do the exact same thing, once again installing screws where it's pre-drilled.
Then, with all of those screws in, I can move to our cabinet back. Taking those back spreader strips, I will get them into place: one all the way on the bottom of the back and then one all the way on the top.
And then, taking the 1¼" pocket screws, I can go and install each pocket screw in their pockets. So, with this size cabinet, we have six holes that we are screwing into. With a larger one, you might have more.
This is where it's helpful to have a longer square-head bit because you're able to get a more shallow angle as you're screwing that in, and it's easier then to screw in your pocket screws. What this is doing is giving the cabinet rigidity, as well as pinching that back panel into place to make sure it will never go anywhere.
And then, taking one of those 2" screws, I just eyeball the center and I will screw in the back strip into that top strip of your cabinet, since you aren't able to pocket screw like you are on the bottom. This attaches your back strip into that top strip.
Then, once that's done, I'm going to flip to the bottom of the cabinet and install our toekick backer. I'm going to wedge it into place and then, once again, using those 1¼" pocket screws, screw those in to the cabinet sides as well as the bottom.
A little pro tip here: I like to leave my toekick backer a little proud of the cutout because that screw is at an angle. As you tighten that screw, it will actually suck it in flush. So, don't start out with it flush. Leave your toekick backer just a little proud.
And then, once all my screws are in, I'm going to take a wet rag and clean up any wood glue that's seeped into the interior of our cabinet because it's easier to clean up now than it is later. So, with a wet rag, just wiping off any excess glue in the interior of that cabinet.
And now, moving on to our drawer boxes, you're going to take those Blum orange undermount drawer glide clips, and there are two pre-drilled holes on the front of your drawer box. Then, lining them up with your clips, take the smaller of the screws that will come in that pack, attaching your clips to your drawer box.
I'm going to do this step on each of the three drawer boxes.
And now I'm going to mark out where to drill in the front of our drawer box in order to connect it to the drawer front itself. These will be the locations that we will then end up drilling for our drawer front.
So, I'm using a ¼" drill bit here, and I am making that oversized. That way, we'll have some adjustment.
Then, on your drawer fronts, there will be a green sticker. That green sticker is to represent the back. And then each drawer will get a different measurement as you lay it out.
So, for the top drawer that you're seeing here, I am measuring 1" from the bottom of the front. And then I'm going to measure ⅞" from either side. But then, with those marks, you can lay out your box and orient it with your marks that you just made.
And then, using a 1¼" GRK screw, you can attach the drawer box to the drawer front. And you can do the exact same for the center and bottom drawers.
The side measurements will be the same, but then, measuring from the bottom, you will want to measure 1¼". And then, lining up your boxes once again, you can install your box to your drawer front.
I would recommend doing this on one cabinet first and then double-checking that those measurements work. And then, from there, going and doing the rest of your cabinets.
It's important as well to notice that your drawer front for the cabinets will be ¹⁄₁₆" longer on the bottom than it is in the middle. So, it's easy to swap those two. They're very close. Make sure you're getting the longer drawer fronts with the correct box and the correct placement.
Once I have all of those fronts installed, I am now installing the drawers into the cabinet. And I want to maintain an ⅛" gap everywhere I go.
So, you'll hear a click. That's how you know that everything's installed.
And in order to maintain that ⅛" gap, if it's a little off, no worries, because you do have that height adjustment on your Blum clips. I created myself little ⅛" gauge blocks. That way, instead of trying to measure every time, I can just put the feelers on. And then I want everything to line up left to right.
Once again, you can adjust this using your Blum clips on the bottom side of your cabinet by just moving those wheels.
And then, once I had everything where I liked it, I took the door bumpers, these rubber bumpers, that will give more longevity to the cabinet, as well as create a silent close and keep a consistent reveal with any doors you have on adjacent cabinets.
Once you have those in, your cabinet's all ready to be installed.
Outro
And that's all there is to building this frameless base three-drawer cabinet. If you have any questions, you can reach out to your cabinet coach, or you can call us at 888-211-6482.
Thank you for watching. Have a great day.
