I preparation for the next kitchen fabrication, I decided I wanted to finally create a worksheet for the project. I’m sure every cabinet making shop has their won worksheet but no one shares them … until now.
This will take a few posts to explain and at the end, I will post the actual worksheet. In the mean time, here are the "moving parts" …
There is a top sheet which gets into decisions that affect the entire project. These are things like how high the counter top will be, how thick is the counter top material, how deep will the cabinets be, will there be doors or drawers for the base cabinets, and are these "inset" or "overlay" fronts.
There are also a bunch of fixed dimensions – the width of the stock for the cabinet bodies (aka the carcasses), the drawer sides, the drawer slides, the face frame material, etc.
From these data, a bunch of calculations take place for the "fixed" measurements – depth and height of a cabinet carcass, depth of a drawer, etc.
Once all of the calculation are done for the overall kitchen, the next step is for each cabinet. There is a page for each cabinet when the overall width of the available opening and the desired width of the cabinet get entered. There are also choices for the drawer configuration – 1, 2, or 3, drawer(s), usable depths, use a door on the lower portion, etc.
In all cases where there are choices, the recommended value is right next to where the actual value is entered.
The last step is the sheep shown here. It takes all the values and generates a cut sheet – with measurements converted to "tape measure" – aka 1/2", 1/4", 1/8" etc.
If you look closely you will notice this cut sheet does not yet include the finish fronts for the drawers/doors. It does include the carcass, the face frame, and the drawer boxes.