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Ammount of work involved in cutting and routing MDF for a cabinet...
javeryh:
It would take a profesional carpenter an afternoon to bang one of these out if you gave him the dimensaions and everything. Still, at $65 an hour or whatever they go for it would be quite expensive plus the cost of materials and shipping it would be completely insane - I'm guessing it costs more to ship than the cost of materials plus the carpenter.
As for the t-molding, I'm no carpenter but the first time I routed slots for t-molding it took me literally 15 minutes from start to finish. I set up the router, cut a test piece, centered the t-molding, tweaked the router, cut a second test piece, was happy the t-molding was centered and then cut the sides of my cabinet. Seriously it's 15 minutes from start to finish - so easy.
If you have the money to spend on a carpenter and shipping the materials around I think you'd be better off buying a router, a slot cutting bit, a flush cutting bit, a jigsaw and some clamps. That's all I used to build my current cabinet and I'm doing just fine. For the record, it took me about 2 full weekends worth of work to put my cabinet together (roughly 6-8 hours per day for 4 days).
amadama:
Go for building one! It's a lot of fun and you will learn a lot.
MDF is incredibly heavy. My first cabinet (which I am working on right now) is a mini and is based on a single sheet of 3/4" MDF. I bought the wood at Home Depot and they cut it down into smaller pieces for me. This was great since it save a bit of time but more importantly I could fit them in my car and saved the aggravation of lugging around an 80lb sheet of wood!
I bought a Ryobi kit (circular saw, jigsaw, drill, sander, vacuum and light, all cordless) and a Ryobi router (a cheapo one). I got the t-molding bit and lots of big clamps (you need many clamps!). The work to cut the cabinet and assemble it was a few hours. I learned so much by doing this.
There are so many good resources on this site and most folks are very helpful too.
You will have an initial investment of several hundred dollars and if you are only going to build one cabinet it may not be worth it. But as many have discovered, cabinet building is like eating potato chips, you can never have just one!
Good luck!
Alex
shardian:
If you took the time to lay everything out on the wood, then you could get it all cut out pretty cheap. It would take a pro an hour, 2 hours max to cut everything.
Kaytrim:
You will get more enjoyment out of answering your friends by saying, "Yes I built that." The look of awe in their faces is priceless. Take your time lay out the cuts and always remember, "Measure twice and cut once." Also getting the tools and knowledge will translate to other DIY projects around the house.
TTFN :cheers:
Kaytrim
Green Giant:
If you want to save money, you can pick up a really cheap router on ebay. Sure they are noname and make a weird burning smell when you first use it, but since you are only gonna be cutting MDF, it will last. The stuck is like a hot knife through butter for evern the cheapest routers. I probably spent more buying the slot but than on the router.
A jigsaw or circular saw should be better quality though.
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