Cabinet Bits

Last winter, my husband Mike wanted to try his hand at cabinet making. He looked at so many different cabinet plans but could not find something to build. 

Space is a premium in our small woodworking shop so when he asked for a woodworking router table system, a bench top router table was the best solution.

Eagle America offers two bench top router table systems.

Kreg Router Table                  or  a             Freud Router Table

Yes, these are smaller woodworking router table systems but they get the job done!


Now, back to cabinet plans. Mike never found "the one" perfect cabinet plan to build so he designed his own. 


Mike was able to use his stile and rail bits and many of his other Eagle router bits for his cabinet project. While he was building the cabinet, it was exciting to see the majority of his woodworking clamps being used all at once. 


In the end the cabinet he made will become a family treasure. 


Not bad for a first effort.

• Sometimes the fastest method is still the oldest
• Hand tools often do what power tools can’t
• They give you precise control, ensuring a perfect cut

Working here at Eagle America one question I hear more than any other is" where can I get that information"? I hear it in our outlet store, I hear it on the phones and I see it in emails. No matter what the woodworker is trying to do, setting up dust collection, looking for band saw accessories, questions about shaper cutters, any woodworking accessories that is new to a woodworker them we get questions about that item. Another thing we hear a lot of is, I am interested in one of the Kreg pocket hole jigs which one should I get? Or I am building some cabinets which set of stile and rail bits should I use? Which one of your router bit sets is the best for me? We do our best to answer all the questions we receive within 24 hours.

Did you know we have tech support available where we will take your question sent to us via email to us at tech@eagleamerica.com and pass it to our one of our woodworkers that we have on staff?

 

Don't they look knowledgeable! 

Well back to the question, where can I get this information?
You can find just about anything...
                                                                                                                                                                                                      
 ....ON THE INTERNET!     

There are thousands of website dedicated to woodworking. Places where you can ask questions of your peers or ask professionals like The Wood Whisperer's website.




You can find just about anything you need right here. They have a community where you can access blogs and forums where you can ask questions that will be answered by many people that are just woodworkers like you that want to help their experience is there to help you. Also in their community they have photos of the member's projects. Not to mention many videos that Marc Spagnuolo (The Wood Whisper) does showing how to do certain things or projects start to finish. You can also find Marc's work on You tube talk about a video library that you don't have to buy! You can also find many different woodworking groups that have joined the community, maybe you belong in one of these groups? Do you?

And of coarse what true Wood Whisperer member doesn’t have a Wood Whisperer hat and T-shirt. Well don’t worry you can get these items and more at the store. I should get a free t-shirt for this blog don’t you think?

There is a live chat room where you can discuss your project or anything woodworking related. You can even watch projects being made because there are dozens of people/workshops that stream live video to the site for you to watch.

This is just one site of the thousands of woodworking sites out there on the world wide web. So if you have a specific question maybe we can help. Or if you are looking for a place to go to learn and pick up some tricks of the trade and meet some woodworkers maybe The Wood Whisperers website is where you want to go.

No matter what you are looking for, the Internet can be the best tool in your workshop.

When this happens I find one of my favorite sources of inspiration is woodworking books.

I turn to books when I feel like learning a new technique or for new project ideas such as building my own router table and fence.

Amongst all of the projects I have been working on this winter, my wife decided it was the perfect time to remodel our master bathroom.

After a few weeks of researching and planning, we finally agreed on a design and layout for the bathroom.

Not that it needed it, but after all of the upgrades and changes, the job ended up being almost a total tear-out.

The nice part of this project was that it was time for me to dust off my cabinet making tools and cabinet bits as I build my own custom vanity.

Naturally, I will be using Eagle router bits but I had to build the cabinet carcass first.

The quickest and easiest way I have found to build a cabinet is by using Kreg pocket hole jigs. I was able to use my pocket hole jig to assemble the face frame and body of the cabinet in less than a day.


Pocket hole jigs create strong joints and can save you time and money!

As I continue to build my cabinet, I will keep you updated on the tools and techniques I use.

• Router Bits and Router Bit Sets such as Cabinet Bits or Stile & Rail Bits
• Different Router Jigs and Router Accessories
• Shaper Cutters
• Band Saw Accessories
• Scroll Saw Accessories

1. Decide which brand of bits you prefer, Eagle America or PriceCutter
2. Decide whether you want to order a 3-piece or 5-piece set
3. Decide which type of panel raiser you want to include in your set

You may have noticed that I like to scour the web for interesting woodworking articles.  Here is a great one that I read on Monday in the Augusta Chronicle about Danny Hill and his son Chad, two dedicated cabinet makers from Georgia.  Some of the highlights from the article for me were:

• His home and his shop are on the same piece of land, just like many of our Eagle Woodworking customers
• He has been doing it since 1961 and has never made the same kitchen twice!
• He doesn't do it for the money, it's all about making the people happy
• He says there's always something new to learn in woodworking.  "You could do any kind of wood work you want to for 500 years, and you're still going to only know a small percent of what you can do with a piece of wood. You never quit learning."

It was a great article about about a woodworking family!  It also made me think more about how we can help you make your own beautiful cabinets.  It is a lot easier to do than you think.

We have lots of woodworking tools and woodworking accessories that can help you get the job done right and it all starts with our world famous selection of Router Bits.  Router bits are the key component for building your raised panel cabinet doors.  We offer a very large selection of cabinet bits between our Eagle Router Bits (Made in the USA) and PriceCutter Router Bits (imported).  In the very near future you will actually be able to build your very own Cabinet Making Router Bit Sets on our site!  Combine those bits with a router table system such as the Kreg Router Table and you are good to go. 

The cabinet doors give your kitchen their distinctive look and feel but it is actually the boring old cabinet itself that holds everything together.  You can't have form without function!  Building the carcass for your cabinets has never been easier.  First you need one of your favorite table saw blades to cut your stock down to size.  We then suggest using one of our Kreg Pocket Hole Jigs to make assembling the cabinets as easy as 1-2-3.

Enough for now, I am sure I will write more about cabinet making tools in the near future.  Just know this, like Danny Hill says in the article that started this post, there's always something new to learn in woodworking.  Who knows, maybe for you this year that something is cabinet making.




 

I got a call one Thursday evening to go over to my in-laws for dinner. When my wife and I arrived, we sat down and had a nice meal. During the meal, my wife's aunt, Teresa, mentioned that she wanted to add kitchen cabinets on an open wall in her kitchen. The problem was, she could not find anything to match her existing cabinets. My wife immediately volunteered me for the job knowing I have all kinds of cabinet making tools!

After dinner, we stopped by Teresa's house and I took a few measurements, made a few drawings and made sure that Teresa was happy with the design.

The following Friday evening, I figured out what the total cost for the job would be and called Teresa to see if it was acceptable. She gave me her approval and I was off and running.

Early Saturday morning I was at the lumber yard hand selecting my material and by noon, I was back in my shop cutting everything to size.


Kreg pocket hole jigs have to be one to the best woodworking accessories you could have in your shop. I used it to build the cabinet's carcases and face frames all within a hour.

I used my woodworking router table with Eagle America's stile and rail bits to make the door and drawer frames and a 3-wing raised panel bit for the panels. It really helps to have some type of router height adjustment on your router table. I use a Jessem Master Lift and love it!

The edges of the door frames were finished using Eagle America's roundover bits. I figured I could use this project to showcase my talents as well as some of the cool cabinet hardware that is on the market so I used ball bearing drawer slides with Blum Blumotion accessories.

When it was completed, I took the top and bottom cabinet's over to Teresa's house and installed them. My wife's family was so impressed, I started getting more requests to repair, refinish and build things. But you all know how that goes...

Eric


 

 

Miki, one of our Eagle woodworking experts writes:

"My mom was refinishing her kitchen cabinets.  My sister and I thought it would look great if we added knobs and drawer pulls to her cabinets so we gathered up our cabinet making tools and cabinet bits and set off to mom's house. We purchased the hardware and was ready to install them for her birthday.  Mom was excited about the idea and thankfully agreed with our choice of knobs and pulls.  So one weekend morning, my sister and I went out to my mom’s while she was at work and installed them.

We used the Euro Handle-It Jig to install them.  This is on of the great woodworking accessories out there!  It was so easy we were done in about a half hour!  All we had to do is decide on a dimension for the knobs on the doors, hold the jig in place and drill using a premium drilling bit.  You can flip the jig for left or right opening doors.

Then we set up to do the drawer pulls.  That was just as simple.  We measured the drawer length, subtracted 3” for the drawer pull length and divided by two.  Set the jig, drilled the holes, and installed the pulls.  If you are in the market for a well made, easy to adjust jig for installing door and drawer pulls, I suggest the Euro Handle-It.  And it’s made in the USA!