I need to build or reduce width of a cupboard. Help please!

[Jacquiemalta]

OK, here goes. To put you in the picture first, I live in Malta where a lot of items are unavailable although I can buy light things eg special screws etc online. Also, I am a single female with not much assistance available and do not have a bench, router etc. I do have a drill, jigsaw, palm sander etc.

Now, I need a cupboard to store a gas heater and all my DIY stuff in. It is going on the wall outside my flat door but there is a spiral staircase to the roof which other people use so I am limited to size for access purposes. Measurements I want are 3' long x 18" depth x 32" high with castors on too. I could build it from scratch from 8' x 4' MDF (I can get 16mm only) but am worried about joining the pieces together (I can get the pieces cut to size) although I can buy the MDF screws I have read about to stop splitting online if I can't get them here. Money is an issue and the price for the MDF would be about 20 UK pounds which is fine.

My other option is to buy a unit I have found on a local classified ads website, picture attached. It's solid wood (I don't know what type) but is 4' long. It's around 55 UK pounds. It's also higher than I wanted but that doesn't really matter. I would have to cut the unit and rejoin the halves to make it 3'. However, I'm stumped about how to join the pieces. I'm not too concerned with what the outside looks like as I will be doing a paint crackle finish so using filler etc is fine. I know it's going to need to be glued down the join plus some kind of fitting which attaches on both sides of the cut to keep it together. The problem is that I only have a jigsaw and can't see how I could get the cut straight enough on both sides to be able to glue them. I have used a jigsaw before but must admit that sawing is not one of my talents and I absolutely cannot the hang of using a hand saw. I could borrow a plane in an attempt to straighten the cuts but don't want to use one as I'm scared of them to be honest! It seems a lot of damage can be done with a plane. The doors will be made from MDF left from another project which is a box to put my cat's covered litter box inside which I will then finish to suit my decor. I'm not worried about this project because it's so much smaller.

If I was your single, tool challenged sister/daughter, which would you recommend she do? And I know you'd actually go round and build it for her in reality but imagine you live in a different country like my dad does!

 

[G S Haydon]

Hi Jacquie,

I took a holiday in Malta a few years back and enjoyed it a lot.Take a look at http://ana-white.com/ with loads of free plans and help on starter projects (no special tools or materials required). I would probably avoid chopping up the unit. IMO it's quite a tricky job if you don't have too much experience and I think it would be easier to build from scratch. Let me know what you think of ana's site and if you were able to find any inspiration.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Forget the second option - look for a third.

 

[Jacquiemalta]

Funnily enough I was looking at the ana white site yesterday but didn't see the section with plans. I think phil.p is probably right; I'll keep looking on the local classified site for something more suitable that I can just add doors to if necessary even though I need storage asap. Have a lot of decorating experience but not much building.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[John51]

Maybe there's a suitable kitchen flatpack unit available locally?

e2a: My double door wall cabinets are 39" wide, 28" tall and 12" deep. If those dimensions suit you, you shouldn't have much trouble getting one.

 

[Jelly]

I have an idea of how you would go about shortening that unit...

Remove the centre draw and chop 1' out of the middle, then match the two sides up and screw MDF sheets to the top, the bottom of the draws and each shelf. If it's 16mm mdf and the timber is 1" I'd aim to use 30mm screws (a line of 4 from back to front every 6"), sanding the finish off the surfaces and gluing before screwing the mdf down would make it even stronger.

However, I can't see how you'd manage to do that and get a neat join without using a handsaw and plane though (and I firmly believe you would get the hang of using them with a little practice). There is also the question of how well the construction would hold up to it, if it's solid wood and all the joints are well glued I'd imagine that it would deal with it quite well so long as you avoided putting too much pressure on it before screwing back together.

That would need 1 sheet of MDF (ideally get it cut into a 1'*8' strip, a 2'*3' strip and 4 18"*3' strips at the yard when you buy it) and a box of screws, plus some pva glue maybe.

It wouldn't be awful difficult, but cutting it in half would be awkward, and you'd probably want a second pair of hands when you go to reassemble it.

 

[Jacquiemalta]

Thanks John 51 but they're not big enough for what I need.

Jelly, I'm so sorry I haven't made myself clear. I don't want to keep the drawers or the shelves, I want one big cupboard onto which I will put 2 doors. I could still use your suggestion of using MDF to support the top and bottom. However, that would be just adding to the total cost. I don't mind paying a bit more if the item is what I want but I don't want to go overboard with changes in respect of both cost and work involved unless I get the carcass cheaper than this is. I think I need to find something which is the size I need, however long that'll take.

Another option is to lower the height of a small wardrobe as the price, width & depth are good, see attached picture. I could cut the top off and a section out then lower the top back on. Then on the inside all the way round the cut, I could add a wide batten which I can screw in to both the top half and the bottom. I can use filler on the outside to fill any gaps. And I can even reuse the doors. Does all of that sound feasible? I know I'm going to need help so I will get a friend round.

 

[Jelly]

Ahhhhh, I see (and probably would have without clarification if I'd read more carefully initially)... Yeah trying to cut the internals out of that would be a nightmare.

You'd probably be better off building something from scratch tbh, depending on materials prices.

 

[Jacquiemalta]

It was my fault, I wasn't clear in my initial post. So you don't think lowering the wardrobe would work? It would be a pain in the butt admittedly.

 

[Jelly]

It was my fault, I wasn't clear in my initial post. So you don't think lowering the wardrobe would work? It would be a pain in the butt admittedly.

I was thinking of that cabinet, the wardrobe seems like it would work, re-using the doors might be a bit tricky (they look like frame and panel which could be awkward to re-size, but you could definitely make shorter, workable doors out of them with a little thought).

It all really depends on the individual item, it looks robust enough, but if in the flesh its a bit flimsier, then it might not deal with being sawn in half very well at all!

 

[Jacquiemalta]

I'm not too fussed if I have to put new doors on it as I have left over MDF from the smaller project anyway. I'm going to email them about the structure. What would you recommend the minimum width of the side panel should be in order to be stable enough to jigsaw?

Thanks for all your help by the way

 

[Jelly]

That I can't help you with, though from my limited experience of them I would think that a jigsaw on a low speed (whilst fairly slow and noisy) would be one of the more gentle ways of cutting it, probably more so than using a big handsaw.

It's more to do with how rigid it would remain once the top and bottom aren't fully connected, than the thickness of the timber it's made out of per se (though obviously the two are related to some extent).

 

[Jacquiemalta]

I know, I'm concerned about the top just falling off myself! I think I'll carry on looking. Thanks so much for your help.

 

[Jelly]

I know, I'm concerned about the top just falling off myself! I think I'll carry on looking. Thanks so much for your help.

So long as you securely attach a new one, I would think all would be fine... it's just if it gets damaged because it's flexing as you cut it down that I would be concerned about.