Adding Face Frame Cabinet Trim

This cabinet is ready for its face frame. And what I want to talk about here is a very effective way to put the face frame on with brads or nails that are so tiny they're almost invisible. Once we have the face frame on then we'll also look at applying some trim to this cabinet. Really dresses it up. And again, we're going to capitalize on those nearly invisible nails we can use to put everything together.

So first off, let's talk about how I got this far. When you look at the cabinet, you might notice that the interior already has finish on it. That's a great trick when it comes to assembling cabinets, because it's so much easier to apply that stain when the pieces are separate than it is after they're put together. Once they're put together, I have to work around inside corners and especially with stain it can be difficult to keep that from getting sloppy. So I pre-stained all the pieces, kept the stain out of the glue joints, got the whole cabinet put together, made up my face frame and now we're ready to go.

What we'll do in order to put this together is use what's called a 23 gauge pin nailer. These are the pins from it. Look at how tiny they are. Now remember with gauges that as the number gets bigger, the thing gets smaller. So a 23 gauge pin nailer is smaller than a 15 gauge brad nailer.

In fact, these pins that it shoots are so small they don't have heads on them and they have to have arrows on them to show which way is the right way to put them in the gun to make sure that you get the correct end down. Once these are in our material the hole that they leave behind is really, really tiny. I much prefer this method, using this 23 gauge pin nailer, over using something like a 15 gauge brad nailer because the hole it leaves is going to be nearly invisible. The next thing I'll do is get a bit of glue on top of the cabinet carcass, and then we'll be ready to actually get the face frame installed. One of the things that will make getting the face frame on here a whole lot easier are the two stretchers I've got inside the cabinet.

Sometimes on a taller case like this one the sides can bow a little bit, so with the stretchers inside there, I'm holding the center at the same inside dimension as the bottom. When I put a face frame on as a general rule I start at the bottom of the cabinet. And the reason for that is, at least the way I make these things, is that usually what I want is for this to be flush with the bottom of the case. So I'm feeling that with my thumbs. I'm positioning it left and right and then we're ready for a pin.

Now I work my way across, aligning with my lower shelf. Now as I work my way up the side, a couple of things I want you to notice. One is how tiny these holes are. The other is that I'm making a point of putting the pin in dark grain. And what I found is that if I do that, it makes the pin much more invisible when I come back later and putty over the top of it.

It's already such a tiny hole it's hard to see, but if I put it in dark grain like that, then it's going to be nearly impossible to see once we putty and finish our staining job. As a general rule of thumb, with fasteners you want them to be twice as long as what you're going through. So here with my 3/4" face frame I'm driving pins that are an 1.5" long and they're doing a great job at closing this up. I'll finish up that last side, my last style and then we'll be able to look at using the pin nailer in order to get molding on the top to finish dressing this cabinet up. I've got the cabinet upside down on my work bench and the solid wood top has been fastened to the case.

Now what I'm doing is trimming it out so there's a nice transition between that top and the carcass itself. With my miters cut, I'm ready to get everything fastened in place. And once again, the headless pins are perfect, perfect choice for this. So, one thing to remember is that we want to fasten the molding to the cabinet not to the bottom of the top, if you use a solid wood top. That top is going to expand and contract and we have to let it do so.

So I'm only going to put brads horizontally here. Very nice and once again you just got to love the tiny hole that that leaves behind. Now one of the things I like to do is make sure that I get a fastener across the miter. It's a beautiful miter right now, it's really close and I want to buy a little insurance and make sure it's going to stay that way. So this is something I can do with a 23 gauge pinner that it's nearly impossible to do with anything bigger.

It just creates an invisible mechanical fastener right across that miter. So, if you haven't had a look at these 23 gauge pinners yet they're definitely worth a look for the kind of work I'm doing here, trimming out this nice oak cabinet that it's going to be a bookshelf when it grows up.