Kitchen installation: DIY kitchen assembly

Recommendation points

• Assembly tool
• Assembly
• Overhead metal corners
• Euro screws (confirmations)
• Assembly of cabinet enclosures
• Rear wall fixing
• Installation of doors and drawers
• Furniture installation
• Installation of bottom cabinets
• Hanging top cabinets
• Lapping hinges

Anyone can install furniture in the kitchen. In order to be convinced of this, you will need very little: a tool, a few hours of free time and a good instruction. Try to use our tips and assemble a kitchen set with your own hands, it’s not as difficult as it seems at first glance.

Assembly tool

1. Drill.
2. Screwdriver.
3. Roulette.
4. Joiner’s square.
5. A hammer.
6. Drill bits for wood with a diameter of 3, 4, 5, 7 and 10 mm, flat drill for wood 30 mm.
7. Key for tightening Euro screws.
8. Level.

Assembly

Consider the two most common types of fixing hardware used to assemble kitchen cabinet furniture.

Overhead metal corners

The corners are fastened with screws to the thread of the round nuts already installed in the body panel.

1 – screws; 2 – footwear; 3 – corner; 4 – mounting holes

As a rule, the holes for installing fasteners in the details are made by the furniture manufacturer, if for some reason these holes are not there, then they can be made by yourself.

We combine the two panels selected for installation, one of them (the first) will always be located in relation to the second end-to-end, the other (second) in relation to the first overlap.

On the first panel, we retreat 70 mm from the side, the mounting holes in the mounting angle are located at a height of 18 mm from its base, so we set aside exactly 18 mm from the top and put a mark for the hole for the nut.

The usual thickness of panels for assembly is 16 mm, add 18 mm to it for the corner, 16 + 18 = 34 mm. Based on this calculation, we make the markup on the second panel, we retreat the same 70 mm from the side, and 34 mm from the top.

To simplify marking on other similar parts, two templates with holes drilled according to the marking can be made from scraps of wood. In the future, by applying a template to the desired edge of the part and performing drilling along it, you can increase accuracy and save time..

The holes for round nuts (fittings) should be no more than 12 mm deep and 0.5 mm less than the diameter of the nut itself. The countersunk slot in the nuts can be in the form of either a hex slot or a slot for a flat screwdriver.

In order to tighten the nut evenly, it is inserted into the hole and with strong pressure is slowly screwed into the panel with a hex wrench or a screwdriver behind a countersunk slot, the corners are fastened with screws into the thread of already installed nuts.

Euro screws (confirmations)

Fastening of housing parts with Euro screws, in comparison with metal corners, is more reliable and simpler.

If the mounting holes are not provided by the manufacturer, then you can drill them according to the diagram below..

To tighten the euro screws, mounting holes are drilled in the panels, through the sides of the parts with a diameter of 7 mm, and at the ends of the parts to a depth of 40 mm and a diameter of 5 mm.

Assembly of cabinet enclosures

Two side panels are mounted to the bottom horizontal panel, then stiffening ribs (drawers) are screwed to the side panels. Mounting units of parts are fixed with corners or euro screws and tightened with a key or screwdriver.

Before installing any fittings, pay attention to the holes in the panels for the screws, if the manufacturer has not done this, then additional drilling is done independently. The drill should be 1.5–2 mm thinner than the screw diameter.

The lower supports (legs) are spaced 4 cm from the edges of the panel and screwed to it with screws.

Rear wall fixing

The back panel is fixed with screws or nails, before installing it, be sure to make sure that the diagonals of the case are the same.

Hinged sections are mounted in the same way as the lower cabinets, only the arrangement of parts changes during assembly.

Shelf supports are used to install the shelves, most of them have a cylindrical rod on one end for mounting in a panel, on the other a flat, faceted or round shape for installing shelves.

If shelves made of laminated chipboard are suitable for shelves made of any hard material and of any shape, then for glass in contact with the shelf they must have a flat shape and a soft support made of rubber or plastic.

All types of shelf supports with a cylindrical mounting rod are installed according to the same principle.

In two opposite side panels of the cabinet, at the same height, with an indent of 70 mm from the edges, marks are placed, along which holes are drilled to the depth and diameter of the mounting rod. Shelf holders are inserted or hammered into these holes..

Installation of doors and drawers

The hinges are installed in the special holes (sockets) selected on the doors and through the mounting holes they are attached to the canvas with screws. In their absence, the nests are drilled with a flat drill with a diameter of 30 mm, to a depth of 10 mm, 5 mm retreat from the edge of the door, and 70 mm from the top and bottom.

Hinged doors are installed on the side and intermediate panels of the enclosure. In the open position, the door is pressed against the side post of the case (edge ​​to edge), the hinges are pressed against the side of the case and fastened to it with screws, additional drilling for screws in the side panel of the case is possible.

There should be a gap of 2-3 mm between the worktop and the top of the door.

If your doors do not have holes for hinges, then you can make them yourself with a Forstner drill or using a router. We talked about this in detail in the article “Working with a hand router: inserting furniture hinges. Step by step photo instructions “.

Drawers are assembled according to a simple scheme: the side, front and rear parts are mounted with Euro screws or corners, the front panel is fixed to the drawer with screws, and the bottom panel made of fiberboard (bottom) is nailed or screwed on with screws.

Drawers are installed on roller guides, this mechanism is supplied in pairs. In turn, the right and left pair consist of wide and narrow parts, the wide one is attached to the cabinet body, and the narrow one – to the drawer..

For ease of fastening the rails, the furniture manufacturer applies the appropriate markings to the parts, if there are no such marks, use the installation diagram in the figure below.

Last of all, worktops are mounted to the finished cases, if they are supplied as separate parts, then each is attached to a specific cabinet. If the set is equipped with a worktop in the form of one continuous panel, then it is installed on the sections already connected to each other.

The front part of the table top should protrude from the body by 45-50 mm, the back – by 70-75 mm, on the sides the table top should be flush with the bodies.

Two through holes with a diameter of 4 mm are drilled in the stiffening ribs (drawers) at a distance of 7-10 cm from the side racks of the cabinet.

A tabletop is installed on the body, and from inside the cabinet, through the already prepared holes in the ribs of the rigidity, a stroke is made for the screws with a 3 mm drill to a depth of 40–45 mm.

The total thickness of the parts to be fastened (stiffener and tabletop) is approximately 56 mm, which means that the fastening screw must be at least 5 mm shorter, so that it does not pierce both parts through and damage the top coating of the tabletop.

Furniture installation

You can start the installation both from the lower and from the upper sections, the main thing is that in the end the whole structure is level and there is no skewing of the hulls.

Installation of bottom cabinets

The legs for the lower sections are adjustable; before installation, they must be turned out to the maximum, this is necessary so that during the subsequent adjustment of the enclosures to a single level, the distance from the floor to the bottom of the cabinet is not less than the height of the front plinth strip.

Clamps are attached to the front plate with screws, and the clip plate is put on the legs already screwed to the bodies.

As mentioned earlier, the legs are attached to the body with 40 mm indents from the edge. In order for the clamps installed on the bar to coincide with the location of the legs, we fasten them with indents of exactly 40 mm.

By twisting or unscrewing the legs, all the lower cabinets are set strictly in level, both vertically and horizontally.

After installation, all lower housings must be fastened with intersection ties..

Hanging top cabinets

For example, the height of the upper cabinets themselves is 75 cm, add another 60 cm to this, since this is the distance that should be between the upper and lower sections, and we get 135 cm.

We measure 135 cm from the tabletop of the lower cabinet and draw a line on the wall using a level and a pencil. This line will be the upper dimension for the hinged sections, we also put marks for the side dimensions of the outer sections.

One way to fix cabinets to walls is with simple eyelet-type hinges.

We position the extreme hinged section so that the holes of the hanging loops coincide with the line of the upper dimension and put marks through the holes in the ears of the loops.

Using these marks, we drill holes in the wall, install dowels in them and hang the first cabinet.

The following sections are aligned according to the upper dimension, and, similarly to the previous ones, are installed on dowels.

In the case of hanging sections on partitions made of loose or hollow material, a mounting plate must be installed in place of the marking, which will not only ensure the reliability of fastening, but also speed up the subsequent installation of cabinets.

For this type of installation, adjustable hinges are used, which are screwed to the side panels from the inside of the cabinets, so that the hook for the mounting plate is outside. All hinged sections are alternately put on by the hinge hooks on the mounting plate, aligned along the side dimensions.

Lapping hinges

When all sections of the headset are installed, hung and secured, you can adjust the loops. Wall cabinets can be adjusted with two hinged screws.

The screw on the bottom of the hinge adjusts the vertical position of the cabinet (up and down), the screw on the back of the hinge adjusts the position of the section from the wall (front and back).

After adjusting the position of the cabinets, their cases must be fastened with intersectional ties.

By screwing or unscrewing the corresponding screws, you can achieve correct operation of the hinges on the doors and remove distortions.

The front screw adjusts the depth of the door (forward-backward), the rear one adjusts the position of the door relative to the body (right-left), by loosening the upper and lower fastening screws, the position (up-down) can be adjusted.

A hinged kitchen cabinet can withstand 15-30 kilograms. In order for your furniture to serve for a long time, do not overload it with heavy objects and do not allow distortions.