The Frame Assembly - Side Panels

[ ] Check to see that your 48” x 96” sheet is very close to square. They usually are but you should double check.

Building Tip

You can check that any piece is square by measuring it on both diagonals. If both measurements are the same, the piece is square.

[ ] Cut your 48” x 96” sheet of particleboard in half so you have two pieces each 48” x 48” in size. You should use a straight edge to get your cut square and straight.

You need to measure your circular saw’s offset of the blade from the edge of the blade guide. In my case it is 1½” on one side and 3½” on the other side of the blade.

Building Tip

For most saws, you will want to make all your cuts from the shorter side of the saw blade guide. The electric motor sticks out of the other side and may bump into your clamps and ruin your cuts.

Measure the length of your blade offset and clamp each end of your straight edge down to use as a cutting guide. You can use a piece of MDF molding for a straight edge. A piece of molding is cheap and MDF is straight enough for our purposes.

[ ] Next take one 48” x 48” piece and cut three 14” wide pieces from it. Pay close attention to get the pieces straight and square. Take the other 48” x 48” piece and cut it in half.

At this point you should have:

• 2 pieces 24” x 48”


• 3 pieces 14” x 48”

[ ] Cut out your full-size printout of the side panel leaving about a 1” border around the lines of the panel.

Apply an even coat of repositionable spray adhesive on the back side of the printout. Don’t go too light because it’s difficult to stick to the particleboard but don’t saturate the paper. By the way, make sure its repositionable adhesive or you might not be able to peel the template off of the wood when you are done.

Let the template sit for 30 seconds or so per the instructions on the adhesive can. Make sure your particleboard is nice and clean. Apply the template to a piece of the particleboard. Make sure the bottom and back edges of the cabinet drawing are along the factory edges of the particleboard. This eliminates two cuts you would otherwise have to make.

[ ] Clamp the piece with the template glued on onto the other 24” x 48” piece of particleboard with two clamps at opposite ends. You will be cutting the two sides of the cabinet at the same time so they are exactly the same. Be sure to clamp them with the factory edges together so that you always have one nice, square corner to work with.

[ ] Using your circular saw, cut away most of the excess material from around the template leaving about 1” – 1½” of material to remove on your final cuts. This makes it much easier to clamp your straight edge guide and make your final cuts. You can make these cuts by hand, no straight edge guide is necessary.

[ ] Now you will be making your final cuts so make them good!

Next: Side Panels continued...