# Buy vs Build: Shop Cabinets Cost Analysis



## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

*Good, Fast, and Cheap: Pick Any Two*
Jocks,
I've been much less active here over the past year than previous years, but most of my posts have centered around the construction of my new shop. I'm happy to report that it is built and ready for move-in (pending a bit of driveway work).
After a couple of simple Christmas projects I've been ordered to make, my priority is to put up oodles of cabinets to keep things organized.
There's an entire 30-foot wall that I'd like to see lined with wall cabinets and floor cabinets; and in a perfect world, some floor cabinets would be open, some would have doors, and some would have drawers; with a countertop almost continuous for the entire 30 feet, save a recess for the miter saw near the middle.

*TL;DR*
I'm dreading the thought of building 30 feet of cabinets; that's 12 cabinet boxes for the floor, and 12 for the wall, if they are all 30 inches wide. Do any of you have a sense of the relative costs of buying, vs building, shop cabinets?

On top of labor, which will be tremendous (and my limited time is pretty valuable to me), there's the cost of wood, screws, hinges, pulls, slides, and finish.

On the other hand, Lowe's has 36" wide cabinets that look like this for $150:








Which puts 30ft of floor cabinets at $1500.

There's the quality difference too - mine would be "better" (stronger, longer-lasting?), and customized to my preferences, with drawers, cabinets, and open cavities.

If you've made it this far, please chime in with advice from a cost-vs-quality-vs-time perspective!


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## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

Why put cab in at all? You'll get tired of opening 10 sets of cabs when looking for something since all will be the same.

Build different stuff as you need instead of knocking out 30' of cabs you'll not quickly fill or will have too much junk to inventory.

What are you trying to do? Why do you need full 30' of cabs? You obviously don't need any long item storage if the widest cab is 30".

Myself I would build specific cabs for specific items instead of doing a production run. This spreads the cost & labor out and will result in storage exactly tailored to your needs. Open shelving (or glass fronted cabs) makes it lots easier to find things - esp when telling a helper where to find something.


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## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

The boxes are the easier part. After all, the sides and bottoms will all be the same. I find it easier to build the lower ones with out the toe kicks, instead build a square box and then fashion a frame that they sit on, makes installation is a little easier as well, you level the base and then sit your cabinets on it. The boxes could also be built with biscuits and then screwed from the sides, no dadoes etc. More time would be spent building the drawer boxes, drawer fronts (if that's needed) and the doors. Even then, you will have multiple pieces that are identical meaning just one set up. But it seems like the better quality cabinets would be worth it. Whatever you choose, good luck and post back with pics of the progress.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

You could buy 32mm open cabinets from a commercial supplier, without the doors. Make drawers and whatnot as you need them. A lot of these kitchen cabinets are only partial 32mm drilled so maybe those wouldn't be so great. You can get those tall book shelving units from IKEA, cut them down and add a new top and bottom to the second one. THose are "shotgun" drilled for 32mm.


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

If 12 feet of them are gong side by side on the floor or on the wall in a row then It's a lot easier to make them. Cabinets are sold separately because people need to mix and match to get them to fit in a certain space. If you don't need to do that you can frame up a skeleton starting with the base as one piece and some framing screwed to the wall, then build on that. After that's done it's a matter of cutting some strips to face the fronts then make the doors. And if you're into a pretty shop, and some people are and that's okay, then you'll need some more expensive stuff but it you're into looking good but functional, then multiple sheets of sanded plywood works for all parts that show. Rail and stile kitchen cabinets aren't necessary for a shop in my viewpoint. Routing an decorative edge on doors made from a 3/4" sheet of plywood looks just fine and you can get a lot of doors out of a sheet.


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## clin (Sep 3, 2015)

I think there is value in cabinets with doors because it will help keep the stuff inside much cleaner from dust. Some organization and labels or even color coding can solve the issue with opening multiple doors before you find what you want. But of course it depends on how you like to work. Some people want to grab and go and not be bothered with opening a door. I'm not a production shop, so I don't care about saving a few moments of my time.

As for buy or build. That is always the question in a wood shop. No question it is a lot of work. Even if it is fundamentally easy. I chose to build mine, though I built about half as much as what you are looking at. Only you can decide how valuable your time is. For me, I looked forward to and enjoyed building my cabinets. And I could spend significant time working on it. But everyone is different. If all you have is a few hours on a weekend to work in the shop, you could spend months building cabinets.

Another thing to keep in mind is you don't have to build all of them at once. And as mentioned, there my be ways to buy carcasses and build them out with drawers, shelves, and doors to your liking. The one thing about drawers is, I'm not sure any of-the-shelf drawers are sturdy enough for long term shop use. That's one advantage to building your own drawers, you can make them as sturdy as you want. Also, there are plenty of ways to build strong drawers easily. No need to use things like dovetails. Shop cabinets are meant to be functional.

If you decide to build, there are simpler and more complex ways to do it. As mentioned, don't build in the toe box in the lower cabinets. In my case, I was on a sloping side of my garage. So even using a frame on the floor to set them on would have been awkward. So, I used heavy duty adjustable legs designed for cabinet use. These worked out great. They also came with brackets that I attached to boards to create the toe or kick plate. These just snap on. So I can remove these and actually store some things under them.

I also know I bought a book on easy shop cabinets (hard-copy or digital, I don't remember). I just can't remember anything about it or where it is to be able to tell you the name of it. I know I didn't build mine like he did, but got some useful ideas. And that guy had it down to a science.

In my case, I built the carcasses out of prefinished birch plywood. This saved a huge amount of work not having to put a finish on the cabinet boxes, inside or out. I used white melamine for all the doors and drawer fronts. Having simple slab doors and drawer fronts makes that easy. I used iron on edge banding to finish off the edges. And of course being melamine, no finishing work needed there either.

I made the drawer boxes from unfinished Baltic birch. I used unfinished because there were more critical glue joints and the prefinished surfaces don't take glue. So, I had to spend some time on finishing those boxes. I used wipe on poly. Obviously a spray gun would make this trivial.

I found it very satisfying to build my own, but everyone is different.


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## pottz (Sep 15, 2015)

i think you answered your own question when you said "mine would be better,stronger,longer lasting and made to my preferences" but if time is that tight maybe you should go with the lowes pre made ones.for me it's shop made all the way.


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## LesB (Dec 21, 2008)

The alternative to building new cabinets is to search for used ones. You can look locally for re-sellers that handle used commercial furniture and cabinets (and possibly domestic, like kitchen cabinets) to see what they have. Also search Craigs list for cabinets….there are lots of them.

Years ago I got an 8' cabinet with laboratory type drawers that would have been a real pain to build. The drawers are relatively shallow and wide, 3 to 4" deep by 18" wide. Great for holding a variety of items.


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## DavePolaschek (Oct 21, 2016)

I'm retired, so for me it was trivially easy to decide to build my own. But as you say, your time is valuable, so I would probably buy at least a minimum of cabinets pre-constructed.

The big benefit to having built my own is that all my tills for storing tools hang on cleats, and just got stuffed with shop rags to keep things in place, screwed shut, and moved to NM. When I got here and the shop was built, I put up cleats, hung the tills on the walls, unscrewed the doors and went to work.

Or you could go the MaFe route and pack everything in systainers for easy transport.


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

I'm with Potz. Too, there is that I like looking up and seeing all my categorized tools, both for finding them and for placing them back in their spot

Router and related
Hand saws
Drill press, bits, hand drills and a ton of related

My fifty years of experience organizing my shop taught me I will have to rebuild nearly every cabinet I make, because of additions. For example, the router. I started with one, and have eleven now. In addition to bits, there are edge guides, oval and circle jigs, extra bases and so on.

The original cabinet grew from about 2'x2' to a couple shelves and a large section of wall and floor (carver, router table, over-arm pin router, Craftsman whatcamacallit).

Then there are the layout tools that include, but are not limited to:

Squares (try, 12" and 24" L, engineers)
Triangles , ovals, circles, compasses, digital and analog angle gauges. . . . .
Set up blocks, 1-2-3 blocks
Box joint gauge, . . . .
Rulers, yard sticks, tape measures
Marking gauges
Templates and patterns (lettering, floral, etc.)
Carving, chisel work
Polishing and sanding (sheets, pads, replacement pads, polish compounds and pads,. . . .)
Grinding
. . . .

Then there are:

Screws, nails, . . . .
Plugs, buttons, 
Glues, resins
Finishes (on that one, heated is nice)
Tapes
Soldering equipment
Electrical equipment
Spare parts
. . .


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## jonah (May 15, 2009)

You can also look at local ReStore type places. They often have whole bunches of mismatched cabinets for cheap. I got three for my garage shop for I think $120. Who cares if they don't match or aren't top quality construction? It's shop furniture.

I'd start with a maybe 3-4 ~36" used cabinets and then built your own from there. If you find you want to replace those original ones after some time, go for it - you're only out a hundred bucks or so.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

From a cost vs time perspective, I think you can save a good bit by building. Especially if you go to a commercial supplier and buy sheet goods in bulk. Same with drawer pulls, hinges, door handles etc. That only accounts for materials vs pre-made cabinets though. Your time is still valuable and it's a loosing proposition any way you factor it if you charge your time at a reasonable rate.

For me it would come down to answering two questions:

Do I enjoy cabinet work?
Is it important to me to have these cabinets custom built just the way I want them?

If the answer to both is "yes" order a buttload of plywood ;-p If the answer to #1 is no and the answer to #2 is yes, consider hiring someone to build cabinets to your specs. If you answer "no" to both, then hit habitat/lowes/hd and start picking up the cheapest stuff you can find.


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## rwe2156 (May 7, 2014)

First, you can built them in 8' sections to cut down on materials and work.

Second, do you really want low end cabs in your shop? Often they go with cheap, low end drawer slides and door hardware.

That said, if you've never ventured in to cabinet making & you've got a learning curve, and you want to get to work on projects, it may not pay off for you, time wise.


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## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

Jocks,
Thank you all so much for your input. I have been given a lot of good advice here, from many different perspectives. 
I'll post something when I get it all figured out!


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## AndyJ1s (Jan 26, 2019)

Much more work and expense, but I vastly prefer drawers (with full-extension slides) on lower cabinets, to doors with shelves behind them.

No more bending over to see what's there at the back of a 2' deep cabinet.


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## northwoodsman (Feb 22, 2008)

Cost-wise I would guess it would be about the same. I think that you would be happier if you could customize them to your needs by building them yourself. A 30' Wall of cabinets is a LOT of cabinets. With many of the pre-made ones like the ones at Lowe's you may have a fixed full or partial shelf where you really don' want it. My latest find was pre-finished plywood. Woohoo! That's a real time saver and game changer for me. Taking a look at my shop and toll assortment, I lean towards large drawers. My favorite shop cabinets are old commercial file cabinets, the ones 3-4 feet wide and 5' - 6' tall. I have one that I'm not sure what you call it but is has 8 shelves on drawer slides and 4 doors that open up and can slide into the cabinet. If you only slide the doors in a few inches they make perfect shelves for a temporary solution when working on a project. Getting down on your knees looking in a cabinet for something isn't fun and only get s worse as you get older.


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## Axis39 (Jul 3, 2019)

What's your time worth? You say you don't have much, but what does that really mean? Not asking for my knowledge, just suggesting something to think about. I always have to ask myself what the ROI is! Or, at least I should…. LOL

What are your goals for woodworking? Are you satisfied with your level of joinery? Accuracy? What kind of things do you want to build? The reason I ask these is because everything I build, I learn something. Even simple shop storage or furniture, etc.

I am also a guy who builds as he needs it, and experiments with different ideas as I go. I build each storage piece, cabinet, shelf, whatever, to fit the needs of the thing I have and need stored.

i.e. My outfeed/main workbench, has evolved just in the last year it's been in existence… I started with the bench, then added a drawer to store drill bits and screw bits next to the hanging drill and driver spots. Next, I added a shelf for planes. Six months later, another drawer for sandpaper and sharpening things… Now, I'm getting ready to remake the whole thing… Already have the main table top section built and a few pieces cut out for the cabinetry which will go underneath.

But, if you have limited time, or aren't looking to practice building cabinets, go buy the cheap ones. Even at a ridiculously small hourly wage, $150 doesn't go very far. Let's not even talk about what wood is costing these days!


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## Renegade1LI (Jan 21, 2020)

I went shop built, wanted to customize as I go, I also have a source for free high density form plywood. The stuff is perfect for utility work, it has a resin coating on top high quality baltic birch, we use it for refacing concrete forms. Cuts, drills, holds screws great, super strong & comes 1/2" & 5/8" standard, 3/4 & 1" is available, I believe menards sells it last I looked. I constructed my as built ins, than added a top drawer, toe kick drawer & cabinet space, has woked out really good. I'm now thinking of adding doors with storage on the backs & a gasket to seal out fine dust/


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## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

I built one wall of upper and lower cabinets. They are built heavy duty so that I can load drawers up without worry. Mine are all built Euro style with the holes all drilled and spaced properly. It made installing hinges and drawer slides easy.

I used a lot of plywood but with so many cabinets and parts, building good jigs were critical. It was a lot of work but well worth it.


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## Jake229 (Jan 14, 2020)

Those are very nice cabinets Redoak! Working on designing mine currently. I do like the natural pine look!


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## jkm312 (Jan 13, 2020)

If it were me I would definitely build them myself. Having built several custom kitchens, old school construction, front frames doweled together and then tongue and groove onto the base sides, dadoed top and bottom shelves, top frames in the base cabinets. I've looked at some mass produced economy cabinets in the big box stores, not for me, I know better. For doors and drawer fronts I used plywood with a reverse bevel on them.

You will want some heavier drawer slides, full extension. Counter top width, 25" for kitchen cabinets. I use 32" in the shop. Just enough extra room to work with, more of a plus for my habits. At least the clutter is back out of the way.

In a shop environment the cabinets will get a lot harder use than in a kitchen. Standard kitchen counter height is 36" Is that the right height for you in a shop environment?

Hang the wall cabinets first, then install the bases under them. I would consider hanging all of them on french cleats. On the base cabinets I put in a 3×3 block in the bottom front corners with a t nut and a long carriage bolt that goes up into the block to level them up and support them. You can take them with you on a future move, or when you make changes to the shop. We all do.

Lastly I'm a firm believer in building as the need arises. That way you can build to suit your needs, not work to fit into what you have already built, that may not be what you want or ideal because of past decisions. Take the time to get it as right as you can the first time. Used to have an old time carpenter in the family. He pointed out people never have time to do it right the first time, but give up a lot of extra time, effort and money to get it right the second time. As a youngster, I never liked it when he bit me like that!

Good luck in your final decisions John, lots of us have been up and down this road several times.


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## Goliath (Dec 12, 2020)

I'd use construction lumber to build one really long open faced counter, with just one shelf below maybe, and put a decent top on it. As I lived life in my shop, I'd add drawers, frames, doors as inspiration hit. And it would be strong enough to stand on or pound on… If need arose.

It's no sweat or big loss to cut out a segment when you get a new piece of equipment that you'd want against a wall.. like a lathe or something.

I did this, and ended up putting sliding doors on it. I used super cheap 3/16th inch sheet lam stuff I got a lowes on some pine tracks I made on my table saw. I did two colors of stain and nice handles, and it looks fabulous, cost me almost nothing, and was done in two hours. Now all my pain/stain/etc cans are invisible, bit easy to find.


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## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

Folks, I just re-read through the replies, and just want to say THANK YOU to everyone for all of the constructive input. This thread would be a great resource for anyone in the future who wants ideas on shop storage or cabinet building.
I've decided on how to move forward, and I've started a blog about it here:
Lumberjocks Cabinet Blog
Sawdust won't be made until after Christmas.


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## gerrym526 (Dec 22, 2007)

I reviewed this thread, and read your blog.

Like you I'm completing a 30×30 stand alone workshop building in Jan.

Would like to offer 2 suggestions that have nothing to do with comparing costs of bought vs. built, but I think are valuable to your design process.

1) Make a complete list of what will be in your storage space, then categorize (e.g. tools, parts, jigs, fasteners, etc.),
2) Design your storage not focused on cost, but on how effective it is at keeping the categories of "stuff" organized and quickly available for the way your project workflow occurs (an example would be planning storage of fasteners and tools like drills, bits, biscuit joiner, biscuits, pocket screws, etc., and put that storage in an area you designate as "glueup/assembly").

And finally, for your base cabinets, consider building cabinets with drawers of different depths. When we built our house, my wife was adamant about all our base cabinets being drawers (or lazy susans in the corners). I wasn't sure of her idea at first, but after living with the kitchen for 3 years (I cook as much as she does-a lot), I'm absolutely sold on drawers for base cabinets as one of the best uses of that storage space.

Hope this helps your design work. As I build cabinets for my shop when I'm moved in, I'll post project pics here-so everyone can see how the storage design unfolds.
Gerry


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

I mentioned the same thing Gerry did, early on, because my fifty years of shop experience taught me the things I put in a cabinet will grow. For example, I went from one router to an over-arm, a table, about eleven routers, oval jig & circle jigs, bases, etc, and two more etc.

That aside, there is a reason ALL my lower kitchen cabinets have drawers rather than just shelves - my wife no longer has to remove anything to get to something else.


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