Kitchen Cabinets

March 30, 2026

Kitchen Cabinets

During and after the rebuilding of the Kitchen Counter, I started to work on other repairs in our kitchen. In this post I describe the repair of our kitchen cabinets. See also Dishwasher Control Panel, Refrigerator Bins, and Storage Under Sinks.

Getting doors to close

Several years ago I replaced the hinges in the kitchen cabinet below the counter. Because the new hinges were not identical to the hinges they replaced, the doors beneath the sink did not close properly. There was also a similar, but less severe problem, with another pair of doors.

I showed Alfons the problem and told him I thought it could be solved by slightly recessing the hinges. He said to outline the hinge to be recessed, remove the hinge, and then use a chisel to allow for the hinge to be set more deeply.

After chiseling behind the upper hinges of the left and right doors, the doors under the sink closed properly, the first time in years.

I had the same result for the other pair of doors by chiseling behind the upper and lower hinges of the left door.

Securing formica to cabinets

The masking tape around the edges of the doors in the picture above was there because the formica had become loose. David Brorein, the machinist who has done so much brilliant work on my bike, told me to use contact cement to secure the formica to the doors. The only contact cement available at the Home Depot in my neighborhood was highly flammable (what used to be called inflammable) and included the instruction to shut off all gas in the building. In my coop that would have required hiring a licensed plumber, and in any case I didn't want to use anything so flammable. Instead I used non-flammable contact cement I bought at amazon.

Besides two clamps, I used my vise to press the formica onto the doors.

Two strips of formica under the sink and another strip on the opposite side of the cabinet also needed to be secured with contact cement.

Sealing particle board

The particle board to the left of the cabinet had suffered water damage and needed to be stabilized.

David Brorein told me to apply Glaze Coat clear epoxy, which is used on the top of bars. I also applied it to the front edge of the surface below the sink.

This worked perfectly.

Painting plywood black on both sides of stove

The new plywood to the left of the stove was covered with RedGard, while the plywood to the right of the stove was not. The stove would hide most of the plywood, but a small part on each side would show. I don't have a picture showing the raw plywood to the right of the stove, but if you look carefully at the picture below you'll see a little bit of red to the left of the stove.