DIY Modular Oven Cabinet

Bosch Home Appliances recently added a built-in microwave to their appliance line-up. And then there was a newer version of the convection oven launched as well. One of these German beauties was sitting on a carton box and the other was getting bored in the warehouse.

I wanted to tryout a knock-down furniture piece with Mini-Fix fixtures and pre-laminated plywood. Pre-laminated boards, cuts down the build time drastically. The project is easy to knock down and it is easy to reuse the material for a different project very easily.

On the other hand, the fixtures are not very robust and can break during repeated assembly/disassembly.  They can carry a limited of load and will need some additional design considerations for heavy load. The fixtures are not expensive, @ Rs 7 per set, buy additional sets when you get the hardware to replace the broken ones.

There are some vendors who will also paste your choice of laminate on to your choice of board and make pre-laminated boards to your requirement. Getting them to transport it to your place for a single piece would not be cost effective. Alternatively, you can buy the laminates and plywood separately and laminate the boards yourself, 1 day prior to starting the main work.

The first day was a long one. It started with cutting the side panels and making a jig for drilling the holes for mini-fix cam and dowels. Next, we drilled all the holes on the side walls and inserted the nylon inserts to hold the pins in place. The jig, which was made earlier, was used to guide the drill and make holes


Bosch microwave weighs about 16 kg and the oven weighs 35 kg. For carrying this load with the mini-fix setup, dados were made in the wall panels where the ovens were to be placed. Mini-fix dowels were also placed in the dado groove. Dados would carry the main load and the mini-fixes would hold the structure in place. These shelves were wider than the other shelves to account for the dado depth. Dados were routed with a Skil 1825 Palm Router, using the jig as guide.

Holes for the cam were made on shelves with the same jig. 3 sets of mini-fixes were used for each shelf joint. After all the holes were done and the mini-fix dowels attached, each panel and mini-fix was tested individually ("unit testing") to get a good fit. Same process was repeated for the other side. The complete assembly was put together for an "integration testing".

10 mm plywood was screwed on the back side. The back panel prevented the structure from swaying sideways and provided rigidity. It took about 10 hrs of work to get to this point.

On second day, all the exposed edges were covered with white PVC edges for edge binding. Fevicol PVCFix adhesive, which came in a handy dispenser tube, was used to bind the PVC strip on the edges. Overhanging PVC Strips were removed with a sharp chisel.

Panels for the doors and drawers were also edge-bound. Hettich fittings were used for doors and drawers. Teak beading was pasted on the edges resting on the floor. Footboard installation is still to be done.

Material:

• White Pre-laminated 8x4 plywood sheets (19mm) : 2 Nos
• White edge-banding PVC Tape : 40 ft
• Fevicol PVCFix 500gm dispenser
• Plywood 8x4 (10 mm) : 1 No
• Mini-fix sets : 50 Nos
• Side-on hinges : 1 No
• Drawer slider : 1 No
• 1" Screws : 100 Nos
• 3" C Clamps : 2 Nos
• Drill bits and Forstner Bits for Mini-fix

Power Tools:

• Bosch GSB 500 RE Drill Gun
• Skil Cordless Drill Driver 2412
• Bosch Circular Saw GKS190
• Skil Palm Router 1825
• Bosch GSR Prodrive