I am making a 24 x 12 x 40.50 cabinet to hang on the wall in my garage. I am debating what thickness I should use for the back board 1/8,1/4,1/2, or 3/4. The top bottom and sides is 3/4. Seems to be some debate online for how thick it needs to be to keep the box square and stay on the wall. Any thoughts?
I would use the 3/4 that you already have and cut two strips 2 to three inches wide. Then use one on top and one on bottom to keep the box square and also use it to fasten to wall. Then the rest of the opening you can close with whatever you want or keep open and have the wall be the back . my 2 cents
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3/4 for the back.
Recess the back 3/4 from the sides so you can use a french cleat to hang it
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Thanks! I was considering a French cleat but did not want the cabinet to stick out so thanks for providing the solution.
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Yep.
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1/2" should do ya fine all around all day long. I ran a commercial casework manufacturer after I got out of college (we’d do all the millwork/casework in a school/hospital/courthouse/office/etc…) and I can tell you we rarely used 3/4" for casework in production. Nothing wrong with using it, but it’s real beefy overkill IMO. Your 1/2" is gonna be cheaper and lighter weight. You don’t appear to be building something huge, so unless you’re planning on stacking lead weights, I don’t think you need the 3/4".
I won’t claim to be an expert on design, because there are a number of variations to build a box and I wasn’t there long enough to see each and every one, but I probably oversaw production of 10-20 thousand units… We actually built lots of cabs with 1/4" backers and triangular braces. 6" leg triangles in each corner and a set of two 1/2" cleats running across the back should work just fine for what I gather you’re trying to accomplish.
Just my 2c…
EDIT: Don’t be afraid of MDF either… that’s some good stuff.
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Excuse my ignorance and my GoogleFoo is failing me what are 6" leg triangles?
I assume he means triangles that span 6" on each side that brace the box.
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Also consider using shelf pins rather than dados if you want adjustable shelves. If you make a dado wide enough to allow a shelf to slide in it will look sloppy and may splinter.
And not sure if we have a lock miter router bit but if you are planning on using hardwood plywood they make a nice corner joint.
https://www.woodcraft.com/blog_entries/mastering-the-lock-miter-simple-steps-for-airtight-joints
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Right on. Cut some 4 triangles out of ply that are 45-45-90 with the legs being 6” each. Those become your corner braces for lateral stability.
+1 for shelf dowel pins. If I recall the standard shelf pin is 5mm diameter and the holes are spaced 32mm on center vertically. Double check that dia. though because it’s been a while… unless you use MDF for the sides. MDF won’t splinter and works great, but then you’re buying two materials.
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Pegboard makes an easy template for drilling holes for shelf pins.
I designed some 3D-printable shelf brackets a while back. These are parametric, so you can adjust the shelf thickness and hole diameter to fit your project. They have a clip on top to keep the shelf from popping up once installed.
Very cheap to print, too.
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