NCCER Cabinetmaking key terms

A framework of stiles and rails attached to the front edge of a cabinet box, adding rigidity and providing the mounting surface for doors and drawer fronts.

The vertical member of a face frame or door frame; in a door, the stiles are the upright pieces that hold the panel and carry the hinges.

The horizontal member of a face frame or door frame, spanning between stiles and often sized to match the reveal lines of adjacent drawers and doors.

The structural box of a cabinet, made of sides, top, bottom, and back, which supports shelves, drawers, and the face frame or door overlay.

A recessed base area at the bottom front of base cabinets that lets a person stand close to the counter; typically 3 to 4 inches high and set back about 3 inches.

A floor-standing cabinet that supports a countertop, usually 34-1/2 inches high before the counter, and commonly 24 inches deep.

An upper cabinet hung on the wall above a counter, typically 12 inches deep, with height and mounting height set by kitchen layout and clearance needs.

The visible gap or overlap between a door or drawer front and the frame around it; consistent reveals are a key mark of quality workmanship.

The amount a door or drawer front covers the face frame, described as full, half, or partial; it determines hinge type and clearance requirements.

A flat-bottomed groove cut across the grain of a board to receive a shelf, partition, or back panel, providing mechanical support and alignment.

A step-shaped cut along the edge or end of a board, commonly used at the back of a cabinet to house the back panel flush with the sides.

A channel cut parallel to the grain, often used to hold a drawer bottom or back panel; unlike a dado, it runs lengthwise along the board.

The rear closure of a cabinet that squares the carcass and blocks dust; often thin plywood or hardboard set into a rabbet or stapled to the rear.

A sheet good made of layers of wood veneer glued at alternating grain directions, giving stable, strong panels less prone to movement than solid wood.

An engineered panel made of wood particles bonded with resin; inexpensive and flat but weak at fasteners and vulnerable to moisture swelling at cut edges.

Medium-density fiberboard, an engineered panel of fine wood fibers pressed with resin; it machines and paints smoothly but swells badly when wet.

A resin-impregnated paper surface fused to a particleboard or MDF core, giving a durable, cleanable finish common in inexpensive cabinet interiors.

A thin strip of matching material applied to the exposed edges of engineered panels to seal them and hide the core, improving appearance and moisture resistance.

A thin slice of real wood glued to a panel surface to give the look of solid lumber while keeping the panel's stability and lower cost.

A concealed cup hinge bored into the door back, with an adjustable mounting plate on the cabinet side; it allows three-way adjustment of the door.

A paired metal track that supports and guides a drawer; types include side-mount, undermount, and ball-bearing full-extension slides rated by load capacity.

A slide feature that lets a drawer pull out far enough to expose the entire drawer box, giving full access to contents.

The four-sided drawer container, usually joined with dovetails, box joints, or dowels, with a bottom panel set into grooves in the sides.

An interlocking joint with flared pins and tails that resists pulling apart; a hallmark of quality drawer construction, often cut with a router jig.

A joint of interlocking square fingers, also called a finger joint, that provides good glue surface and is simpler to cut than a dovetail.

A joint reinforced by an oval compressed-wood biscuit glued into matching slots cut with a plate joiner, used for edge gluing and carcass assembly.

A coarse-threaded screw designed for particleboard and MDF, usually driven into a pre-bored stepped hole to join cabinet panels without splitting the core.

A pair of interlocking 45-degree beveled strips, one on the wall and one on the cabinet, used to hang wall cabinets level and flush.

A tool with a bubble vial used to check that a surface is horizontal; cabinets must be leveled side to side and front to back before fastening.

Exactly vertical, as checked with a level held against a wall or cabinet side; plumb walls and cabinet sides keep doors and reveals even.

A thin wedge of wood or plastic placed under or behind a cabinet to correct out-of-level floors and walls before the unit is fastened in place.

A marked strip used to transfer repeated measurements, such as hinge or shelf-pin locations, directly to workpieces without measuring each one separately.

A small metal peg or sleeve inserted into a line of holes in a cabinet side to support adjustable shelves at chosen heights.

The width of material removed by a saw blade; it must be allowed for when cutting to a line or making a series of repeated cuts.

A violent ejection of material back toward the operator, caused by binding or climb-cutting on a table saw or miter saw; prevented with riving knife and push sticks.

A shop-made or commercial tool used to feed stock past a saw blade while keeping hands a safe distance from the cutting edge.

A blade-shaped guard that rises and falls with the saw blade to prevent the kerf from closing and causing kickback on a table saw.

The planned sequence of progressively finer abrasive grits used on a surface before finishing, removing scratches from each prior grit before moving on.

A thin first coat applied to wood before the topcoat to limit absorption, raise and stiffen grain, and improve the smoothness of the final finish.