Tools and Supplies

Most any average handy man will probably have the tools that are necessary to do cabinet refacing. There are a few special items that I'll discuss later, but the ones you must have are:

• Sharp Knife or Black Sharpie®
• Battery Powered Drill/Driver (for cabinet doors)
• Various small size drill bits
• 4' & 2' Levels
• Utility Knife (with brand new blades)
• Very sharp and accurate snips (Not ones you've used for roofing!)
• A belt sander is very helpful but you can use sheets of sandpaper
• Gluing brushes; these are basically the cheapest paint brushes you can find, do not use foam and see if you can find some that list application of adhesives. You'll want half a dozen on hand.
• A flat, fine toothed file
• A block of wood and rubber mallet
• Several sheets of 150 grit sand paper

Now, in addition to these tools, there are some that can make your life a little easier and also help you do a better job, more quickly:

• Laminate trim router with flush cut bit (this is a very small router, the flush cut bit should be the ball-bearing type)
• Center punch or self-centering drill bit
• Laminate roller
• Laminate slicer

These are by no means a must, but they will help you work efficiently.

Some supply companies will let you give them measurements for face frame and give you pre-sliced pieces and larger sheets for the side panels. Others will give you large sheets of laminate or veneer, and you'll have to slice them to usable dimensions.

The file is for finishing edges. The laminate trim router is for the same thing but will do the job more quickly albeit more messy. You'll be touching up the edges with the sandpaper. The utility knife is for trimming pieces and also slicing, if you don't get a slicer. The levels will be used as a straight edge, and also when installing the New Doors.

In the next article, I'm going to show you how to correctly measure your cabinets so you can place your order.