Shelf holes feature request

[Jeremy Schiffer]

Hi all,

A very useful feature regarding adjustable shelf holes would be the option to just linebore the entire end of a cabinet when adding a shelf, with insets for top and/or bottom. I think most people would find this far more useful/practical than X number of holes up/down. Another very nice feature would be the automatic adding/subtracting of shelves as a cabinet height changes, similar to how hinge placement works now. These two features would make libraries of seed cabinets shrink by many orders of magnitude.

Thoughts?

[Mark McCallum]

Hi Jeremy
They would be nice little QOL improvements.

For line boring we adopted a idea I saw posted on here a while ago which was to put in the bottom shelf and apply shelf holes up (perhaps 20) then untick add shelf holes button, save the cabinet then every additional shelf then gets added holeless.
The only problem is if you forget and you reduce the cabinet height then the holes run up to the top of the cabinet.
I suppose you could apply cabinet locks, but that's not reducing your cabinet libraries and its still more complicated than your idea.
I wonder if the Thermwood team are working on a new version.

[Jeremy Schiffer]

Hi Mark, yeah, the main problem is of course the line boring running off the top of the cabinet if you change the cabinet height. Along with just about everyone else, we are handling it like you - first shelf creates the line bore, added shelves are added without holes. It works fine as long as the cabinet height doesn't change. It renders the idea of a "seed" cabinet useless in that regard, because the number of holes and their distance from the top & bottom of the end panels are not parametric.

[Jesse Ogburn]

I wholeheartedly second this idea!!
I am doing it the way everyone else is doing it but I've often wondered how hard it would be to add an option to generate the pin holes from the height of the cabinet end minus a specified inset.
If it was based on the height of the cabinet in some way that would eliminate the holes running off the edge and it would save me a LOT of library space and that translates to less looking around for the correct cabinet and means more time to build cabinets and goof off

[Ralph Balanik]

Hi Jeremy,
I'll ramble a bit. Many years ago when everything was done on conventional tools (table saws, drill press etc.) I was running a 3man shop. I did not get a lot of on the job experience before I started my own shop so I did a lot of trial and error type of developement to learn my craft. I started out doing a lot of right and left componements but too often during assembly or machining something would inevitably get screwed up and half way to the finish line we fould ourselves rebuilding something. I did not have any elaborate drilling equipment so I made a template of 1/2 inch material and drilled all the shelf holes after the cabinet was assembled by placing the template in the cabinet and drilling the holes on one side then moving it and drilling the holes on the other side. I did not drill from top to bottom of the cabinet but drilled maybe 5 holes per shelf. (it was a lot of work ) Until I got my CNC that was the way I did it.

When I started using E cabinets I found out how to do the same thing so I find myself using the holes up and holes down method and never gave it a thought until I read this post, never realized how many people want a continuous line of holes so I felt I must comment.

When I build an upper cabinet, I build it so that the top and the deck are inset, but flush to the sides which makes it a universal cabinet. I can flip the cabinet upside down and it looks no different. I put however many shelves into the cabinet are required and equalize the spacing and go 3 up and 3 down with holes that are centered on the shelf. this makes the right and left cabinet ends reversable too. I space the hinges 3 1/2 inches from the top and bottom of the cabinet and I order the doors to be the same height as the cabinet.

In my library I have 10 upper cabinets that I choose from and they work for almost all of the upper cabinets I would normally use in a kitchen. My cnc does all the machining!!

I do agree with you that for those who prefer a continuous line of holes having a couple more easy buttons would be nice.
## I started doing woodwork in 1970 and in all the years that have passed I have never once had a customer call or complain about the number of holes or lack of adjustability provided.--- That I recall