Cam and Dowel Cabinets.
Cam and Dowel cabinets are high production cabinets generally made from low-density Mfc, they are usually made in large fully mechanised factories. Super Stores sell this type of cabinet, along with trade and various high street outlets. The cabinets are cheap to make allowing the seller more room for overheads and profit. Cam and Dowel cabinet construction tends to be inflexible because the factories cannot fully cope with client choice first time every time.
Machine made Cam and Dowel cabinets are built to a price. The back panels are very often of a much thinner material than the side panels. Thin back panels are grooved into the side panels as shown above. They are of course loose in the groove as they would not fit otherwise. Kitchen cabinets need a solid back panel to ensure stability in the left-right plane; ill fitting, thin, grooved-in back panels cannot offer this stability. Cam and Dowel cabinets such as these are often available as flat packs, ready for you to assemble at home.
I am sure we can all recall the fun of assembling a cabinet together. Is the left the right, is one up-side-down, where are the legs, don’t let the dog chew that I need it! I am sure that many of us have promised not to do it again.
We don’t have to anymore. There are people all over the country putting these cabinets together for you. Many kitchen suppliers buy in flat Cam and Dowel cabinets, put them together and deliver them to you as a “Ridged Kitchen”. Delivered as a complete cabinet does not mean it is not a flat pack, it still came in a box, you just never saw the box. Watch out for the Cam and Dowel. Here we can see the Cam, the dowel is internal to the board.
Machine made cabinets are made by machine, they cannot check for quality with that personal touch throughout the production process. The machines that create Cam and Dowel cabinets cannot maintain the accuracy necessary to provide a perfect cabinet every time. It is far cheaper to use low-density Mfc board as it wears the machinery less, it weighs less in delivery systems and is cheaper in the first instance as it does contain the quantity of wood and resin that a high-density cabinet board will have.