I work in a Big Cabinet Shop, in the layout and design area. In other words, I create the paperwork that the shop floor uses in order to build the cabinets. Most of the cabinets are self-explanatory, since we base our cabinetry on a 3” increment – the cabinets are a width that is evenly divisible by 3.

Once in a while, there is a cabinet designed that needs extra attention – it cannot be built just by looking at the elevation print that is supplied in the paperwork. This is either a special or custom print, depending on complexity and composition. Any cabinet that does not face the viewer squarely needs a special print, because the software we use measures the width of the cabinet from a fixed point – if the cabinet is angled, it measures how wide the face is from left to right, and if the cabinet is actually wider but is set at an angle, the apparent width is less than the actual. For example, a cabinet that is 17” wide, but sitting at a 45° angle to the other cabinets on the wall, will appear to the software to be 13 15/16” wide, and will be labeled as such. The cabinet list at the bottom of the page has the correct width listed, however.

In order to facilitate the correct building of the cabinets, if a situation arises where a special or custom print is needed, a note is written on the elevation view to that effect: “SPECIAL PRINT C# 2, 3, 5” indicating that cabinets 2, 3, and 5 are different from the norm. A special print is then generated – a separate piece of paper, with the correct dimensions and a cut list for all the parts involved. If it’s really complicated, a set of orthographic drawings will be included on the print.

The quality inspector just came up to my desk and asked me if this cabinet (#5, in this case and the basis for the example above) is really 13 15/16” wide or 17” wide. I confirmed that it needed to be 17” wide. He confirmed that they had built it according to the elevation, not the special print.

I wonder what they do with the special prints that are included in the job papers? It doesn’t seem that they use them in order to build the cabinets….

Bunchamorons.