Considering the number of holes that have to get drilled into a cabinet box to accommodate the hinges, shelves and slides, a custom woodworking shop needs to have a certain level of proficiency on its line-boring equipment to push products along. Several top equipment suppliers have provided the following “lineup” of tips on how to get the most out of a line-boring machine.

Adam Lopuk, national sales manager, Adwood Corp.: The biggest single tip I can give for making a line drill more productive is not to think of the machine as just a line drill to drill holes for adjustable shelves. To get the most productivity from a line drill machine is to use it as an important part of the 32mm system process when producing frameless cabinets. What I mean by this is to not only use the machine to drill the holes for the adjustable shelves, but also locate the first row of the holes 37mm back from the front edge of the cabinet and incorporate that row to accept your hinge mounting plates and front end of the drawer slides (they have a hole pattern of 32mm OC.)

The second row is used to mount your rear end of the drawer slides, and that distance is determined from the length of your drawer slide (the length between the mounting holes are also 32mm OC.)

This process can be done on a single-line drill. But to be most efficient, I would recommend a double-line drill with a minimum of 25 spindles per row, that drills from underneath. It is also nice to have a digital readout that measures from the fence to each head position to make for a quick and easy setup.

Ase Stornetta, president, Ritter Mfg.: To gain the most productivity per man-hour, use a double-row line drill. This allows for a one-point reference to the face of the panel and will eliminate turning panels and having to use multiple reference points to locate the line-drilled holes. Absolutely, square panels are not such a high priority as when you are using a single row line drill with a shallow throat depth.

Jim Strain, president, Mini-Max Inc.: Many custom shops are aware of the benefits of the 32mm system for frameless cabinetry. But this system can really speed up traditional face-frame construction, too.

Assemblers will have a fast “foolproof” way of locating hinges and drawer slides, just like a frameless cabinet, by doing the following:

• Build the cabinet box flush to the inside of the face frame, and all the 32mm rules apply.

• Set the first row of holes 37mm from the outside (or face) of the face frame for overlay doors and 37mm from the inside (or back) of the face frame for inset doors.

It is important to reference both rows from the front edge of the panel, so the drawer slides fit on the system holes.

Donnie Bell, classical division manager, SCM Group USA Inc.: My biggest recommendation for maximizing productivity is simply to look for a versatile machine. If you can, get a machine with the capability to do both horizontal and vertical drilling, coupled with the ability to do mirror imaging.