Need a brad nail gun / how to build a cabinet

[DariusP]

I am currently taking on all the carpentry jobs in a house renovation I am having done. The last time I did 'proper' carpentry was 30 years ago in school, although I spent much of my 20's hungover on the sofa watching Norm on New Yankee Workshop on the Discovery Channel!

So far I have built some fitted shelves and alcove units but I am now going to build some stand alone shelving units with integrated desk. The whole span is about 4m and this will be made up of individual cabinets about 42cm wide and 284cm high. The joins will then be covered with beading of some sort.

I managed to download an episode of New Yankee Workshop with a similar project and am following that as a template. So each cabinet will have fixed shelves near the top and bottom dadoed (is that even a word) into the standards. The back will be rabbeted in.

In the video, the shelves are glued into the dados and then held in place by toenailing brad nails. So my first question is can anyone provide a recommendation for a good electronic nail gun with which I will be able to achieve this toenailing. All the ones I have looked at seem to only be good for 90 degree nailing and I don't want to have to buy a whole compressor system. Or, is there a better/another way of doing this? Is the glue alone enough if clamped well enough?

The second question is that Norm uses 3/4" ply for this job, could I get away with 3/4" MDF? (I know I should use metric and being from a scientific background, completely approve; however there is something about working with wood that makes me want to work in imperial

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Darius

[Rich]

Hiya mate

If clamped well enough, the glue would be enough, so long as its not MDF. MDF will likely just swell up and seperate if anything wet is applied to it, whereas plywood will absorb the glue nicely and not deform.

I used to love watching "this olde house" and the other shows Norm used to do.. Could watch those for hours and hours, always thinking "I could do that if I had my own workshop"...