Final Assembly
A finished cabinet is a stainless frame, a timber or acrylic interior, glass in the door frames, and a compressor in its bay. They arrive from different places and they have to end up in the same box at the same tolerance.
What comes together, and in what order
| Stage | What is fitted | The thing that goes wrong if it is done early |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Frame | Welded stainless carcass, squared | Nothing else can be true if the carcass is not square |
| 2. Base and interior | Oak or acrylic cradle, shelves, dividers | Fixing through a finished panel leaves a mark you cannot polish out |
| 3. Glass | Double-glazed or single panel set into the door frame | Glass ordered before the door is welded is glass ordered to the wrong size |
| 4. Cooling | Compressor unit into its bay, evaporator, controller | Cutting the bay after insulation means re-insulating the cut |
| 5. Seal and hinge | Magnetic seal, top-and-bottom hinge, strike | A door hung before the seal is fitted is hung twice |
| 6. Test | Cool-down run, light check, door gap check | Faults found after packing are found in another country |
The interior: oak, acrylic or stainless
North American red oak is the standard timber cradle: it machines well, it takes a stain, and it costs a fraction of white oak. White oak is chosen for the open grain, not for durability.
Acrylic makes the bottles appear to float and it is the most photographed option. It also scratches, and it yellows under UV, which is why we only specify it behind glass and never in an open rack.
The compressor bay
The unit sits in its own bay with the condenser fan drawing through the plinth and exhausting at the front, so the cabinet can stand tight to the wall.
The bay is sized for the service access the unit needs — a controller that cannot be reached without removing the cabinet is a warranty problem waiting to happen.
Why one factory for the whole box
The alternative is a joiner building a carcass, a glazier supplying doors, and a kitchen company supplying a fridge that does not quite fit the opening. Three tolerances, three suppliers, and nobody who owns the gap.
Building all of it means the door, the carcass, the cradle and the cooling are designed against one set of numbers.
The detail behind the text
From this page to a delivered cabinet
- Made in
- Shunde, Foshan, China — frame, finish and assembly in one workshop
- Frame
- 18 mm stainless sightline, folded to the measured wall
- Materials
- Stainless steel, tempered or low-E glass, felt-lined bottle cradle
- Cooling
- Embraco compressor, 110 V / 60 Hz for the US, 220–240 V elsewhere
- Production
- 30 to 40 days after the 50% production deposit, quoted per project
- Delivery
- Crated, collected by your forwarder, with a numbered setting-out drawing
- Installation
- By your fitter, to our drawing; we dry-fit and inspect before crating
The questions that come up before an order
Can I supply my own compressor?
You can, but we would rather supply it. The bay, the vent path and the controller protocol are all designed around the unit, and matching a third-party unit usually costs more in redesign than it saves.
Can the interior be changed later?
Cradles can be replaced on most units because they are fixed, not welded in. Changing pitch across the whole cabinet means new cradles for every row.
What is the door gap tolerance?
2 mm even all round, checked before the seal goes on and again after the cool-down run.
Send the wall and the bottle count
Three photographs and a tape measure is enough for a scheme, a finish direction and a price. The drawing fee covers the CAD and the visuals.