Build Cabinet Doors
Transcript of Build Cabinet Doors
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Stile
Rail
Rail
Panel
Groove
Tenon
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There are many styles of cabinet doors,but none is more popular than the frame-and-panel door.
Its dimensions, edge treatments and panels can be modi-
fied to create a nearly endless variety of designs to suit
just about any dcor.
One of my favorite designs (and maybe the most ver-
satile) is a flat-panel door with square edges on the frame
pieces. This design is relatively easy to build and looks
great in a variety of settings, from traditional to modern.
Ive made a lot of these doors over the years, and in
doing so Ive developed methods for working faster,smarter and better. To follow these techniques, all you
need are basic woodworking knowledge and access to a
planer, a table saw, clamps and a drill press or drill guide.
DesignEach door is made of five components: one panel, two
vertical stiles and two horizontal rails. The panel is 1/4-
in.-thick plywood centered in a frame of 3/4-in.-thick
solid wood. The panel fits in a 1/2-in.-deep groove in the
inside edge of each stile and rail, and the rail ends have
tongues (tenons) that fit in the grooves in the stiles.
When assembled, the panel edges and frame joinery
are hidden.
My construction techniques require that the stile
and rail stock be exactly the same thickness (3/4 in. or
very close to it). The tenons and grooves are made
with two saw cuts, one cut relative to each face. This
process centers the tenons and grooves in each stile
and rail, and it eliminates alignment issues that typi-
cally occur when making cuts relative to only one
face. This is why its critical that the stile and rail stockbe the same thickness.
The overall size of each door is determined by a
few factors. The first is the size of the cabinet opening.
I always try to make doors close to twice as tall as they
are wide; they look and function best when made in
these proportions. That means using two doors over
wide cabinet openings.
The next factors in determining the door size are
how the door will fit on the cabinet and the type of
hinge that the door will use. A door can cover the cab-
inet opening in an overlay, lipped or inset style. The
easiest type to make, an overlay door, rests on top of
the cabinet face frame (or the box in the case of a
frameless cabinet). The amount of overlay is partially
determined by the hinge you use, so you must buy the
hinges before you start construction.
My favorite hinge for this type of door is the overlayconcealed 35mm European-style hinge (see SOURCES
ONLINE). This hinge mounts to the side of the cabinet
or face frame and in a 35mm-dia. mortise in the inside
face of the door. These hinges are big, and some people
consider them unattractive, but they are hidden when
the doors are closed and I like their ease of installation
and functionality. (For more about hinges, see Hinge
Options, p. 28.)
The hinge determines the amount of overlay on
the hinge side of the door. The remaining overlays
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK MACEMON AND PHIL LEISENHEIMER
ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE ANDERSON
BUILDINGCABINET DOORS
Custom doors are easy to make when
you know a few woodworking tricks
BY BRUCE KIEFFER
LIKEA
PRO
FRAME-AND-PANEL DOOR PARTS
Replacing cabinet doors is a great
way to upgrade the appearance of
your kitchen without all the work
and expense of replacing entire
cabinets. Check out Conscious
Kitchen Makeover, p. 18, for
more kitchen-update ideas.
CalCulating Door Part SizeS
Stile length = door height
Rail length* = door width -3-1/4"
Panel length* = stile length -3-1/4"
Panel width = rail length
*Based on 2-1/8" wide stiles, 1/2" long tenons
and/or 1/2"-deep panel grooves.
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should be a minimum of 5/16 in. and allow for at least
1/16 in. of space between doors.
I make all of the stiles and rails for a typical cabinet door
2-1/8 in. wide. I like that look, and that width allows for
enough space to comfortably mount European-style hinges.
It is helpful to make a scale drawing of your cabinets
that includes the proposed door size, overlays and gaps.
Doing so will help you determine the door sizes and giveyou a feel for what the doors will look like. One final
design consideration is the material and finish you will
use. When your design work is done, make a list of all the
doors and sizes youll need.
The next step is to figure out the door-part sizes (see
illustration, p. 25). Remember to include the length of the
rail tenons when you calculate the length of the rails. The
tenons should be at least 1/2 in. long so theres plenty of
gluing surface on the rail-to-stile joints. Longer tenons are
necessary for larger doors, such as tall pantry-cabinet doors.
With your cutting list in hand, its time to buy the
wood and head to the shop. You can use 3/4-in. S2S (sur-
faced two sides) lumber from a home center, but youll
have much better luck if you buy thicker or rough-sawn
lumber from a hardwood lumberyard and then plane it
down to 3/4 in.
ConstructionRough cut the stile and rail pieces 1/4 in. wider and 1 in.
longer than their finished dimensions. Plane the stock
using a thickness planer (photo 1, above). Plane equal
amounts off of each face, alternating faces as you go. Do
not change any setting when making the final pass. Now
cut the finished lengths of these pieces, but hold off on
cutting the widths.
Rough cut the panels 1/2 in. wider and 1/2 in. longer
than their finished dimensions. Check the thickness of all
of the panels to determine their consistency. Use the thick-
est piece as a sample for setting up to cut the rail tenons.
The rails are intentionally wide at this point because
cutting the tenons causes tear-out on the edges, and cut-ting the finished widths later will remove the rough
edges. This also means that the grooves are cut after the
tenons, but you will need a groove to test the fit of the
tenons. The solution to this dilemma is to make a test
groove in scrap wood (photo 2); then youll cut the
tenons to fit the test groove. Afterward, youll cut the
actual grooves to fit the tenons.
Before you crosscut the rail tenons (photo 3), test your
setup on scrap wood. Cut the finished widths of the stiles
and rails, and sand the sawn edges smooth. Be careful not
to round the stile end inside edges where the rail ends fit.
Finally, cut the grooves (photo 4). Make these grooves fit
the rail tenons, and cut them slightly deeper than 1/2 in.so the joints will be tight when assembled.
Cut the panels to their finished sizes, making sure
they are square. Finish sand the panel faces. Assemble the
doors (photo 5). Then clean up the glue, and sand the
faces and edges smooth.
Hinges and finishHinge-installation instructions are included with most
European-style hinges. Test your hinge-hole drilling
setup on scrap wood; then drill the hinge-cup holes in
Plane all of the stile and rail stock to exactly 3/4 in. thick.
Make extra stock for testing joint cutting and in case you
mess up a piece or two later. The entire door-making process
depends on the stocks being the same thickness.
In a piece of scrap wood, cut a test groove that matches the
thickness of the panel stock. The panel should slide in the
groove without force and without play. This groove will be
used to fit the rail end tenons, which are cut next.
Cut the rail end tenons with a dado blade and table saw. Cut one side, flip the rail over and cut the other side. Use a miter
gauge and stop block to set the cuts so they are 1/2 in. long, and set the blade height so the tenon fits snugly in the test groove
but is not difficult to insert.
Cut the grooves in the stiles and rails. Use a flat-top
1/8-in.-kerf ripping-style sawblade. Make two passes,
flipping the piece around for the second cut. This centers
the groove in the workpiece.
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Glue and clamp the frame around the panel. Do not glue the
edges of the panel; it should float. Avoid applying glue near
the inside joint corners to minimize squeezeout there, which
would be difficult to clean up.
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This one-piece hinge is designed for 3/4-
in.-thick face-frame cabinets. Different
models of this hinge offer a wide range
of overlays and door-opening angles.
This two-piece setup lets you use astandard arm-style hinge mountingplate on 3/4-in. and thicker face-framecabinets. It has a wider range of three-way adjustment than the compact style.
This two-piece setup is used on
frameless cabinets. The mount-
ing plate screws to the inside of
the cabinet.
HINGE OPTIONSHere are three concealed 35mm European-style overlay hinges to consider. All of the hinges shown are easy tomount, self-closing and three-way adjustable: in/out, up/down and side-to-side.
Cmpc scw- hf fc fms
120-d cp- wh fc-fmm p
120-d cp- wh cbm p
Cabinetmountingplate
Frameless
cabinet
Fc fm
Face-frame
mounting plate
Fc fm
Mount the hinges to the doors.
Use a 35mm-dia. Forstner bit to
bore 1/2-in.-deep hinge-cup
holes. Make sure the hinge arms
are square to the door edge.
Hinge-cuphole
Hinge arm
6the doors, and mount the hinges
(photo 6, left). Hang the doors on
the cabinets to check the fit. Trim
the edges where necessary.
Finally, remove the hinges so you
can finish the doors. Ease the sharp
edges of the doors with sandpaper;
then apply the finish. After the fin-
ish has cured, complete the doors by
installing your choice of handles
and reinstalling the hinges. u
Handyman Club Life member Bruce
Kieffer is a custom furniture builder,
freelance woodworking author and tech-nical illustrator. To view a collection of
his work, visit www.kcfi.biz/.
SOURCES ONLINEFor online information, go to
www.HandymanClub.com
and click on WEB EXTRAS.
Woodworkers Hardware
(Blum concealed European-style cabinet hinges;35mm HSS Bit
with Marking Template, No. MP31628)800-383-0130