Quick 'n dirty cabinet doors

scgargoyle · February 08, 2007, 05:29:54 PM

I'm planning a lo-buck kitchen remodel, and want to try making my own cabinet doors. What I have in mind is to cut a rabbet in 1X3 stock, miter the corners, join w/ biscuits, and use pine bead board for infill. I figure if I glue everything, they should be sturdy enough. I plan to paint them. I thought about buying rail and stile cutters (I have a shaper) but the bead board is too thick for any of the standard cutter sets- they are all 1/4". The bead board is 5/16". Any input?

chet · February 08, 2007, 05:52:25 PM

By glueing everything I hope you don't mean da infill. ???

Furby · February 08, 2007, 07:44:18 PM

Yeah, don't glue the infill, but everything else sounds ok.

Don't make the infill panel a super tight fit and make it a touch smaller the the actual space you are filling.
That way it can move a little.

chet · February 08, 2007, 08:02:04 PM

A cheap trick to keep panels from rattling in frame and panel construction, is to lay a fine bead of silicone in the rails and stiles. I also dab a bit of glue at the center point of each panel. This helps eliminate rattles and also holds panels in place.

WDH · February 08, 2007, 10:53:15 PM

I would take the rails and stiles and cut a 5/16' groove for the beadboard panel to float in. You should be able to get a 5/16" straight cutting router bit for not much money. Or, make two passes with a 1/4" straight cutting bit to get the 5/16" needed for the bead board. Pin the middle of the panel on the backside of the door with a pin nailer or brad at the top and bottom rail.

Don_Papenburg · February 08, 2007, 11:37:48 PM

Rabitt the backs of the panels 1/16" deep to fit the groove.

scgargoyle · February 09, 2007, 05:32:10 AM

Hmmm- good ideas. Should I glue the pieces of bead board together, then let that panel float, or should all the pieces float?

WDH · February 09, 2007, 07:29:18 AM

The whole bead board panel can be glued as one unit. It then should float in the grooves of the rails and stiles.

Brad_S. · February 09, 2007, 08:02:28 AM

I wouldn't use mitered corners for many reasons. One is that it just wouldn't look right, another is that miters, IMO, are harder to get good 90° angles on, to name a few. I would rip the groove like WDH suggests, run your stiles the full length of the door and cut tenons on your rails to fit the groove. Don't let the word tenon fool you into thinking it's time consuming and contrary to what you are trying to accomplish here. A straight tenon on a rail is very quick and easy to do on a table saw. I really believe it would speed up the process, gluing and clamping the tenoned door would be faster and easier than aligning and clamping miters.

low_48 · February 09, 2007, 04:44:40 PM

You can also get MDF (medium density fiberboard) that is cut as beadboard. No movement problems with that at all and it paints great. You could use what is called a stub tenon at the rail and stile intersection. Plow the groove in the stiles and rails, then cut a short tenon on the end of the rail. You can use a dado head and miter gage on the table saw for these short tenons. The stock can lay down on the table and be slid through the blade, two cuts required. If you would still be worried about strength, add a couple of "Miller Dowels" after the door is glued together. I get those at Woodcraft. They have a multi step dowel that acts more like a nail than a traditional dowel. They work very well for strength and the stub tenon keeps the parts from racking.

You might even consider adding the stile and rail on top of the MDF beadboard panel. It would be a bit more like moulding then.

brdmkr · February 09, 2007, 09:26:33 PM

I have never done it, but you could just butt-joint the corners with biscuits for reinforcement. Not as strong as a M&T, but you could make them quick enough and they should hold up OK for a cabinet door.

WDH · February 09, 2007, 10:22:50 PM

If you use biscuits, remember that the biscuit slot for a #20 biscuit is wider than a standard 2" wide rail or style. So, the rails and styles have to be designed to be larger than the buscuit slot.

The simplist thing to do is get a door making bit set that cuts the grooves and profiles the rails and styles all at the same time. Also creates a cope and stick joint for joining the rails and styles. Well worth the money. For what you would pay to have one door made you can buy the bit set and run the rails and styles on a router table.

scgargoyle · February 10, 2007, 07:42:14 AM

I'm thinking the rail and stile set more and more. The problem of a butt joint is that if I rabbet the stock first, the gaps will show. All I have for tools right now is a shaper and a good 12" miter saw. I've cut flawless miter joints with a little tweaking. And I'm gonna paint the cabs, so I can fill minor imperfections. I'd go ahead and get a tablesaw, but I really don't have room for one right now. I'll have to look through the tool suppliers for a cutter set. Another problem is I have to find a set of plain cutters- I don't want any 'curly-Q's'- just straight cuts. Otherwise, it will look too busy w/ the bead board. I've been looking at cabinets, and know what I want.

Don_Papenburg · February 10, 2007, 08:29:46 AM

Straight cut will work on your new table saw and then you don't need the new cutters just yet. Get a router bit adaptor for your shaper and make the stop cuts for the panels with a straight bit , 1/2" or 3/8" would work. just stop an inch and a half from each end.

low_48 · February 10, 2007, 09:55:08 AM

If you have a shaper, just get two straight cutters. Make a set up with one cutter for the groove. Make another setup with a spacer between the two cutters for the tenon cut. You might have to put in a paper shim or two to make the fit. I always like to make the first grooving cut less than 1/16" deep feeding in the wrong direction. This will act like a scoring cut and will just about eliminate chipout.

solodan · February 10, 2007, 04:06:46 PM

Quote from: Brad_S. on February 09, 2007, 08:02:28 AM

run your stiles the full length of the door and cut tenons on your rails to fit the groove.

This is a much stronger joint then a biscut or a miter, and will save you time during your lay up. I think I would do a variation of this and make a fork and tenon, which is even stronger. If you must use a miter joint, you could use a keyed miter which is better, but you will see the key, but, you are painting them anyway, and we start getting away from the key word in the title "Quick" You can also cut the 5/16" grove in the stiles and rails with a table saw. So basically you should get the table saw, ;D cause you can do the whole project with just a table saw. If you really don't have the room for one right now, just go get one of those cheap $90 saws that you could store away in a closet.

Now getting back to the title of this thread, let me tell you what I did when I was in the same situation. I had a whole house that I remodeled, I needed to get it rented out so I needed to save time on some things. This is what we did with all of the cabs in the whole house, cause I did not have time to saw and dry the lumber and build new ones. And I sure wasn't gonna buy any. :D We took the old doors off which were plain birch A/A ply. I set the table saw (or you could use a router or circular saw) for 1/8" deep. Then I cut kerf marks 4" on center on all the drawers and the doors. I then cut the rails and stiles for everything from 1x3 alder, butt jointed it all and pinned them in place on top of the ply with a finish nailer. Everything got a dark rich stain and new hardware. It took longer to put the hardware back on then to make the doors. About 35 doors and drawers, took about 4 hrs.

scgargoyle · February 11, 2007, 10:14:59 AM

That's a pretty slick job, there, solodan! Don't think it would look as good w/ my laminate doors, tho'. I've been eyeballin' one of those semi-cheap saws with the folding stand and a set of wheels- Ryobi has one for about $200. It's either that, or get some cutters for my shaper. The only issue is the thickness of the infill. I could either get a 3/8" cutter and grind it down to 5/16", or rabbet the infill down to 1/4". Six of one; half dozen of the other, I guess.

scgargoyle · February 11, 2007, 12:50:41 PM

An update- I measured the beadboard, and it is very nearly 1/4" thick already- only .005" over, so if I can make a 1/4" bit cut a little fat (induce a little wobble, maybe?) I won't have to rabbet the infill. The package said 5/16"- I should have known better!

Qweaver · February 11, 2007, 02:42:58 PM

I was able to buy enough unfinished oak doors to do our cabinets in the cabin, but I think they will look too "finished" for the cabin. I like the look of Solodan's much better. Is there a good online site to get door ideas?
Quinton

scgargoyle · February 11, 2007, 05:45:18 PM

You can check out northwoodsdoors and scherrs. I think they both have an automatic quote feature. You select the door you want, the material, and plug in the quantities and sizes. I'm gonna try home made to save some $$$ and practice for when I build my new house in a couple years.

WDH · February 11, 2007, 10:11:26 PM

Solodan, if you did those doors in 4 hours with that result, you need to go into the cabinet refurbishing business. Those look great!.

solodan · February 11, 2007, 11:08:13 PM

Well thanks, but no thanks :D All the doors themselves took about 4 hrs to saw the lines, rip the alder to 3", and cross cut and pin them in place. Stripping, sanding, staining, finishing, and putting on the hardware took much more time. My wife gets all the credit though, she stripped all the cabinets and doors, and sanded the cabinets. 8) All she let me do was sand the doors. ;D ;) The cabinets in the bath were done too, but some of these were cut down and changed in configuration, so a little time was spent there too.

scgargoyle, I think that practicing and experimenting on your own properties is always a great idea, cause you are reminded everyday of what you would do different next time :D and the end result is you come up with some great ideas and learn things you could probably never learn from anyone else. A friend of mine came over my home a while back and told me that my home looked like a test site. :D

scgargoyle · February 12, 2007, 05:15:48 PM

Sounds familiar, solodan. If they could see inside my garage, I'd probably be arrested, just as a precaution! Considering I have a very well equipped machine shop at my disposal, there's very little I won't try! :D

ksu_chainsaw · February 13, 2007, 10:33:15 AM

Measure that beadboard again- this time with a metric ruler- most plywood now is run in metric dimensions 5.2mm, and they make rail and style cab bits to fit in that dimension of lumber. In the MLCS catalog, they have a matched set of shaker style cutters that you can get a 5.2mm cutter for- #8837, and #296, both of them for $110. Might be too much money, but other places have them also.

Another idea that you might consider is using pocket hole screws to attach the doors together- just get a jig, drill two holes in each end, insert the panel, and screw together.

Charles