Build Cabinet Doors

7/27/2019 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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HandymanClub.com F E B R U A R Y / M A RC H 2 0 1 0 2726 HANDY F E B R U A R Y / M A R CH 2 0 1 0

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.

5

1


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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

Documents

Build Cabinet Doors