Assuming you are the guy who has posted here before using
that handle, and not a troll

Nope, I'm not a troll, though it is entirely possible I may have asked the
same question in the past. I'm rather forgetful these days...

I've also asked a lot of questions about door construction over the last
few years. So, it's probably all blending into one big annoyance now...

Most of our cabinets have been in place for nearly two years and I've
learned to live with the warping. But the doors warped on a cabinet I built
for my in-laws last month, so this renewed my interest in the warping
situation.

#2 Pine
one of the most dimensionally unstable woods around.

I use it with great results on lots of projects. It has only been an issue
with the door frames.

by not finishing both sides you have guaranteed instability

Yeah, I figured I probably caused some of my own problems by not finishing
the back sides. Haste won out over common sense...

Is pine just a poor choice for door frames?
That type of pine certainly is.

I bought a more expensive straight grained pine for some armoire doors, and
they warped the same way.

Build new ones.

I've toyed with the idea, but I'd have to rebuild 20 or so doors. It's not
a big enough problem to warrant all that work.

How bad IS the warping? Noticeable to you or to everyone?

By "warping" I mean more of a "twist" to the door. The hinged side sit's
flat, of course, but either the top or bottom corner of the opposite side
sits above the door frame.

The severity varies from NO warping on many doors, to about 1/8" off the
cabinet frame on the rest.

Ironically, the worst warping occurred on the newest doors I built for my
in-laws. Those sit about 1/4" off the door frame. There are only two of
those doors, so I could rebuild those easy enough. But, the cabinet is only
temporary until we do some remodeling, so it's not worth the effort at this
point.

I don't think most people notice the warping, as I'm usually the one who
points it out. Even my wife didn't seem overly concerned. But as the
builder, I think it makes an otherwise perfect job look bad.

I think it's more pronounced because the doors warp in opposite directions.
In other words, the left hand door warps out at the top, while the right
hand door warps out at the bottom.

On my daughters armoire's, the doors are large enough that I use magnetic
catches to "hold" the doors shut flat, despite the warping. But, the
smaller doors are too stiff to force flat that way.

I assume you've used felt pads or some such

Yep, top and bottom of each door. They came with the hinges I ordered.

did you keep packages of hinges per door?

Yes, I used variable overlay hinges I ordered from Rockler. One package per
door.

Are you sure the doors are warped and that the frame didn't
respond badly somehow? The frame has to be as good as the doors

The frames are in great shape, nice and flat. It's clearly limited to the
door frames.

All 6 sides need to be sealed, BTW.

We did five... Live and learn...

Pine's a poor choice but I use it too

Our house is filled with pine walls, cedar ceilings, and pine furniture.
The pine was a natural choice to go with the "rustic" nature of our house.

I'm happy with all my results except for some tub room cabinets
with wide doors; visibly warped there, but they're not getting
fixed anytime soon

Same here. The warping is annoying, but not worth the trouble or expense to
rebuild. Otherwise, I'm happy with the way the cabinets and doors turned
out. Here's a few pics of the cabinet doors in question.

www.mountain-software.com/door1.jpg
www.mountain-software.com/door2.jpg
www.mountain-software.com/door3.jpg
www.mountain-software.com/door4.jpg
www.mountain-software.com/door5.jpg
www.mountain-software.com/door6.jpg

The last cabinet is the one I built for my in-laws. Quick and dirty
construction, nothing fancy. I actually made it out of scraps I had laying
around, sized to use the lumber I had on hand. I had to tear out their
old carport cabinet when I was doing some electrical work, so I banged this
one together as a quick fix for the short term.

The panels for my garage cabinet doors were made from T&G cedar scraps left
over from our house ceilings.

The rest of the cabinet doors use panels made with T&G pine scraps left
over from our master suite. Rip off the tongues and grooves, glue into
panels, plane smooth, and cut to size. Nothing goes to waste around here.


Anyway, it sounds like my biggest mistake was not finishing the backs of
the cabinet doors too. I'll know for next time...

Thanks,

Anthony