Thread: Cabinet Doors
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Andy Andy is offline
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Default Cabinet Doors

Rockler's custom order doors are $$$$$$$, as are many others.

For about $500 I can outfit myself with the tools I need to complete
this job - rail/stile bits, raised panel bit, etc etc.


(Warning: this only my opinion, not a carefully researched response,
and as such, it may not be worth any more than you paid for it...)
Your time must be pretty cheap if you think you can save money by
making your own cabinet doors. (If you really want to make doors for
fun, and don't mind spending some money and time to do so, disregard
the rest of this post and have fun making your doors).
Assuming you want some decent cherry or oak, plan on at least $4-5/bf,
rough, assuming you already have a jointer and a planer (if not,
there's an extra $grand or two, or extra cost for S2S at the shop).
If you haven't done doors before, plan on a few for practice (I
recently did some experimenting with a rail+stile bit for the first
time, and it took quite a bit of tweaking - granted you'll get better
with practice, but there's more wood and time to factor in). I
assume you already have a good-sized, stable router table, and
possibly a drum sander for the panels. We looked at a house a while
ago that needed new cabinet doors, and for me, the main issue came
down to time - how long would it take to select the wood, surface it,
cut it to final dimensions, rout the frames, glue up the panels,
surface the panels, put several coats of finish on everything,
assemble the doors, add hinges and hardware, and mount them? Even if
the cost of wood+tools is a little cheaper than pre-made doors, how
soon do you want them? (Or more importantly, how soon does your wife
want them?) How much free time do you have? How much is that time
worth per hour?
Again, if you want to do this as a project for yourself, absolutely go
for it, I wouldn't want to discourage you. But if you want to save
money and have your new doors before next year, Rockler's doors at
roughly $100-125 each sound like a pretty good deal to me.
Andy