On 2/9/16 10:39 AM, Swingman wrote:
On 2/8/2016 6:14 PM, OFWW wrote:
Here is a short video with the extended tenon option for cabinet
doors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlCC9SsdMNY#t=15
Which requires a mortise in the stiles. Our plan was to make
cathedral style doors, and in the corner upper cabinet doors to use
glass and have a stile and rails on the face of the glass of the
two doors. The rest of the doors I would rather not have raised
panels, but flush or inset, where you can see a small grove on the
back of the panel where you can see part of the normal tenon. I
hope I am clear enough on that. I also like the hidden tenon
option, but if it is not seen some people might think the joint was
just a box joint.
Made many hundreds of cabinet doors down through they years. Just
some observations from that experience:
Starting with basics, the single most important ingredient in making
_serviceable_ doors is to _religiously_ insist on straight grained,
perfectly flat, milled and dimensioned stock ... no exceptions.
You will also need the skill, experience, and ability to read the
various woods and their grain well enough to predict what that stock
will do in the future. In short, bowed, warped and twisted material,
now or in the future, is not conducive to making serviceable doors
that will last.
Unless you have the tools and practical expertise to chose and mill
your stock, you will most assuredly end up buying much more S4S stock
than you need, with the result that much will end up as waste; and
your cost/benefit will ratio suffer ... and that is a much more
likely occurrence with a DIY door project.
Despite the nice bit advertisements, home shop router setups are
rarely sturdy, accurate and repeatable enough to cut a full set of
doors without repeated setups, and trial and error tweaks, meaning
more wasted material, with often undesirable end results.
YMMV, but I have tried, and failed more times before I got the
results I truly wanted.
I still make a fair number of doors, but I only do those that I can
do cost effectively, have the tools and experience to make, and that
I can reasonably expect will stand the test of time.
The majority of doors I make these days are of the flat panel style,
made with stub tenon joinery, on the table saw.
The same methodology Leon explained in an earlier post. We both do
many of our doors that way for a reason ... we try to do what we
have the expertise, material, and tools to reasonably expect
serviceable results.
Although nothing ventured, nothing gained ... be aware that it will
take a lot more than a set of advertised router bits to obtain the
advertised results, guaranteed.
Might want to round up all aspects of what it takes to make a few
stub tenon doors, and gain some experience in making a few
serviceable doors before becoming more ambitious in that regard.
Another option, and one I use quite often these days myself.
I can almost guarantee there is a local cabinet shop who specialize
in cabinet doors, and therefore has the material, the tools, and the
experience to make doors much more inexpensively than you, or I.
Although though it possible to do it yourself, there is no shame, and
prudence often dictates finishing up a well made set of cabinetry,
carefully crafted in a particular style, with a professionally made
set of doors, equally carefully crafted in that style.
There are so many door/drawer front makers on the internet now, too.
However, unless someone could recommend a great one, I would hesitate
buying doors from them except possibly for primed, paint grade doors.
A friend of mine bought replacement doors from one of these internet
sites and it was embarrassing to be in the room when I saw them. They
were so proud of their "new" kitchen and the bargain they got.
The doors looked like they came from the same place that sells those
leftover boxes of hardwood flooring. None of the grain matched, there
were sapwood and heartwood rails and stiles mixed so much that they
looked like different species of wood on the same door. Huge gaps in
the joinery-- some with out-of-square cuts. Orange-peeled finish on the
fronts of some of the doors. I just had to stand there and smile and
nod my head with a sick feeling in my gut.
I would to find a reputable on-line source for doors and fronts because
all the cabinet shops around here are either out of business or don't
sell to other installers.
--
-MIKE-
"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com
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