I made a cabinet that has two internal partitions. The partitions are
not of equal width, so the middle stile would be offset and not actually
be a 'center' stile. This leads to the insides of the cabinet being
visible throught the gap between the doors since there is no stile
there. I have a solution where I'm going to rabbet both doors and am
going to fasten a thin piece of wood to one door so it will be a fake
stile. Even doing this I have some options.

1) a door length stile from top to bottom of door. I don't want it to
show on the top so I'll have to do a stopped rabbet on both doors. This
was in my original plan.

2) sections of stile that only 'fit into' the cavities between the
horizontal rails. This would mean, no rabbets, but I'm afraid it'll
look goofy and if any settling occurs on the cabinet they could catch.

3) a single stile that fits between the top rail and the bottom rail.
I'll have to carve out the stile width in the rails that intersect it
across the middle of the cabinet so the doors will close. This will
probably look the best when the doors are closed, but I'm afraid it'll
look goofy when the doors are open.

I hope this makes sense.

Any alternate ideas or opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike W.

On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 02:17:33 GMT, "Mike W."
wrote:

I made a cabinet that has two internal partitions. The partitions are
not of equal width, so the middle stile would be offset and not actually
be a 'center' stile. This leads to the insides of the cabinet being
visible throught the gap between the doors since there is no stile
there. I have a solution where I'm going to rabbet both doors and am
going to fasten a thin piece of wood to one door so it will be a fake
stile. Even doing this I have some options.

1) a door length stile from top to bottom of door. I don't want it to
show on the top so I'll have to do a stopped rabbet on both doors. This
was in my original plan.

2) sections of stile that only 'fit into' the cavities between the
horizontal rails. This would mean, no rabbets, but I'm afraid it'll
look goofy and if any settling occurs on the cabinet they could catch.

3) a single stile that fits between the top rail and the bottom rail.
I'll have to carve out the stile width in the rails that intersect it
across the middle of the cabinet so the doors will close. This will
probably look the best when the doors are closed, but I'm afraid it'll
look goofy when the doors are open.

I hope this makes sense.

Any alternate ideas or opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike W.


If I understand you correctly, you have already made the doors.

Is it too late to reduce the width of the meeting door stiles and fit
pieces that will allow you to have overlapping stiles?

The result would be rabbeted stiles, which is a traditional detail for
cabinets where the shadow line of the meeting stiles is not sufficient
to hide what goes on beyond.

A second possibility is to introduce an astragal into the meeting of
the door stiles. This is common in traditional work, albeit less so
in more modern stuff. Even in a modern look the work of the astragal,
as a simple overlaying piece that hides the door gap and whatever is
behind it can be done by a simplified applied molding which, if the
section is small enough and the detailing is appropriate, can be an
enhancement, rather than a detriment, visually.


HTH







Tom Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/

Hi Tom. Thanks for the reply. It sounds like you understand perfectly
what I was asking.

I do already have the doors made because I was going by my original
plan. Now I've decided to see what really smart folks in the group had
to say before I move forward. But what you said makes great sense.

If I understand you correctly about the overlapping stiles I'm
confused. I would think I'd need to increase the width of the stiles
and not reduce it? But even with that confusion, I wish I had thought
of the overlapping stiles beforehand, I could have done it with what I'm
thinking based on my understanding of what you are saying. My only
issue would be any decoration I would rout on the outside edge of the
doors. I'm not sure how overlapping would affect it. What I am
proposing is to add a piece to one door that will sort of emulate
overlapping stiles. The door with the piece will have to be closed
before the door without the piece is... basically saying the stile is
attached to that door.

As for the astragal... I'm trying to match some cabinets in my house and
I fear that an astragal would just blow that style away. It is,
however, a heck of an idea that I hadn't even thought of.

Thanks!

Mike W.

Tom Watson wrote:
On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 02:17:33 GMT, "Mike W."
wrote:


I made a cabinet that has two internal partitions. The partitions are
not of equal width, so the middle stile would be offset and not actually
be a 'center' stile. This leads to the insides of the cabinet being
visible throught the gap between the doors since there is no stile
there. I have a solution where I'm going to rabbet both doors and am
going to fasten a thin piece of wood to one door so it will be a fake
stile. Even doing this I have some options.

1) a door length stile from top to bottom of door. I don't want it to
show on the top so I'll have to do a stopped rabbet on both doors. This
was in my original plan.

2) sections of stile that only 'fit into' the cavities between the
horizontal rails. This would mean, no rabbets, but I'm afraid it'll
look goofy and if any settling occurs on the cabinet they could catch.

3) a single stile that fits between the top rail and the bottom rail.
I'll have to carve out the stile width in the rails that intersect it
across the middle of the cabinet so the doors will close. This will
probably look the best when the doors are closed, but I'm afraid it'll
look goofy when the doors are open.

I hope this makes sense.

Any alternate ideas or opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike W.



If I understand you correctly, you have already made the doors.

Is it too late to reduce the width of the meeting door stiles and fit
pieces that will allow you to have overlapping stiles?

The result would be rabbeted stiles, which is a traditional detail for
cabinets where the shadow line of the meeting stiles is not sufficient
to hide what goes on beyond.

A second possibility is to introduce an astragal into the meeting of
the door stiles. This is common in traditional work, albeit less so
in more modern stuff. Even in a modern look the work of the astragal,
as a simple overlaying piece that hides the door gap and whatever is
behind it can be done by a simplified applied molding which, if the
section is small enough and the detailing is appropriate, can be an
enhancement, rather than a detriment, visually.


HTH







Tom Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/

On Wed, 04 Jan 2006 02:53:47 GMT, "Mike W."
wrote:

Hi Tom. Thanks for the reply. It sounds like you understand perfectly
what I was asking.

I do already have the doors made because I was going by my original
plan. Now I've decided to see what really smart folks in the group had
to say before I move forward. But what you said makes great sense.

If I understand you correctly about the overlapping stiles I'm
confused. I would think I'd need to increase the width of the stiles
and not reduce it?

You would ultimately be increasing the width of both meeting stiles.

First you would have to reduce the width of each stile to create space
for your added on pieces that will create the rabbeted stiles.

You can go the route of having the add-ons look like part of the
original work, in which case you will have to carefully match the
grain and color of your added pieces to the original. Then you will
have to sand it all flush to make it look all of a piece. You will
essentially be gluing up a wider stile when you do this but the
external appearance will be that the stiles are their current width,
which I assume fits in with the other cabinets, but you will have the
overlapping rabbets, which will hide the insides.

An opportunity may be there to use contrasting stock, which will add a
feature, in place of the defect, although this may not fit in with
what is already there.

Good luck.


HTH





Tom Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

http://home.comcast.net/~tjwatson1/