cabinet doors

[Kent Poppenhouse]

I'm building a vanity with some basic shaker rail and stile doors. Normally I make them with tight flush joints but saw a picture where it looks like the joint was beveled to add some depth. I kind of like the shadow effect and was thinking about doing that. Or is that just a way for cheap doors to hide imperfections in the joint. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[Mark Kay]

That design is usually called Chamfered. I am kicking around using that style too, but I'm doing a Shaker with a center stile, so may complicate things for me. I'll find you a pic...

[Mark Kay]

http://www.motivointeriors.com/wp-co...r-_chamfer.jpg

I don't know the angle but would assume somewhere between 15-30 degrees.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: here's a better pic of its use. Click on it.

CherryMaple(chamfer)01.jpg

[Kent Poppenhouse]

Thanks, that's exactly what I was talking about. I'll have to do some trials with the angle to see what looks good.

[Kent Poppenhouse]

Is the chamfer just on the rail ends?

[Sam Murdoch]

That design is usually called Chamfered. I am kicking around using that style too, but I'm doing a Shaker with a center stile, so may complicate things for me. I'll find you a pic...

Chamfered is not Shaker. It does create a shadow line that can be nice on a stained cabinet as shown in Mark's photo but... I don't know - I would never do it. Looks like shop 101 to me. From a practical construction perspective you end up loosing the shoulder of your joint which adds so much to the rigidity of the structure. My 2 ¢.

[Mark Kay]

It's my understanding that Mission style usually has no profile (90*) and can be made easily with a table saw... we all probably have seen Norm Abrams saw the stiles on a saw by running through the blade & then flipping the stock and running it through again, always with the blade perpendicular to the table. He usually sawed a 1/4" groove centered in the stock.

Most of the Shaker router bits I've seen lately (and I have a set myself) usually have 22 degree angles, though it could be to sell router bits. I have never tried chamfering the rail end myself but if you profiled it with the same router bit, it would form a groove between the rail & stile that would be 44 degrees. The problem that I think Sam is alluding to is that there wouldn't be much matching wood to glue together.

If you do use a chamfer, it would probably be better to do it Mission style and then use a chamfer router bit to chamfer both the rail & style while still leaving some "meat" above the flat panel/groove for glue contact between the rail & stile. You can also probably put the angle on using the table saw, but you'd need to be careful and take note of if you have a right or left tilt saw to avoid kickback if it gets pinched.

Go to WalzCraft's site, I know in their catalog they have many profiles shown in white outline on black background under each door style they make. They have profiles shown that include some Shaker, Mission, and Chamfered too. I don't have my catalog handy...HERE, TRY THIS:

It shows the profile under the picture of the door--this profile is chamfered:

http://walzcraft.com/product/leaside-s374-cabinet-door/

Hold your mouse over the picture of the profile and is will zoom in to see it better.

While you're there, download the profiles pdf file:

http://walzcraft.com/wp-content/uplo...20Profiles.pdf

SR100 & SR123 are 90* like Mission, SR113, SR114 & SR116 on page 11 are chamfer profiles; on page 12 SR151 is the largest. There are also some rounded over profiles on that page that form that type groove. SR128 on page 4, I think is their Shaker profile, though they also make some Shaker doors using 90* profiles.

Hope this helps!