Box joint frame glue up

[Tony Sade]

I am making some doors that are going to be about three inches deep for a hanging tool cabinet, out of frames held together with box joints. Because the panel is going to be a different wood with a different finish, I'd like to finish the frames/rails (for lack of a better term) first but I'm a bit stumped on how to do this without getting my finish on the joints and screwing up eventual glue adhesion. I suppose I could try tape, or even slip everything together without the glue and finish, but I'm wondering if there's a better approach.

Ideas? TIA, Tony

[Jim Becker]

I think you need to define what you mean by "different finishes" on these components. If you mean coloration, you can use water based dyes prior to assembly without affecting glue adhesion, although your joinery needs to be "right on" as you will not be able to sand things flush. If you mean something else...please explain.

[Tony Sade]

I think you need to define what you mean by "different finishes" on these components. If you mean coloration, you can use water based dyes prior to assembly without affecting glue adhesion, although your joinery needs to be "right on" as you will not be able to sand things flush. If you mean something else...please explain.

Hi Jim:

I've already built the cabinet-to house my slowly growing plane and other hand tool collection, entirely out of stuff lying around the shop. Carcass is cheapo birch ply from the big box with birch face frames. (Interesting sidebar on the ply. I sanded through the very thin face veneer-BTDT-- and instead of just hitting the next core layer, I struck some kind of ink pocket. At the first sign of a blue smudge, I thought "weird, must be some kind of stuff that got on my ROS disc. Changed disc, sanded some more and the blue spot kept growing. I poked around in the hole that I eventually discovered, and found a small pocket filled with-you got it-ink! Teach me to buy ply at Lowes.)

The doors, again employing existing scrap, are going to be same leftover birch stock (1x3 to get some depth for hanging stuff) for the frames, and the (raised) panels are going to be some rather worn out cherry-a few knots and checks, etc., that are going to be filled with epoxy.

I've already stained the birch ply and ffs on the cabinet with some (again leftover-detect a theme here?) minwax and am aiming to color the birch door frame pieces the same color. I'm not going to bother coloring the cherry panels, and will just finish with some wipe-on poly, same as the carcass and the door frames.

I'm obviously doing this on the cheap-using up scrap and leftovers as I go, and I'm pretty much stuck with what I've got. Obviously, I can't sand down the fingers of the box joints (already made) after staining, so I'm either left with masking things off before staining, or carefully using a small brush to stain the outside, non-glue surfaces before glue up. That is, unless someone has another, better solution.

Thanks,

[Ted Shrader]

Tony -

Given that description, just slip them together and stain. Then assemble and glue the door frames with the panels in them. When dry, you can do any finish sanding required at the joints and carefully touch up any areas around the frame joints with stain. The cherry panels won't get any on them that way. Throw some left over varnish at it and you are done.

Ted