As I alluded to in an earlier thread, I had a little project to shorten a couple of cabinet doors for the neighbors. Since I didn't completely butcher the job, I thought I'd share some pics.
For starters, here's one of the doors, after the first cut (I forgot about taking pictures until after we'd started whacking.) My "outfeed table" (which is really a tube steel stand for a lathe) was moved to the side of the table saw just to support the pieces of the door for this picture. Rest assured it was in a more useful location whan I was cutting.
The doors are a simple frame with 1/4" plywood attached to the back of the frame. The plan was to trim off the bottom frame of the existing doors, then reattach it to the bottom of the shortened doors. We knew there would be a visible seam on the back of the doors, but that was not a problem for the owners.
Since the final length of the doors needed to be about 33", the 36" rip capacity on my little Ridgid table saw came in real handy. The doors were too wide for my crosscut sled, so we used the rip fence and a lot of care. I know this is not a recommended way to cut panels, but it was the best way we had available. In the end, the cuts turned out true and square.
I was also real glad to have purchased the 32" Gross Stabil clamps recently instead of the 24" models that were recommended by many. Since they actually have a bit bigger capacity than the advertised 32", I was able to used them on my 33" doors.
I had the presence of mind to use something other than my good saw blade, since I suspected I might find metal surprises hidden in the wood. It was a good call, since I did hit a couple of staples, and came close to hitting a couple hidden pocket screws. I gotta hand it to the 30-tooth Ridgid blade that came with my TS, it shows no ill effects from cutting staples. (Still glad it wasn't my Freud.) Here's a close-up of one of the staples. You can see it was buried and patched over, so it was impossible to visually locate them. I guess this is why you see metal detectors sold at woodworking shops, huh?
Metalic obstacles notwithstanding, the rest of the door assembly went pretty smoothly. As it turned out, I didn't use either my biscuit joiner or pocket hole jig -- two tools I recently purchased, using this project as justification. It just made more sense to glue the bottoms on and drive countersunk screws straight into the ends of the vertical frame members. Here's a look at the bottom corners of the doors (including another of the hidden staples)...the attachment method should be pretty self-evident:
A little sanding, stain touch-up, and clear poly on any newly-exposed wood, and the doors were good to go. Here's a shot of the finished doors, ready to hang:
Definitely not cabinet making by any stretch of the imagination, but the neighbors were pleased as punch, and I had fun playing in the way too hot garage. For the real gluttons for punishment, there are more pictures and write-up on my web site here.
- Vaughn
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