Davids Kitchen Update 6, made lots of doors (w/20 pics!)

[David Eisan]

Hello everyone,

In my last post I had milled up enough rail and stile stock to make 21 doors,



I don't have any overall great plan on how this kitchen gets built, each step relies on the previous one. All I really started with was the outside dimensions of the spaces the cabinets need to fill.

For making the doors and drawer fronts, I placed painters tape on the boxes and marked out the overlay for doors and drawers,



The hinges are for 3/4" overlay, so that is how far I marked back on all sides, except for a 1/2" overlay where doors meet on a common stile.

Once I had recorded these measurements, I made a cut list from there,



All stiles are the full length. Rails are 4" less on all doors and drawer fronts. Side panels rails are 3-1/4" less to account for the narrow stiles that meet up with the face frames. This is fairly easy math as my rail and stile stock is 2-7/16", 7/16" being the tennon length on the rails. Panels are 1/16" less than the rails and 4-1/16 less than the stiles. The drawer stiles are only 1-7/16", so those panels are only 2-1/16 less than there stiles. It is marginally more complicated than that, but not much.

I cut up two and one half sheets of 1/2" MDF for the 21 panels,



I installed my 15º flat panel raised panel bit in my router table,



I wasn't getting the size of tongue I wanted, so I removed the bearing to allow a greater depth of cut.

When I was running narrow boards, I used a second piece of MDF behind it to be sure everything wound run straight,



You can see here almost all the panels run,



I then primed both sides of the panels with a shellac based primer,



A light sanding removed all the fuzzies from the panel raising. It was much easier to sand the profile before the doors got glued up.

Not the best pic, but you can see the 84 parts cut up on the jointer that are the rails and stiles for the 21 doors,

[David Eisan]

Here is a shot of me setting up for the cope cut on the end of the rails,



This is pretty idiot proof, I align the top cutters lower edge with the lower edge of the cut profile.

Next I make sure the cutters bearing is flush with both fence faces,



When the straight edge is slid back and fourth, the bearing should roll, but the strait edge should not rock between fence faces (all three are in line).

Making a cope cut,



You know when you have the cope bit at the correct height when there is only the smallest wisp of material left on the top and/or bottom of the cope cut (see arrows),



When you are coping the rail ends and have a square back edge, you can use any board to back it up to prevent tearout. When the profile edge is at the back to need to first run your backer board through the cope bit to run a profile on it,



Now the profile fits into your backer board and there will be no tear out,





Now the fun begins, I can start gluing up doors,



I place a stile in my bench vise and drop both the rails and the panel into it. I pop on the top rail and do a test fit. I remove the rail, add glue, flip and repeat.

Next over to the clamps, align everything with the fine adjustment tool (small brass with wooden face hammer) and tighten the clamps,



I was only able to glue up 11 doors tonight as I ran out of clamps and time,



I hope to get a few hours in the next few days to glue up the other 10 doors...

Thanks for looking,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him

[Gregg Feldstone]

David, Thanks for the tutorial. I am a beginner and plan to attempt some doors like yours soon. What brand of clamps are the beefy orange ones you use which stand up so nicely?

[Laurie Brown]

Wow! And I thought my 6 raised panel doors was a lot of work! Glad I don't have to make that many at once.

[Scott D Johnson]

It looks like you are using MDF for your panels. I am amazed at how nicely the stuff machines.

[David Eisan]

David, Thanks for the tutorial. I am a beginner and plan to attempt some doors like yours soon. What brand of clamps are the beefy orange ones you use which stand up so nicely?

They are Gros Stabil, I prefer them to Bessy's.

Wow! And I thought my 6 raised panel doors was a lot of work! Glad I don't have to make that many at once.

I have never tried to make this many doors at once. I will know in a few days if I got everything right .

It looks like you are using MDF for your panels. I am amazed at how nicely the stuff machines.

I made the replacement doors for our bathroom vanity the same way. I was pleased enough with the outcome to make our kitchen cabinet doors the same way.

Thanks,

David.

[John Miliunas]

First, thanks very much for the great step-by-step tutorial! Very helpful and informative! Secondly, all I can say is, you're most, most ambitious! Yet, at the same time, inspiring as, a new kitchen is on my own list of "to-do's" somewhere down the road here! I'll be happy if mine goes along as nicely. Keep us posted! (Oh, and yeah, I agree on the GS clamps, too! The K-Body's are nice but, I too prefer the GS for some reason.)

[Art Mulder]

Secondly, all I can say is, you're most, most ambitious!

Nahh, this is nothing. Go digging through Dave's earlier posts and check out the kitchen that he did for his parents. diagonal hardwood flooring!!

[Travis Porter]

Ditto on the GS as well. For some reason, I feel like I can get them tighter.

Very nice David. I am still drooling over the power feeder.

[Homer Faucett]

Thank you for the great process photos! I am getting ready to mill up a bunch of raised panel doors for my kitchen cabinets, so it is good to see someone else who was able to put a bunch of these together. I will have to glue up the blanks for my raised panels first, as I will be using white oak.

Your shop looks great, and I wish I had your power feeder and jointer! What type of router do you have? It looks as if your DC hooks up directly to your router rather than being connected to the table as many of us have.

[Christian Aufreiter]

Great job, David. I really enjoy your messages, thanks for sharing.

Christian

[Frank Spearman]

Nice job.
I have a little pointer that may make your job easier next time.
When cutting the cope cut on your rails instead of cutting them seperate, cut the cope first in a wide piece. For instance, if your rails are two inches wide put the cope in a piece say 7 inches wide. That would give you three rails and allow for the saw kerf and cleaning up the edges on the jointer after they are cut.
This is much safer than trying to cut the narrow rails.

Just my 5 1/2 cents worth