Need help with tombstone door for spice chest

[Barry Bruner]

I am in the process of trying to make a spice chest and would like some help with the frame of the tombstone door. I have looked at a couple that was posted earlier and they are great but I am attempting to make a smaller one. I was thinking about using a 1/4" slot cutting bit and a 3/8" roundover and make a template with two of the template clamps, so I can cut about 1/8" with each pass. The opening is 11 1/4" high and 9 1/2" wide. I made one out of some scrap cherry to see if it was in scale and other than the trim being a little wide it seems to be OK. The overall height is 17" and 13" wide. I am having a little trouble with the width of the styles as well. Any help would be appreciated. BARRY BRUNER

[Quinn McCarthy]

Barry

Here is how I would do it. I would mortise and tenon the door together. The first thing you have to do is create a pattern for the arched door. Then you can use that pattern to create the arch in the top rail. You can use a 1/4 slot on all the pieces with an round over bit on the surface. you can miter the corners where the rails and styles come together. In order to do that you need to cut the profile off where the rail meets the style. Only route the 1/4" slot on the styles from one mortise to the other. I would make the style 1-1/ 1/2" wide. After you route the profile on the panel you have to make your profile come to a 90 degree corner where the bearning stopped in the inside corners of the panel.

Hope that helps.

Quinn

[Barry Bruner]

Thank you very much Quinn for the information. I am use to working with larger projects and the slot cutting bit makes me a little nervous going around the arch. Barry Bruner

[frank shic]

check out this FWW article:

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworki...F.aspx?id=2466

[Barry Bruner]

Thank you very much Frank for the info I will try to check it out tonight. I tried cutting a slot in a arch for a door a few years back and came as close as you can to getting my hand in contact with the bit without doing it and I have been scared to death of it ever since. Barry Bruner

[frank shic]

barry, i hate having my fingers anywhere need a spinning bit or blade so i can appreciate your caution!

[dave rollins]

Barry
I know the feeling about getting hands to close to spinning bits. I saw this holder on Rockler and thought it might help you out by keeping your hands farther away from the bits. I must preface this by saying I have not used this product, but it might be worth a look. The specs say that it will hold a part up to 10" so it may be to small.
Anyway here is the link http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page5296 Hope this helps or gives you an idea of a jig to make.
Dave

[frank shic]

a bessey/jet/irwin/any others? clamp will work as well.

[Barry Bruner]

That is another interesting approach and I also saw a post where a guy was useing one of the shorter Bessey clamps to hold the wood while shapeing a arch style door. I will keep on trying till I get it . Barry bruner

[Bill Hylton]

Barry,

Get out your copy of Frame & Panel Magic. Pages 109 through 113 show how to make a tombstone door. A common cope-and-stick bit set may be the wrong scale for a spice cabinet door, but CMT and Sommerfeld and probably other bit makers have down-scaled sets.

As the sequence in F&PM shows, you should make a template to shape the top rail, and you can use it when routing the sticking. You can make the template nice and big so you can guide the workpiece but have you hands well clear of the bit.

Use a bit guard on the order of the one shown on page 103 of the book.

Good luck. Your spice cabinet looks great so far.

Bill

[Barry Bruner]

Thank you Bill for the information I will get the book and check it out. I plan on making probably 3 or more so maybe I will get the process correct before I get them built maybe. Barry Bruner