Replacing cabinet doors is a great way to upgrade the appearance of your kitchen without all the work and

expense of replacing entire cabinets. Check out Conscious Kitchen Makeover, p. 18, for more kitchen-update ideas.

FRAME-AND-PANEL DOOR PARTS

Tenon

BUILDING
CABINET DOORS

Rail Stile

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Panel

There are many styles of cabinet doors,

but none is more popular than the frame-and-panel door. Its dimensions, edge treatments and panels can be modified to create a nearly endless variety of designs to suit just about any dcor. One of my favorite designs (and maybe the most versatile) is a flat-panel door with square edges on the frame pieces. This design is relatively easy to build and looks great in a variety of settings, from traditional to modern. Ive made a lot of these doors over the years, and in doing so Ive developed methods for working faster, smarter and better. To follow these techniques, all you need are basic woodworking knowledge and access to a planer, a table saw, clamps and a drill press or drill guide.

Rail

Groove

Design
Custom doors are easy to make when you know a few woodworking tricks
BY BRUCE KIEFFER

Each door is made of five components: one panel, two vertical stiles and two horizontal rails. The panel is 1/4in.-thick plywood centered in a frame of 3/4-in.-thick solid wood. The panel fits in a 1/2-in.-deep groove in the inside edge of each stile and rail, and the rail ends have
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK MACEMON AND PHIL LEISENHEIMER ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE ANDERSON

CalCulating Door Part SizeS Stile length = door height Rail length* = door width -3-1/4" Panel length* = stile length -3-1/4" Panel width = rail length *Based on 2-1/8" wide stiles, 1/2" long tenons and/or 1/2"-deep panel grooves.

tongues (tenons) that fit in the grooves in the stiles. When assembled, the panel edges and frame joinery are hidden. My construction techniques require that the stile and rail stock be exactly the same thickness (3/4 in. or very close to it). The tenons and grooves are made with two saw cuts, one cut relative to each face. This process centers the tenons and grooves in each stile and rail, and it eliminates alignment issues that typically occur when making cuts relative to only one face. This is why its critical that the stile and rail stock be the same thickness. The overall size of each door is determined by a few factors. The first is the size of the cabinet opening. I always try to make doors close to twice as tall as they are wide; they look and function best when made in these proportions. That means using two doors over wide cabinet openings. The next factors in determining the door size are how the door will fit on the cabinet and the type of hinge that the door will use. A door can cover the cabinet opening in an overlay, lipped or inset style. The easiest type to make, an overlay door, rests on top of the cabinet face frame (or the box in the case of a frameless cabinet). The amount of overlay is partially determined by the hinge you use, so you must buy the hinges before you start construction. My favorite hinge for this type of door is the overlay concealed 35mm European-style hinge (see SOURCES ONLINE). This hinge mounts to the side of the cabinet or face frame and in a 35mm-dia. mortise in the inside face of the door. These hinges are big, and some people consider them unattractive, but they are hidden when the doors are closed and I like their ease of installation and functionality. (For more about hinges, see Hinge Options, p. 28.) The hinge determines the amount of overlay on the hinge side of the door. The remaining overlays

LIKE A
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2
Panel sample Scrap wood

test groove test groove Stop block Dado blade

Cut the rail end tenons with a dado blade and table saw. Cut one side, flip the rail over and cut the other side. Use a miter gauge and stop block to set the cuts so they are 1/2 in. long, and set the blade height so the tenon fits snugly in the test groove but is not difficult to insert. Scrap wood

4
test groove Stile

rail

Panel sample

Plane all of the stile and rail stock to exactly 3/4 in. thick. Make extra stock for testing joint cutting and in case you mess up a piece or two later. The entire door-making process depends on the stocks being the same thickness.
should be a minimum of 5/16 in. and allow for at least 1/16 in. of space between doors. I make all of the stiles and rails for a typical cabinet door 2-1/8 in. wide. I like that look, and that width allows for enough space to comfortably mount European-style hinges. It is helpful to make a scale drawing of your cabinets that includes the proposed door size, overlays and gaps. Doing so will help you determine the door sizes and give you a feel for what the doors will look like. One final design consideration is the material and finish you will use. When your design work is done, make a list of all the doors and sizes youll need. The next step is to figure out the door-part sizes (see illustration, p. 25). Remember to include the length of the rail tenons when you calculate the length of the rails. The tenons should be at least 1/2 in. long so theres plenty of gluing surface on the rail-to-stile joints. Longer tenons are necessary for larger doors, such as tall pantry-cabinet doors.

In a piece of scrap wood, cut a test groove that matches the thickness of the panel stock. The panel should slide in the groove without force and without play. This groove will be used to fit the rail end tenons, which are cut next.
With your cutting list in hand, its time to buy the wood and head to the shop. You can use 3/4-in. S2S (surfaced two sides) lumber from a home center, but youll have much better luck if you buy thicker or rough-sawn lumber from a hardwood lumberyard and then plane it down to 3/4 in.

Cut the grooves in the stiles and rails. Use a flat-top 1/8-in.-kerf ripping-style sawblade. Make two passes, flipping the piece around for the second cut. This centers the groove in the workpiece.
est piece as a sample for setting up to cut the rail tenons. The rails are intentionally wide at this point because cutting the tenons causes tear-out on the edges, and cutting the finished widths later will remove the rough edges. This also means that the grooves are cut after the tenons, but you will need a groove to test the fit of the tenons. The solution to this dilemma is to make a test groove in scrap wood (photo 2); then youll cut the tenons to fit the test groove. Afterward, youll cut the actual grooves to fit the tenons. Before you crosscut the rail tenons (photo 3), test your setup on scrap wood. Cut the finished widths of the stiles and rails, and sand the sawn edges smooth. Be careful not

Glue and clamp the frame around the panel. Do not glue the edges of the panel; it should float. Avoid applying glue near the inside joint corners to minimize squeezeout there, which would be difficult to clean up.
to round the stile end inside edges where the rail ends fit. Finally, cut the grooves (photo 4). Make these grooves fit the rail tenons, and cut them slightly deeper than 1/2 in. so the joints will be tight when assembled. Cut the panels to their finished sizes, making sure they are square. Finish sand the panel faces. Assemble the doors (photo 5). Then clean up the glue, and sand the faces and edges smooth.

Construction
Rough cut the stile and rail pieces 1/4 in. wider and 1 in. longer than their finished dimensions. Plane the stock using a thickness planer (photo 1, above). Plane equal amounts off of each face, alternating faces as you go. Do not change any setting when making the final pass. Now cut the finished lengths of these pieces, but hold off on cutting the widths. Rough cut the panels 1/2 in. wider and 1/2 in. longer than their finished dimensions. Check the thickness of all of the panels to determine their consistency. Use the thick-

Hinges and finish

Hinge-installation instructions are included with most European-style hinges. Test your hinge-hole drilling setup on scrap wood; then drill the hinge-cup holes in

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HINGE OPTIONS
Here are three concealed 35mm European-style overlay hinges to consider. All of the hinges shown are easy to mount, self-closing and three-way adjustable: in/out, up/down and side-to-side.

Compact screw-on hinge for face frames

120-degree clip-on with face-frame mounting plate

120-degree clip-on with cabinet mounting plate

Frameless cabinet

Face frame

Face frame

Face-frame mounting plate

Cabinet mounting plate

This one-piece hinge is designed for 3/4in.-thick face-frame cabinets. Different models of this hinge offer a wide range of overlays and door-opening angles.

This two-piece setup lets you use a standard arm-style hinge mounting plate on 3/4-in. and thicker face-frame cabinets. It has a wider range of threeway adjustment than the compact style.

This two-piece setup is used on frameless cabinets. The mounting plate screws to the inside of the cabinet.

the doors, and mount the hinges (photo 6, left). Hang the doors on the cabinets to check the fit. Trim the edges where necessary. Finally, remove the hinges so you can finish the doors. Ease the sharp edges of the doors with sandpaper; then apply the finish. After the finish has cured, complete the doors by installing your choice of handles and reinstalling the hinges. u

Hinge arm
Handyman Club Life member Bruce Kieffer is a custom furniture builder, freelance woodworking author and technical illustrator. To view a collection of his work, visit www.kcfi.biz/.
SOURCES ONLINE

Mount the hinges to the doors. Use a 35mm-dia. Forstner bit to bore 1/2-in.-deep hinge-cup holes. Make sure the hinge arms are square to the door edge.

Hinge-cup hole

For online information, go to www.HandymanClub.com and click on WEB EXTRAS.

Woodworkers Hardware
(Blum concealed European-style cabinet hinges; 35mm HSS Bit with Marking Template, No. MP31628) 800-383-0130

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