The Doors are Finished and Hung.

I didn't keep this blog up for the past little while... but the work did not stop!


While the first door was receiving its finish, the second door was assembled and finish applied:

Second door, ready for assembly...

Clamped, and drying...

Second coat applied.

The cabinet doors are now finished and hung:

Door in use.

Hinge Detail

 Looks good, and keep the dust off the internal supplies...

First Door Has Been Assembled.

I didn't get photos of the assembly process, because the door went together rapidly. The associated rounding over of the outside edges, and prep sanding took a little longer.

Here is the door right after the glue has dried, but before any further router work or sanding:

Assembled Door - Front Side

Assembled Door - Back Side

The hinge pockets will be cleared out with the same bit that was used to drill the pockets. On a related note, the panel is 3/16" thick, where as the channel it rides in is 1/4". To address this problem, I placed spacers made of card-stock in the groove on the back side of  the door. This pushes the panel flat against the front side of the groove.

A card-stock spacer.

The end result.

Now the first door is ready for finish application. The second door will be assembled soon.

Some Finish Work, and a Problem

Now that the milling is done, time to round over the inside edges of the door frame. This has to be done before the frame is assembled with the central panel. The panel will interfere with the round-over bit.

The frame setup for the rounding over operation.

Next time.... I will use a combination of accurate marking, and routing the pieces individually. The clamps add weight, and renders the whole assembly awkward to handle.

Ready to route!

End Result.

After the round over step, I need to drill the pockets for the hinges. Here we run into a nasty little problem. The vertical member the hinges are mounted in are much too narrow. I did not work this project up in CAD, as I usually do, and now I pay the price. There are several problems: One is the weakness of the member - simply too much wood has been removed. The other poblem lies in the offset of the hinge pocket from the outside edge of the door. The narrowness of the vertical member shift the hinge pocket form 7/8"  to 3/4" from the edge. This has implication for the set of the doors, and their width.

The simplest solution, is to mill wider verticals for the hinge side of the doors. This will both strengthen a weak point, and allow for proper hinge offset.

As seen, the pocket weakens things too much!

A new means of cutting tongues...

I used the sled pictured above to cut the tongues on the new verticals. The sled is much faster, safer and more accurate.

Milling of replacement verticals almost complete.

The replacment verticals are about 3/16" wider, which make all the difference in the world! The small increase was dictated by the wood available.

The hinge pocket marked...

... and milled.

Now that we have frame that work, time to sand and assemble!

Door Tongues

Now that the panels are drying, we need to cut the tongues on the door verticals.

Horizontals - ready to be cut to length.

Cutting the horizontals.

 Note the clamp attached to the sled - this allow me to cut all the pieces to the same length without measuring and marking. The accuracy and repeatability are also much better. I am finding that I need achieve tolerances in the thousandths to achieve the desired fit and finish.

Horizontals cut to length...

...and the verticals as well.

Now the verticals need to have tongues cut into the ends, so the doors can be assembled. Next time, I will cut the tongues first, so the bearing on the bit will have somthing to ride on all the way across. This would result in a superior fit.

Tongue-Cutting Bit.

The bit set up and ready to use.

Note the use of a 90 degree sled. End cutting of wood on a router table is very dangerous! If done improperly, the bit will do its damage before the reflexes kick in. Thus holding the piece of would without a sled of some sort is just asking for trouble....

I did not take a photo of the finished work.... sorry.

Prepping the Center Panels

The doors consist of a frame, with a free-floating center panel. This is done to allow for wood expansion/contraction, especially in solid wood panels.

I will be finishing the panels before the doors are assembled, because sanding the panels throughly in the assambled door would be slower and more damage-prone.

Panels are rough cut.

First Coat

As always, I sanded with 320 grit between coats, in order to remove all the whiskers that the finish raised. The resulting surface as a nice satin feel to it.

Second Coat. I really like how this Danish Oil works.

 The other side was given the same treatment.

Cutting the Groove

Now that I have a stack of lumber of reasonably predicable dimensions. I will now rip it to final width, and cut the groove. The groove is used to retain the center panel.

Wood ripped to width.

The bit used to cut the groove.

A good test peice - ready for production!

...and done!

Next step is to cut all pieces to length, and cut the tongues on the verticals.

Cabinet Doors

Next project is the fabrication some doors for a previous project.

These doors will have frames made of Philippine Mahogany, with a 3/16" plywood panels. The projcet will be finished using Danish Oil.

Good joinery starts with wood that is accurate, consistent and straight. The wood for the frames is close, but not close enough... (hardly seems worth buying planed wood, you just re-plane it anyways...)

The wood - not that it needs to be straighter....

The wood was set on edge, so the wood can air out, and assume a more stable form...

The first step finished - the wood jointed on two sides.

Once the wood had sat for a time... I jointed two sides perpendicular to each other. Next step simulates the effect of a thickness planer, and cuts the wood to a consistant thickness. Before I do that, I rip the other narrow side to parallel.

The setup for ripping the wood - the use of a push-stick is mandatory!

First Pass...

... and the Second pass finishes it!

The aftermath

Wood ready for use.

The end result is a pile of lumber that is both straight and of consistent thickness. The next steps is to cut the grooves and tongues using the router table.