The best clamps for door assembly are parallel-jaw clamps. I find that six will do the trick: One at the top and bottom of the frame with two on each side. I use space balls in the frames to keep the panel centered and allow for expansion and contraction. I take my time on the first panel and dial in the bit height until the frame slides into the frame without forcing.Ĭabinet door assembly is pretty straightforward. I make the back cut just like I did the panel-raising cut (in several passes) being careful not to cut too deeply or the panel will be loose in the frame. ![]() As I mentioned before, I used a back-cutter router bit to mill the back of the panel so that it can slide into the groove in the frame. I start with the end grain and rotate the panel counter-clockwise until the panel has been milled on all four sides. I start by installing the raised panel bit in the router and milling the panel in a few passes. With the frames complete it's time to mill the panels. Back-cutting the panel allows the face of the panel to sit flush, or in the same plane, as the cabinet door frame. Since we're using 3/4"-thick stock, back-cutting centers the panel in the thickness of the frame, making the back and front faces of the panels and frames flush. We also chose to back-cut our raised panels. in my case using space balls I just need to make sure that the panel tongue fits into the groove in the frame 1/4" all the way around. We use the same basic math that we used to determine the lengths of the rails and stiles to determine the size of the panel. Everything considered our panels will end up being 12-1/2" wide by 18-1/2" long. I leave 3/16" in each groove for the space ball, this puts the panel under a bit of tension without being too tight. I also like to use space balls in my panel doors as they keep the panel centered in the frame while letting the panel move when needed without binding. Labeling all of the components and stacking them together makes assembling the raised-panel doors easier.īecause we want the panel to float in the frame, we need to leave a little room for expansion and contraction. With the Infinity 91-506 rail-and-stile bits, this is 7/16" so we add back 7/8" to the length of the rails for a final dimension of 12-7/8"long by 2-1/2" wide. Then we add back the amount that the rails and stiles need to overlap. ![]() To figure the length of the rail we take the finished width of the door 17" and subtract the total width of the two stiles (5"). The rails will also be 2-1/2" wide and the length can be determined with a little math. This means that our stiles will be 23" long and 2-1/2" wide. We decided that the frame should be made from 2-1/2" wide pieces. ![]() First we determine the length and width of the stiles (vertical pieces) and rails (horizontal pieces) that make up the door frame. With these dimensions we can figure out the sizes of the individual pieces. For our cabinets we need doors that measure 17" wide by 23" tall. The first step is to determine the size door that is needed. Building a raised panel door is not difficult.
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