Synopsis: Three types of doors will solve most needs: doors for fine furniture, doors with glass panels, and low-budget quickie doors. Steve Latta shows how to make all of them, including solid-panel doors joined with mortises and tenons, the best method for strong, classic frames. There’s no offset shoulder on the tenon in the joint for a glass panel door, because it would get in the way of the rabbet. Cope-and-stick joints are weaker joints, but you can strengthen them by gluing plywood panels in the frame, Latta says. Side information takes a close look at cope-and-stick router bits.

In a perfect world all cabinet doors would be constructed using stout mortise-and-tenon joints, built to last generations. When I reproduce an 18th-century piece, I build doors whose joints will outlast these achy joints of mine. My clients pay for that, and I would not sleep at night during them anything less.

At the other end of the spectrum, would I go to the same effort for a bathroom vanity that will end up on the curb after the next remodel? Probably not. There are faster ways to make a door. A door meant for hiding everything from towels to toilet cleansers doesn’t have to rise to the level of a hutch.

I could come up with a dozen or more methods to join doors, but there are three that will solve most needs: doors for the finest furniture, doors for glass panels and low-budget doors that you need to get done in a hurry.

Best method for strong, classic frames

After cutting the stock to its rough size, mold a profile and cut a slot in all of the frame members. Although sometimes I’ll use just the sticking portion of a cope-and-stick set to cut the profile and groove in one pass, I often resort to standard router bits. By mixing and matching standard bits, I have an infinite variety of profiles available to me. Come-and-stick bits come in just a handful of profiles. To cut the slot, you can use a slot-cutting bit or a dado head on the tablesaw.

From Fine Woodworking #135

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