Hi y’all.
I’m a carpenter rather than a cabinet maker or door maker, but I am in the process of building a set of rail and stile doors. The doors are to be 2ft wide by 7 ft tall. My styles were going to be 6 inches wide. The stock is 1-3/8 red oak. I planned on cutting the rail tenons approx 3/8 thick or perhaps 1/2 inch.
I was planning on cutting the mortises using a router jig set-up and a 2 fluted carbide straight bit. The longest bit I can find will only allow me a cutting depth of 2-1/2 inches long. Someone told me that this length is more than sufficient for the rail tenons….but Im not so sure.
How long should my tenons be? This of course affects my mortise depth as well. If longer than 2-1/2 inches, then I need to rethink how I am going to mortise out the stiles.
Thanks.
Davo
Replies
Davo,
For tenon thickness, I like to use the size closest to 1/3rd the thickness of the stock. Given the stock thickness you are using I would opt for the 1/2" thick tenon.
For mortise depth, I normally shoot for about 2/3rds the width of the style. The size door you are making is very heavy and I would go as deep as possible.
I have an observation for your consideration. Making a door 2 feet x 7 feet with 6" wide stiles seems out of porportion. This would leave half the door width consumed by stiles. I would suggest using narrower stiles.
Hope this helps,
Steve
Someone recently posted a picture of their 1/2 inch X 5 inch straight bit, which I think was from Frued, which they use for door mortises and kitchen cabinet-top cutouts.
That would certainly enable you to cut deeper mortises if you decide that is what you need to do.
Mike D
Davo ,
I like Steve would caution you about the 6" stiles . Imo you would be setting these doors up for more shrinking and growing than may be desired .
dusty
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled