Mitering the profile on frame and panel doors
![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/cb905749272370fba73827bd79714082?s=52&d=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.finewoodworking.com%2Fapp%2Favatars%2F200x200%2Fm.png&r=g)
Hi,
So I am making a bunch of cabinet doors. I am doing mortise and tenons for the joinery. I have a profile on the inside (just a 25° chamfer), and of course this needs to be mitered at the inside corners. I have done this before with just marking, sawing and fine-tuning with the chisel, but I wanted to hear if anybody hear has another idea, smart jig or whatever for the work since it gonna take some time with all the doors.
And yes I know there are many more different ways to do this, but this is the style I´d like for this project 🙂
Thank you
Replies
Make the Jig shown. Clamp the Door rail/stile in the rebate in the jig in your bench vise as shown. Lay the back of a chisel on the mitered section of the jig and slice the miter on the door part. No sawing or fitting will be required.
Thank you. I was thinking of something similar for that part, the other part though is a bit more tricky. But maybe just expand the straight bit, so you I can pare along that for the flat part
Make two cuts to haunch the stile (Table saw). Using the miter guide with the fence as a stop, the blade set to depth of profile, cut the shoulder ( a couple more cuts toward the end will assist cleaning the small amount of waste left by the second cut). Actually you can make this cut at 45 degrees and forget the jig. Then raise the blade to it's at max height, set the fence distance to outside of blade the depth of profile and with a stop block on the fence rip off the remainder*. The junction of the two cuts will require a bit of cleanup but this is quick as the two planes provide an accurate and stable reference.
You can also use the same method on a bandsaw to make the two cuts.
* On the tables an auxiliary fence should be used to allow some room for the falloff to clear the blade and fence.
I use a matched set of waxed guide blocks and a pull saw to do essentially the same process for cutting dovetails. I place the block on the cut line and hold the saw flat against it with a finger. Making a set of blocks at 45° would be simple. You can find a blog post on how I make them at:
https://www.tailspintools.com/how-to-make-dovetail-saw-guide-blocks/
To see how I use them fast forward to 4:22 in the video at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f_lhHIdAu0
Mitering the inside corners of a chamfer on a frame-n-panel door, I've always done with just a chisel, and to me it is one of the most purely satisfying hand tool tasks you can do; I'm having trouble understanding how you'd ever use a saw in that operation. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, is a pic possible?