Hi all,
Brand new to this site. Been making custom cabs for a couple years now.was more of a hobby but word of mouth has turned it full time for me. Anyway, I have some shaker doors for kitchen base cabinets I just built. They are out of square… arg. And almost every one my nearly an eighth of inch from corner to corner.
These are not inset. The y are 3/4 overlay over a 2 inch face frame. Plenty of room to hide the flaw, except for on the bigger cabinets where two doors close into each other with an eighth inch space between them.
I found the cause of my mistake: mitersaw fell out of square after my initial setup. All my rails are slightly off.
two questions: haven’t cut the pockets for the. Hidden hinges yet t want to start finishing tomorrow. Think these doors will work or are they too far out of square.
second question: I’m kind of getting sick of miter saws falling out of square and considering a jig or extension wing for my table saw. To anyone who makes their own doors, can you advise me as to a preferred method for these cuts?
it seems to me that the miter saw is the one tool in my arsenal that just does not work well for accurate and true production.
thank you in advance. I appreciate you all.
Replies
Which mitre saw are you using? I get spot on results from my deWalt 12"
It's accurate with no slop in the mechanism and great stops.
Sometimes it's the saw itself rather than the tool type.
Sadly I can't help with the doors, but one option might be to make another pair and either keep the old ones for a project they will suit or recycle the panel and make new rails and stiles...
I use an MDF sled riding in 2 slots to the right of the blade and cut to zero clearance. I clamp on stops for repeat cuts, but I agree with Rob_SS, it sounds like you just need to upgrade your chopper, if only to avoid whatever next time error is rolling towards you.
Hard to say from a distance if your bigger doors can be made to work. Even when you cut perfectly square rail ends your door can go out of square during clamp up. Two things: Always do a corner-to-corner measurement, every time, for every door, and secondly, don’t ever trust your miter saw to repeatedly make square cuts for you. In spite of anecdotal opinions about individual people’s miter saws doing just fine, you can’t trust them time after time for fine woodworking. Make a sled.
You can't install the doors unless they're square or you'll get into all kinds of issues with alignment. Either the top and bottoms will be aligned and the verticals off, or vice versa -- depends on how far apart the doors are you may be able to tweak it so its not noticeable.
I've got what's supposed to be an upper tier miter saw and I can't trust it for square. I regret the day I bought it and got rid of my DeWalt chopper.
I cut all my rails on a table saw sled.
I make the rails and stiles 1/4 over sized, rip them down to final width on the table saw, then cut to length and square using the sled.
Thank you all for your tips and tricks. On the next job I do think I will start wil oversized doors and cut it down. Sounds risky though, as I am a little bit of a perfectionist and like everything the exact size I intended it to be. :-) thank you for all your swift replies.
..what a wonderful forum. :-) bless you all.
Check the fence with a straight edge. I have seen more than a few bowed over the years. This will cause an out of square cut. I have one now with the same issue (Dewalt).
You are better off cutting on the table saw with a sled. Quieter too.
Certainly a well set up table saw sled will do a great job making perfectly square cuts. Having said that, I have had a Festool Kapex "chopsaw" for the past decade+ and when locked in place at the 90 degree detent it cuts perfectly square every time. The reason I prefer it is that it is not unusual for me to be cutting lengths of 24+ inches and my table saw sled only cuts easily to about 22" with a clamped on stop. I can cut perfectly square up to 64" with my Kapex and fence. I know it is super expensive, but it's accuracy has been of great value to me.
For what a Kapex costs it better cut square! And make your coffee and fo the dishes too. :-)
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