I am a rank novice working on my 2nd oak cabinet. I’m happy with the results except for the doors. I know what my error was the first time when I glued the back supports to a door made from 2″ wide boards glued together instead of leaving a slot in the supports for wood movement and screwing the supports on. Yes, it warped very nicely. I now have a different situation. I can get an 8″ wide solid quartersawn board. The doors will be 12″ high, so I have to glue boards together at some point. Is it better to attach 2 narrow strips to the top & bottom of the 8″ piece, or should I rip the 8″ board into uniform strips and glue the whole thing together? BTW, love the magazine, get it every 2 months.
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
What are the dimensions of the door and are you planning to just make it a solid panel, with all of the grain running in one dimension, or will there be battens or some other framing?
John White
Edited 10/10/2007 7:03 pm ET by JohnWW
Thanks for the quick reply!
Each door will be 13" high and 20" wide with the grain running horizontally. It will be just a simple panel with rounded edges.
To be honest this isn't a good design or, to bit a bit more charitable, it is certainly a risky one. With a door that long, even a small amount of wood movement will make the latch side of the door twist away from the cabinet. If the 8" wide board is straight grained and all quartersawn, and seems to be staying flat, your best chance of keeping the door flat will be to glue two strips of quartersawn to the edges of the 8" wide piece.If the 8" piece isn't totally straight grained and all quartersawn, or is otherwise suspect about its staying dead flat, then your best bet is to rip everything around 2" wide and jumble up the grain orientation before gluing the wood into a wide panel.John White
Ok. The board is flat right now, but who knows what it will do when I plane it down. I like your 2nd suggestion. I'll cut it up, let it stabilize and glue up the pieces flat. That worked the last time.
Thanks for your help!
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled