Plywood Kitchen Cabinet Door Question

[Johnnyy Johnson]

A friend of mine installed a microwave above his stove in an older house. Part of the cabinet above the Microwave had to be removed. He wants me to make him two new doors, just not as tall. What is the best way to route a detail on the face of the door. It is just a standard 1/8" grove about 1 1/2 inch from the edge of the door. Do I need a jig (homemade)??

[David Prince]

I did this before with some 3/4 MDF core plywood to match up to some existing cabinets. I just built a base out of chipboard and mounted a right angle corner to the board. From there just set your plywood blank in the jig and adjust your spacing as needed with spacer boards and just flip the blank to rout each corner so you don't have to make a complete 360 jig. If you have any fancy rounded corners or anything like that, you can just place that spacer in the jig to make the router follow the pattern. It worked pretty slick.

[Johnnyy Johnson]

Has anyone used a bushing on their router to follow a pattern to put a groove around the outside of a plywood kitchen cabinet door. About 1 1/2" from the edge. That the only way I can see this working.

[Charles Lent]

Yes, that is the way that it's done. A bushing in the router and a template for the router bushing to follow. The template can be just a two sided piece that you move for each part or you can make a full template so you can go all the way around in one pass.

Charley

[Anthony Anderson]

It might go without saying, but I will say it anyway. Use a plunge router.

Good Luck, Bill

[Adam Potack]

I had the same situation a few years ago. Rather than try to duplicate the pattern in the door I made doors with a frosted glass panel. Just an idea.

Adam

[glenn bradley]

Template out of hardboard double stick taped to the front, plunge and follow around the template, un-plunge when complete, re-tape to next door, etc.

[Johnnyy Johnson]

Thanks Guys...Im going to make the jig today and route tomorrow