Kitchen Cabinet Question

[Jeff Wright]

I am nearing the completion of our kitchen remodeling job. I did poplar painted white cabinets with some cherry added in for a counter top on the peninsula and a couple cherry glass doors (and cherry-faced toe-kicks).

My question has to do with the technique for painting the rails and stiles of the cabinets PRIOR TO installing the cabinets in the kitchen. I installed my cabs first and then painted the cabs with brush rather than using my four-stage Apollo HVLP system. To use the HVLP once the cabs were installed was going to be a nightmare taping all the cab interiors which are prefinished maple.

I don't care who you are and how good a cabinet maker you are, prepainting the cabinets and then installing them to have the stiles line up perfectly is not doable. There is no way you could eliminate the joint from showing had you first painted the cabs. I chose instead to install the cabs, sand the adjoining vertical stiles so that they appeared as one piece of wood, and then primed and painted them. There is NO visible joint.

How would a pro have prepainted the cabs and then installed them without any joint line showing? My only thought would be to put a small 45 degree groove on each stile edge and make it appear that I intended to have a joint show where the stiles joined.

Any suggestions for when I make my NEXT kitchen? Thanks!

P.S. The attached photos show some ceiling-mounted cabs and the joined stiles. I will add cherry glass doors next.

[frank shic]

first off: nice job! can't wait to see the doors on that seamless run :) your trim work is pretty impressive as well! you've answered your own question, jeff. some of the pros "celebrate" the joint line rather than try to hide it by either intentionally bevelling or beading the edges where the face frames are going to meet prior to prepainting.

[johnny means]

The ultra high end way to do it would be to build the faces as one big unit. Stage it all in shop using splines, biscuits ,etc to allow for future registration. Remove, then finish face frames. Hang carcasses, then apply face frames.

[Jeff Wright]

Frank, thanks for the complements! Johnny, your suggestion makes a lot of sense. I will consider that approach should I find myself building another similar project. I would have to revise my method of carcass building as I make up the face frames (using a modified offset tongue and groove method devised by Somerfeld) and attach the carcass sides to that frame. I found I can make the face frames sized precisely to their intended location that way. In other words, if the face frame fits that intended space then the ultimate cabinet will also.

Thanks again guys!

[frank shic]

final question, jeff: is that a routed bead or an applied one? i recently bought a ryobi re600 off of ebay to devote to the kreg beaded face frame system in the very near future :D

[Phil Thien]

Beautiful work.

I wouldn't put so much effort into hiding that joint. Unless it is glued/screwed like NUTS, seasonal humidity changes and/or settling in the structure may make the joint reappear.

[Jeff Wright]

Beautiful work.

I wouldn't put so much effort into hiding that joint. Unless it is glued/screwed like NUTS, seasonal humidity changes and/or settling in the structure may make the joint reappear.

Well . . . no glue used but I did screw like NUTS. I then plugged the screws to conceal them. We'll see what happens. We live in Florida (on the water) and I have not seen a whole lot of wood movement in stuff I've made over the last eight years. But your point is well taken.

[Jeff Wright]

final question, jeff: is that a routed bead or an applied one? i recently bought a ryobi re600 off of ebay to devote to the kreg beaded face frame system in the very near future :D

Frank, I used applied bead molding. I would like to have used routed bead but not having done that before, I didn't want to hold things up while I learned how to do it. I developed a fairly quick method of making and installing the bead molding. I set up the router table to cut the bead, ripped the pieces slightly over thickness, and then ran them all through the planer. That kept them all consistent in thickness. Of course, with the cabs being painted, I didn't have to worry about the run of the grain looking and being different than the rail and/or stile it was attached to as would have been the case had I done the cabs in cherry with all the grain in clear view.

Let me know how that Kreg bead device works. They are far cheaper than that other one (I forget the manufacturer's name) that costs big bucks.

[George Bokros]

Let me know how that Kreg bead device works. They are far cheaper than that other one (I forget the manufacturer's name) that costs big bucks.

The last I knew the Kreg system was $499, too rich for my blood. The Sommerfeldt is $230 and the Timberline $59.95.

George