Cabinet Doors w/ Glass

[Josh Hulit]

I am building some cherry trophy cases and had a question about cutting the rails and stiles for the glass. I ordered Amana's SC446 beading R&S set for the doors. Amana has a glass cutter for this set, which would be fine for the rails, but I need a stopped rabbett for the stiles. Do I forget the glass cutter and use a router after assembly? In the past, I've done the rails on the ts and the stiles with a chisel. Just seeing what everybody else is doing.

Also, I'm going to use a cherry molding on the inside, so I guess that would hide the rounded cut of the router in the corners. Seems there should be an easier way to do these doors. Maybe I'm missing something simple?


Thanks!

[Robert Chapman]

For doors I miter corners at 45 degrees [sometimes use bicuits for strength] and cut the rabbetts on the table saw. I use silicone to secure the glass in the rabbetts. Works for me.

[Paul Grothouse]

I do it like the attached drawing and use glass retainer. I use Hafele retainer: http://www.hafele.com/us/external/catalog/pages09-02/537.pdf

[Paul Grothouse]

Here is a recently finished display cabinet I just did this way.

[John TenEyck]

There's a good article on a simple way to build them with nothing more than your TS in FWW #225, which is the current one I think. I'm building some Stickley style glass doors right now. It has a somewhat more traditional mortise and tenon, and can be made with only a router and TS. Look at Installment #11 here:

http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=5784590&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=6&vc=1

[Steve Griffin]

One way to do rabbits on your stiles is to do a stopped cut on the table saw before assembly. Pencil mark on the fence your starting and stopping point for raising the blade. Because of the arc of the blade, you still need to clean up the corners with a sharp chisel, and it's probably easiest to do that after assembly. You can save some chisel work by using a jap saw to kerf the end of the stopped rabbit.