Half Lap Cabinet Doors

[Pat Barry]

I am building a hutch with 4 inset doors. Two of them will be glass inserts and two with a plywood beadboard material. The frame sizes are approx 18"x23" with stiles and rails approx 1 3/4" width and 3/4" thick. Its pine material form the local BORG. ANyway, I'm using 1/2 lap joinery for these to make it simple and quick because I need to get this done tomorrow. I was just curious if others use 1/2 lap corner joinery for doors such as these and whether I might regret that later. Other choices = M&T, bridle joint, cope and stick router bit. I don't like the idea of cope and stick for this pine material - just don't think its strong enough. I'm OK with the bridle joint but thats more setups and slower and I'm not sure if the extra work is really worth it. The M&T I'm afraid of due to the time constraint and becuase I don't have a morticing method other than to drill and use a chisel to size and clean up the joints and I'm not very good at that yet.

[Art Mann]

I built a credenza for my Mother-in-law out of red oak some time in the late 1970's using half lap joints and PVA glue on the doors. The piece is still in use today and the joints look as good as they ever did. I'm actually a little surprised that the differential expansion of wood grain glued at 90 degree angles hasn't loosened them up. I would anticipate that pine would survive better since it is more pliable than oak.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

If you have a router table, mortise and tenon are another possibility.

[glenn bradley]

Bridle joints are my go to for larger doors and half-laps test even stronger. The only regret I would worry about is the using pine with such narrow rails and stiles. Using a soft wood I would fatten up the rails at least. A heavier lower rail (2-1/2" - 3") with a top rail that is a bit larger than the stiles (2") can make a pleasing appearance while adding strength. I'd also go with 1/8" glass to save some weight. JMHO.

[John TenEyck]

Half laps are very strong, but not always the easiest to get registered perfectly so the joints end up flush w/o some hand work. If you have a router and router table or edge guide you might consider routing mortises in both the stiles and rails and using loose tenons. All the benefit of M&T joints with less work and guaranteed accuracy if you always reference from a common face. If you don't have a router table or edge guide you could make a jig in about an hour. Loose tenons also work very well to beef up cope and stick joints.

John

[Mike Schuch]

You need a grove to hold the panel so I would do cope and stick joints.

You could also do pocket holes with plugs if you want quick and strong.

[Lee Schierer]

I've used lap joints for frame and panel doors. Lap joints are really strong. If you make the doors as overlay doors, the laps won't sow when the doors are closed. As noted above depending on what saw blade you use to make the shoulder cut you may have to do some hand work to remove a bit of material in the corner. I find that a Flat bastard cut file will do this job pretty quickly and cleanly. Do a trial fit before applying glue to insure the shoulders will close up tight.

I cut the cross cuts to depth first, then I make the face cuts with my tenoning jig. This allows me to fine tune the depth so that I get a perfect fit up when I glue the corners. A backer block will eliminate any tear out on the back side when you make the cross cuts for the shoulders.

[Prashun Patel]

Half laps are plenty strong. I don't know that they are any faster than other joints, though. On each corner, you have to make 2 perfectly square shoulder cuts, and the depth of cut has to be perfect.

If you're considering cope and stick, I'm assuming you've got a router. How about a slip tenon jig?

[Phil Thien]

Half laps are real strong but they can be a challenge to produce so they look furniture-nice. Pretty easy if you use a tenon jig on the table saw, but the way many make them (with a dado taking multiple passes) you can get some tear-out on the trailing edges of the pieces, and some bat-wings from the outside blades of the dado (and the bat wings will be visible once the joint is assembled).

For me at least, cope and stick would actually be faster because I have a Freud cope and stick set for my router. Cope and stick is also extremely strong, trying to get one corner apart destroys the material. Once you have four corners all supporting one another, it isn't coming apart. Not with modern glues.