How do you attach the rails to the stiles when making cabinet doors?

[dennis thompson]

When making cabinet doors do you attach the rails to the stiles by:
1-mortise & tenon?
2-pocket screws?
3-biscuits?
4-any other method?
Thanks

[Robert Payne]

While it depends on the style of the cabinet door, I've used cope and stick, mortise and tenon and in cases with narrow rails and stiles as with glass doors, I have used Dominos to strengthen a cope and stick joint. I never use biscuits or pocket screws.

[Terry Hatfield]

Typically cope and stick or tongue and groove for me.

[Steve Jenkins]

Cope and stick or for mitered doors a biscuit.

[Robert Engel]

Cope and stick.
You're plowing a groove for the panel anyway, so even without a profile, just make a stub tenon on the rails.

[Dave Arnett]

"Typically cope and stick or tongue and groove for me."

Same here.

[Lee Schierer]

I'm not set up to do a cope and stick so typically I use a lap joint for the rails and stiles. On a half overlay door the lap isn't visible except when the door is open.

[Brian Holcombe]

Mitered haunch wedged through tenons .

[Jim Becker]

As you can see, there are multiple methods available, depending on the profile and the nature of the joint. Cope and stick (or cope and stick with a longer tenon for a heavier door) are probably the most popular/traditional, but available tooling matters, too.

I'll throw out a variation on what Lee mentions around a lap joint...mitered lap so you have the appearance of a miter on the face, but the huge glue surface of a lap joint behind it. This requires some very careful work to do, but can be really beautiful, and especially strong for heavier doors or heavier picture frames. There will be visual evidence of the joint on the edges of the door/frame, but that's not typically an issue in many applications.

[David Eisenhauer]

I'll give you an "if" option. If you are not set up to or not ready to move to mortise and tenon and if you are OK with a plywood flat panel - then you can use biscuits to fab up the door rectangle (stiles and rails). After fabbing the door frame, run a rabbet bit around the back inside of the frame and then glue a flat plywood panel in the rabbeted recess. You can use staples or small nails to fix the panel in place while the glue dries or use weights to clamp it as preferred. The plywood panel glued in place will add strength to the biscuit joints and it will hold together under heavy use.

[Lee Schierer]

I'll throw out a variation on what Lee mentions around a lap joint...mitered lap so you have the appearance of a miter on the face, but the huge glue surface of a lap joint behind it. This requires some very careful work to do, but can be really beautiful, and especially strong for heavier doors or heavier picture frames. There will be visual evidence of the joint on the edges of the door/frame, but that's not typically an issue in many applications.

I agree with the mitered lap joint they are very nice and work very well for picture frames. I've used them several times and once you get the hang of it they aren't too hard to do if your saw is well aligned and your miter gauge is accurate.

[Martin Wasner]

Cope and stick here as well. It's too easy

[Charles P. Wright]

I've done mostly tounge and groove, because I can do it all on the table saw, it looks good with no fasteners showing, and I need the setup for the groove anyway to put the panel in.

I built a bought a rail & stile bit for my latest project; and so far that seems to be working pretty well too.

[keith wootton]

bridle joint is fast and easy, very strong. can all be done on table saw without too much fuss. cut the shoulder of tenon cheeks, then set dado for center with tenon jig, then reset saw still with the dado blade to remove rest of the cheeks.

[lowell holmes]

Cope and stick with glue does it for me. IMO, adding tenons is redundant. Cope and stick is how entrance doors are made.

[Jim Andrew]

Years ago, I built a kitchen with raised panel doors, and used dowels to attach the doors together. Now I use a Freud set of cutters and do cope and stick.

[Shawn Pixley]

Mortise and tenon. That is the only way I make mine.

[roger wiegand]

M&T or the cope and stick set I have with the longer tenon. Mostly M&T, often with pegs to hold them together.

[Rod Sheridan]

When making cabinet doors do you attach the rails to the stiles by:
1-mortise & tenon?
2-pocket screws?
3-biscuits?
4-any other method?
Thanks

Hi, mortice and tenon or cope/stick profile depending upon the door type...........Regards, Rod.

[dennis thompson]

Thanks for the replies. Is the set up for cope and stick difficult?

[Kevin Jenness]

Most cabinet doors are built with cope/stick stub tenons 1/2"-5/8" long. Square edge ('shaker' style) are easily made by running a groove in all the parts and forming a stub tenon on the rails with two matched shaper cutters spaced apart , a dado set on the table saw or a straight bit in a router table. The first option is most common in commercial work and gives a consistently sized tenon. A backup block will help to prevent tearout.

Molded frame edges require a set of shaper or router cutters to form the male and female elements. Depending on the cutter set there may be some shimming required between the cutters to get a good result. This style does add a bit of glue surface relative to square edge doors, but there are many of the latter in use with good longevity if well made.

"Cope and stick with glue does it for me. IMO, adding tenons is redundant. Cope and stick is how entrance doors are made." Not. Cabinet doors are light enough that you can get away with a cope and stick joint. Entrance doors without additional joint strength from full mortise/tenon, dowels or inserted tenons are bound to fail over time.

If you want to make a stronger cabinet door by using these methods, don't hesitate, but fairly simple joinery will suffice.

[Shawn Pixley]

No. It isn't difficult, but i does require that you like the profiles. If you don't (like me for instance), you look for other ways.

[Shawn Pixley]

Cope and stick with glue does it for me. IMO, adding tenons is redundant. Cope and stick is how entrance doors are made.

I don't think so. They often cope and stick for the panles and profiles; but the corners and rails are M&T. There is no cope and stick that would hold my 42" by 10' entry door with wind rating.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I've used cope and stick ...and mortise and tenon.

[Prashun Patel]

What's your panel? For a cabinet, if it's plywood or painted mdf, I have no issue with cope/stick and a glued in panel to augment the strength.

For anything else, I'd use something to augment the strength. I would guess that biscuits offer almost nothing over the cope/stick glue surface. In fact, I wonder if the biscuit would even penetrate deep enough beyond it.

[Glenn de Souza]

You've received no shortage of suggested methods.

Maybe the choice depends on the tools available to you and what type of detailing is going on with the doors you need to join. Are the panels solid wood or a composite material? Raised or flat? Also depends on how many doors you need to do and what the application is in terms of potential wear and abuse. Assuming a molded edge where frame meets panel, and you have the cutters/router table/shaper, yes, cope and stick is a good way to go. I happen to like dowels, sometimes alone and sometimes as a reinforcement to cope and stick if heavy use is involved. A bridle joint is very strong and all you need is a TS and dado set.

Here is a less conventional idea - If your panel is a flat panel and not solid wood, you could simply glue it to the rails and then glue on the stiles reinforcing with dowels or biscuits. I know a furniture maker who veneers flat baltic birch panels with shop sawn exotic veneers and glues up the door as described and it results in a very strong assembly. Because the panel is stable, there is no reason you could not apply stuck, mitered molding to inset, if you have enough depth and you want that look.

[Cary Falk]

Cope and stick here. I worked in the cabinet shop when I was a kid that used to do cope and stick + dowels. Dowels by themselves will work also.

[glenn bradley]

My favorite is a bridle joint, second choice is half lap, third is M&T, then others with cope and stick dead last as I strive to make things that look different than what you can just get anywhere. On the other hand, for kitchens and baths that is often exactly what you want. There are places to make a statement and there are places to "fit in". I'm sure there are as many answers as woodworkers ;-)