Tool Cabinet Door Question

[Stephen Morrison]

I'm building a wall mounted tool cabinet with 2 hinged doors and have a question on how to build the doors. The doors are each 18" wide by 36" high by 3" deep and will have hand tools mounted to the doors. I'm going to dovetail the hardwood door frames on edge to create the depth of the doors and want to use 1/2" plywood for the "panel" of the doors. I want the plywood to prevent the doors from racking as there will be a fair amount of weight on the doors. I was thinking of putting a 1/4" groove in the hardwood door frame and letting the 1/2" ply (w/ 1/4" rabbet) float in the frame.

Do you think I'd have wood movement problems if I fastened the plywood panel to the hardwood frames? I just don't think the floating panel will provide the strength I will need.

Any thoughts?

[Steve Clardy]

I would fasten top and bottom of the panel, in the center.

[Roland Chung]

Hi Stephen,

I made one of these about 22 years ago and it's still hanging around today in good condition. I used birch plywood for everything so I didn't have to deal with the possibility of differing expansion rates for the hardwood and plywood.

This may not be as pretty as you want and it's kind of an original joint, but it looks pretty good and it has held up well. I made the doors out of 3 1/2" ripped pcs of plywood - rabbetted corners. I cut the face of the door the same size as the overall height and width of the sides. I rabbetted the backside of the face 3/4" wide and 5/8" deep. When I inserted the face of the door into the sides, a little less than 1/8" ended up showing. I glued it and shot finish nails through the sides - twenty-two years later, if I were to do it again, I would still glue it, but probably use 23 guage pins to lock it in place and then clamp it - no nail holes to fill.

In other words, the veneer of the front panel covers the edge of the "box" sides. Since it has been rabbetted, you don't see the edges of the front panel. It is less than 1/8" away from the look of a mitred joint, but a lot easier.

Another thing that I did was to put a 1/4" groove in the door sides about 1" back from where the backside of the face of the door ended. It allowed me to float some pegboard in the door.

Good luck!

Roland

[Jim Young]

Pictures would be nice here.

[Steve Schoene]

No need to float a plywood panel in a hardwood frame. The frame will only move very little in the length dimension so there will no differential with the plywood. Hence, no problem with wood movement. You can glue it firmly in place all the way around without an issue.

[Roland Chung]

Here are some pics. Thanks for asking, you guys are expanding my horizons. It's a little more beat up than I remember. It's been run into a few times with truck mirrors. I haven't used it for years, but it's still too nice to get rid of - maybe when I am ready to make a new one. Sorry for not showing the pegboard and interior details, but the Unisaw with Exactor Sliding table and DC system is sort of parked in front.

Roland

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[Stephen Morrison]

Roland - thanks for the pictures, that's one nice looking cabinet.

Steve- You nailed it on the head! Thanks for setting me straight, the wood movement is in the depth of the door not the width or height. It makes sense to me now. Thanks for your reply.