Bevel angle - doors vs. drawer fronts

[Jon Farley]

Here's one that has me stumped. I have a raised panel bit - just a simple bevel - I believe it is about 15 degrees. I have used it to make many raised panel doors. However, when I attempt to use it to put a bevel on a drawer front, to my eyes, the resulting 15 degree angle always seems too "steep." Are different cutters used to put a bevel on drawer fronts? If so, I haven't been able to find any info on them. My other option I suppose it to do them on the table saw. Can someone help me on this one? Thanks...Jon

[Dan Gill]

Jon, are you building a frame and panel for the drawer fronts, or just beveling a panel without a rail and stile frame around it? If the former, I can easily see that it might look too "steep". On smaller drawers, it would almost come to a point.

If there is no frame around the panel, have you considered simply beveling the edge with a chamfer bit? I know when I built my kitchen, I had a cove panel for my doors, but just did a small cove (about 5/8 inch wide) on the edges of my drawer fronts. They look pretty good together.

[Jon Farley]

Dan, I am doing solid drawer fronts. The problem is that I am trying to match existing cabinetry, so my biggest issue is that the "slightly different" drawer fronts don't match the rest of the kitchen drawers.

[Dan Gill]

Make all new drawer fronts. More shop time!:)

[John Lucas]

Dan may have been funnin but that is probably the best way if you want exact matches. To your question, some cabinet making sets have a "drawer front" bit that has a condensed version of the raised panel bit...just for that purpose. In checking my CMT catalog, I see one for ogee but none for straight.
You say yours looks too steep. Have you considered making a quick angled platform on the table to cut the angle down a bit. SHould be easy to do a trial and error jig using wood shims.

[glenn bradley]

I'm pretty sure this is a visual thing. Like the picture that is hung right according to the bubble-level but just looks wrong. A drawer edge bit that matches your current set should be scaled to provide the appearance you're after.