Enough play, time to try something real

[Dennis Putnam]

This is going to be my first attempt at a serious project that I hope will turn out professional looking. The project will be a cabinet and I have everything pretty much figured out except 2 areas for which I'd like some suggestions.

1) This cabinet will have 2 doors for glass inserts. My plan is to use my rail and stile router bits to make the frames and I hope to stain the piece. How do I best handle the end grain cuts? Should the rails or stiles be exposed? I am not much of a finisher (yet) and I don't like the look of staining end pieces. Is there a better approach that will hide the ends?

2) I don't really have a good idea what to do for a top. I plan to use 3/4 plywood for the carcass (the ends will be exposed) and a matching wood for the frame face and doors (depending on what kind of veneer I can get on the plywood). Since I don't have a planer/joiner (yet) I think glueing pieces wide enough that will look good is out. Using plywood for the top presents the problem of dealing with edges. That is where my design is lacking. My design skills are lacking in the area of visualizing how to trim all this up so it doesn't wind up looking like a box with doors.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or reference material.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dennis...First ....Welcome to the Creek!

I built an oak sideboard for my wife. I had good luck in getting the endgrain to match the side grain by sanding to 400 grit and then using a sanding sealer on the end grain. Then I applied stain to the whole thing.

I'd use a matching hardwood for the top and work on making the endgrain match the rest of the project.

Good luck with you project! I'm sure you'll get some more advice from others.

Again.....Welcome to the Creek!

[Don Orr]

Dennis, I can't help much with your overall design, but don't discard gluing up boards just because you don't have a power jointer (yet). Hand planed glue joints are just as easy and fast. Simply clamp the two pieces of wood face to face in a bench vise and plane them together with a nice sharp hand plane. Take the boards out of the vise and mate the edges you just planed and they will be a perfect match-even if they are not perfectly square. Don't have a good hand plane (yet) ? Good excuse to get one and learn how to sharpen and use one:D . Isn't a certain gift-giving holiday coming up soon;) ? Lots of great info on planes and sharpening over on the Neander board!

Good luck, have fun, be safe!
(Pardon the signature line:eek: )

And welcome to the Creek!

[Tom Jones III]

You might try looking at this book. A lot of the principles will apply to cabinets even though the book is about chests of drawers.

Chests of Drawers

by Bill H. Hylton (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ATH=Bill+H%2E+Hylton&z=y)[/URL]
[URL="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/imageviewer.asp?ean=9781561584222&z=y"]http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/9790000/9791376.gif (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?ATH=Bill+Hylton&z=y)


Paperback
ISBN: 1561584223 (http://sawmillcreek.org/)

[Dan Gill]

If you really want to hide the end grain, you can miter the corners. If that's not strong enough, you can put in a spline.

I always make the stiles show the end grain. I think that's just the way I think of things. To me the stiles are vertical and the rails fit inside the stiles. If your top overhangs the front, the tops of the doors wont be highly visible, and any differences in the staining of the end grain won't be noticeable. But sanding the end grain to a finer grit should help, as has already been noted.

[Cory Newman]

Should the rails or stiles be exposed?

Typically the stiles (vertical pieces) go the whole length of the door, the rails (horizontal pieces) are the short pieces.

Therefore the end grain would be on the top and bottom of the door.

HTH

Cory

[Dennis Putnam]

Dennis, I can't help much with your overall design, but don't discard gluing up boards just because you don't have a power jointer (yet). Hand planed glue joints are just as easy and fast. Simply clamp the two pieces of wood face to face in a bench vise and plane them together with a nice sharp hand plane. Take the boards out of the vise and mate the edges you just planed and they will be a perfect match-even if they are not perfectly square.

Upon further thought, I realized I am missing something here. I can't see how this will work. If I butt the planed edges to each other they will be mirror images. If I have a low spot it will create a gap that is double the dimension below plane. In order for them to fit perfectly, the low spot will have to have an identically surfaced high spot. How can that happen planing the way you describe? What am I missing?