Bought wrong bit set

[Joe_Ott]

Hi all.

I recently bought the Freud cabinet door set (#97-100) that comes with the matched rail & stile bits as well as the panel raiser. I did not plan on using the panel raiser for my current project (but I'm sure I'll find a reason later...).

My project is using Cherry 1/4" ply. Of course the slot cutter on this bit set is 1/4" unlike the 1/4" Cherry (7/32"?). So the slot is too big.

Whiteside has a conversion kit (different cutters) for their rail & stile bits to slot for the undersized ply. I called Freud, they don't offer different slot cutters. Does anybody know if the Whiteside kit would work on the Freud sets arbor???

Uhg. I knew I should've bought the Whiteside set. Darn!

Any suggestions? I have one, says a voice from the back of the room, think things through before you buy!!!! :)

Thanks,
Joe

[Tim]

Hi Joe,

How bad is the fit? Is it visually unappealing, or is it the possible rattling that you're concerned about? If it looks fine but you're concerned about noise, you could probably prevent rattling by putting something in the groove to hold the panel, such as Space Balls from Woodcraft. Much cheaper than another bit. I've used Space Balls and they work well (go to the Woodcraft site and search on space balls to find them). You could probably get the same effect by stuffing some foam weatherstripping in the groove.

That's assuming you want to leave the panel floating. With ply, that's not usually necessary. You could also just glue the ply panel in place to prevent rattling.

Good luck!

[Ken Salisbury]

Joe,
Another thing you can do is to use some clear silicone in the back of the slots to keep the panels from rattling or moving. You only need to apply in a few spots along the length of the panel to accomplish this. I always use silcone with floating raised panels in lieu of spaceballs to keep them from moving and still permit any expansion/contraction of the panel. The silicone is somewhat pliable.

Just a little tip from a senile old man.

[Steve Roxberg]

Replace the slot cutter with a bearing or don't use it. Then cut the groove in a seperate operation. Don't know if this would work, but it might.

[Joe_Ott]

Thanks for the ideas and advice guys. I really don't want the groove for the ply to be oversized for appearance reasons, so I ordered a new set of Whiteside bits for undersized plywood.

Maybe I'll return the Freud set (maybe not). I'm suprised that Freud doesn't offer a similar matched Rail & Stile cutter set. The guy at Freud I talked to this morning didn't really seem to care. Surely I'm not the only who ever wanted to do this combo? Whatever.

Thanks again.
Joe