Another Glass Door Question

[John Grossi]

Happy new year everyone. Holidays are over and have to finish a project before spring. I have a question concerning building glass doors. When making standard raised panel doors, the slot cut in the rails and styles is .125. Why can't I put in a piece of glass instead of the raised panel? The glass would be tempered, .125 also. I figure I can raise my cutters slightly to get a few thousands extra in that slot, to give a little clearance for the glass to fit nicely. Some websites show the purchase of seperate cutters to do glass panel doors. I realize they want to make money, but I want to save money and use the cutters I have already invested in. Am I on the right track, or completely off base. Thanks John

[Jim Becker]

You certainly can put appropriate glass in your doors. But the construction is usually a little different so that you can replace the glass later if necessary as well as finish the door(s) with the glass out of them. Instead of a slot containing the glass, what would be the rear lip is removed and small moldings are used to hold the glass in. How they are held in depends upon the scale of the door and your preferences, I use moldings pre-finished to match the door and just us 23 gage pins to fasten them in place. They are easily removable if necessary. Some folks use plastic clips and whatnot, but I don't find those attractive to look at when the door is open...I like a more finished look.

[Charles McCracken]

John,

There are lots of ways to make glass doors and the one you mention should work. Be aware that 1/4" glass is HEAVY. 1/8 - 3/16 is much more commonly used in cabinet doors and gluing the frame together with the glass captured means it will be difficult to replace a broken pane.

[Joe Chritz]

Standard is .250 for rail/stile bits. Euro plywood conversion bits are a bit smaller than that.

You should be able to just remove the lip with a rabbit bit and insert a glass panel with your choice of methods. The one Jim mentioned is one of the nicer ways to do it.

You could also assemble the frame, rabbit the back after assembly and clean up with a chisel.

Joe