Beading on Cabinet Doors.. How to??

[John Viercinski]

Hey all,

So I have my kitchen cabinets primed and installed and I'm going to be making the doors and drawer fronts. Since the cabinets are white inset and fairly plain looking, I wanted to add some detail to the doors. I want to do a rail and stile door with a flat recessed panel with beading around the interior edge of the panel. I know the basic approach to accomplish this by using a 3/16" beading bit followed by a run through the dado blade for the groves in the rails and stiles for the panel.

It seems to be pretty tricky at the joints with the beading, however. Beading on a face frame is much simpler, but on a door it's more complicated.

Is there an easy way to do these rail cuts? Or is it trial and error on the table saw trying to nail the right distances on the top and bottom of the rails?

Is nailing on the beading after the door has been assembled a do-able option with a pin nailer?

[Russell Tribby]

Attaching the beading with a pin nailer is probably the easiest option and if you're going to paint these doors it may be the way to go. However, keep in mind that you'll be dealing with some really thin stock, something like 1/4" X 1/4". If you go the other route it's not difficult, just more time consuming. After you've routed the bead on the rails and stiles you have to cut off the portion of the bead on the stiles that equals the width of the rails (when calculating the width do not count the part that has the bead). The bead on both the rails and stiles has to be mitered on the ends. Of course I've left out cutting the grooves and stub tenons, I'm assuming you already know how to do that.

[Craig D Peltier]

Putting beading in after the fact on painted doors is totally fine. Pin nailer will work fine and some glue. Ive done it on non painted doors this way and it looks fine. Run the bead bit on your router table preferrably with featherboards on a wider board. Then make the thin rip at the TS.
Someone on here sent me this link for a jack miter. http://www.burrellcustomcarpentry.com/subpage42.html

Also a search on sawmill creek will help with more thorough of an answer.Its been asked on here quite a bit.

[Gary Lee]

Another option is to have miter joints at the corners. Run your dado for your panel and then use a beading bit (or profile of your choice) for the inside profile. Then join the corners with biscuits, Diminos, dowels, etc. If you look at most high end cabinets with beading they are mitered (at least with painted versions) and then joined with a finger joint style joinery.

[David DeCristoforo]

I make these doors with "integral" beading and "mason's miters". For joinery I use a "floating" tenon but I mill the slots before I mill the beads. It's pretty easy to make a couple of jigs that allow you to use a router and flush bit to make the miters, needing only a small cleanup with a chisel at the inside corner.

[Jim Becker]

Putting beading in after the fact on painted doors is totally fine.

Applied beading wouldn't be unusual for a non-painted design, either...having a bead integral with the rails and stiles makes for some pretty complicated joinery.

[jack duren]

I sell a lot of cabinets with beading. Its my best seller....Jack

[J.R. Rutter]

I use thick CA glue with an accelerator for ply panel doors.

[John Viercinski]

Thanks for the process suggestions.. I'm going to mull over my options and start the doors this weekend. I'll be sure to take pictures as I go through it... Any of these methods are not as hard as I initially thought. For some reason I had a total brain fart with the rail and stile joints!!