Cabinet door panel slots

[Bryan Rocker]

Good morning all,
I have read on several threads discussions about using the little rubber balls to hold the panels tight the doors when you glue them up. Instead of filling gaps why would you use a dado with the left hand 1/8" blade and a 1/16" chipper blade? I should give you a slot just barely big enough for the now 1/4" plywood that is really almost .200"ish. Is there a safety concern going down this road????

Bryan

[Jeff Duncan]

I'm not sure if I'm understanding your question correctly or not. Spaceballs are used to prevent side to side and up and down movement of a panel in a door frame. Changing the size of the panel groove will in theory make the panel fit a bit tighter, but will not effect it from the other movements unless it's too tight. If using the spaceballs you must also be careful to not overcompress them as there have been posts regarding bleed though from the balls showing in the finish.
In general you'll probably be much better of finding material that fits the 1/4" groove than trying to make it smaller. As thinner panels will be
a bit flimsier. Also most cope & stick sets for cabinet doors are designed for either 1/4" or occasionally 3/8" panels. So if you have to make up doors using a profile you'll be stuck with a 1/4" groove anyway. I use mdf panels now as they are more stable and usually the correct thickness.

hope this helps,
JeffD

[Loren Hedahl]

Good morning all,
I have read on several threads discussions about using the little rubber balls to hold the panels tight the doors when you glue them up. Instead of filling gaps why would you use a dado with the left hand 1/8" blade and a 1/16" chipper blade? I should give you a slot just barely big enough for the now 1/4" plywood that is really almost .200"ish. Is there a safety concern going down this road????

Bryan


So you would have no full blade on one side, just a chipper?

I would think you would get a pretty rough cut on the side where just the chipper was installed.

I would also think it would be difficult to feed the wood though the blades of such an arrangement.

Why not just forget about the blades, and just use chippers? What kind of a cut and what kind of action would you expect?

[jason lambert]

I could be off here but if you are using plywood you should be fine there is limited movement. The frame may move a bit but I think the main concern is the inside pannel expanding and blowing apart the frame.

The reason you use them has nothing to do with fit it is compensate for expansion and keep your panel centered.

[Bryan Rocker]

Let me add some pertinent information regarding the panels I am making. They are following a simple design, nothing fancy SWMBO loves the look. I made the top door frames with removable panels. I installed oak panels for the moment but eventually we will be putting glass in there we just haven't decided on what panels yet.... For the bottom frames I am going to be installing fixed panels. I plan on using oak plywood for the panels. I went to my local specialty wood store and asked if they had true 1/4" oak plywood, they don't. If I could find true 1/4" oak plywood I would probably go fetch a couple sheets to do the base cabinet doors. Since I have yet to see true 1/4" oak plywood I see the possibility of using the 1 full blade out of a dado set, I have a Freud SD 600 set, and 1 1/16" blade. My questioin is probably 2 fold, are there any issues with creating the slot in this manor and 2nd, do you know of a source in the SW Ohio area that carries true 1/4" oak plywood?

[Steve Clardy]

The only true 1/4" thickness in panel material that is available now, is 1/4" MDF board with veneer applied to both sides.
I haven't seen true 1/4" plywood in quite some time.

[Matthew Voss]

Bryan-

You could get an adjustable T&G router bit set that would cut the groove the exact size of the plywood panel.

I use the Amana Instile and I believe Freud makes an adjustable set as well.

http://www.amanatool.com/bits-fv/55433.html

http://www.freudtools.com/p-155-adjustable-tongue-groove-bit-set.aspx

[J.R. Rutter]

For plywood panels, just glue them into place and forget about the spacers. The spacers are for solid wood panels to compensate for expansion and contraction of the panel.

If you are just doing a single job, you can just do 2 passes with a regular table saw blade if that is the tool you prefer to use. Just be sure to register the same face against the fence and use a featherboard to keep it tight. You will have a little bit of uneven bottom showing at the joint (unless you miter it). but should not be major.

Then cope the tenons with a dado set to fit. The thickness of the parts needs to be exact to keep the tenon thickness even and the fit tight.

[Jeff Duncan]

I would go with JR's advice here, do it on the TS and make 2 passes. I would do it slightly differently though. If the panel is to be centered in the door frame I would set the fence so that your blade is just off center. That way you run the piece through the blade once on the face side and once on the back side. This allows you to do the whole batch without stopping to adjust the fence. But really either way should work fine.
I don't think I would attempt to use a single blade with a chipper or especially a chipper by itself, I think that it could be dangerous and leave a ragged cut on the chipper side. And running a chipper or 2 by themselves as someone mentioned I have to imagine would be very bad. I can't say for sure as I haven't tried it, but i'm not going to either.
Lastly there is another option and that is to use solid wood panels sized to your 1/4" groove. The advantage would be that the grain would match your frames better. Plywood veneers tend to be off-color from solid wood b/c of the way light hits them, or maybe more accurately the way it hits the layer under the veneer. You could either fabricate a 1/4" thick solid panel or make the panel thicker and use a panel raising bit on the back to reduce the edge to 1/4".
anyway just a couple suggestions, good luck,
JeffD

[Bryan Rocker]

Thanks for your comments, I hadn't thought about making some glue up panels and modifying them into a panel. That is an interesting thought. It might give me an opportunity to use my big planer. The Freud adustable slot cutter runds $80 at Rockler and I do have a 15 percent coupon.

Thanks folks, as always you are very helpful.

Bryan

[Jay Jolliffe]

I have to build some interior doors & the dado will be around 3/8 wide for the raised panel. What would you use instead of the space ball as their not big enough.

[glenn bradley]

If I am using plywood panels, I glue them all around. The balls and such are for solid wood panels that require room to move. The balls keep them centered while moving.

[glenn bradley]

Foam "rope (http://www.buyhardwaresupplies.com/?t=5&m=g1&itemNumber=5131396)".

[Gordon Harner]

I understand that Freud makes slot cutters for their cope and stick sets for the under sized 1/4" plywood. That may be an option too.

[Steve Clardy]

I understand that Freud makes slot cutters for their cope and stick sets for the under sized 1/4" plywood. That may be an option too.


Yes. Whiteside does th same. Just add an X to the profile #.

I run the 6002 and 6002X <--Ply

[J.R. Rutter]

If the panel is to be centered in the door frame I would set the fence so that your blade is just off center. That way you run the piece through the blade once on the face side and once on the back side. This allows you to do the whole batch without stopping to adjust the fence.

Good thought - but we should probably add the step of milling everything to the same thickness, or verifying that it is all the same, otherwise the groove will vary.

[Jeff Duncan]

JR, your absolutely right, sometimes I make assumptions that, well.... probably shouldn't be made;)
JeffD