China Hutch Doors

[Russel Tauras]

Greetings,
I’m performing final fitting on 2 china hutch doors. They mate together with a rabbet when they close. Now, I’ve hung these doors on their hinges and some small adjustment are needed to get a good fit when they close. I can’t close the doors as there’s some overlap at the top.

So, I’m thinking the way to fit the door is to hand plane the door edges at the top but how do I handle the rabbet? I have to trim this back too. Do I use a rabbet plane? A shoulder plane? I can't sand this as it needs to maintain square. I don't have the option of adjusting the hinges.

The stakes are high at this point as any mistakes now may mean I must do a new set of doors.

Russ

[David DeCristoforo]

A rabbet plane is the ticket. And very light passes. Take your time. As you have implied, you can't put wood back on very easily!

[Gary Breckenridge]

Before you go at the doors with a plane figure out the level of humidity in their final resting place and the amount of drying the door wood will do.;) I'd use a really sharp and tuned rabit plane.