Best Way to Trim Face Frames to Fit Cabinets

[Adam Slutsky]

I am making some built in cabinets (10 total) out of birch plywood with poplar face frames. Everything will be painted. I attached the face frames to the cabinets with nails and glue but made the frames a bit too large and intended to trim them to fit. At first I was thinking of doing it with a router and then hitting the last few inches with a hand plane. Now I'm thinking maybe I could just use a belt sander or maybe just a hand plane to take off the 1/16 to 1/8" overlap. Any ideas? What is the usual way that cabinet makers do this?

This is my first project after about a 20 year hiatus so my skills are not that sharp. Any ideas or thoughts are greatly appreciated!

[Don Bullock]

Adam, like you I took at least a twenty year break from woodworking. You have found the right group to give you good answers to your questions. Welcome to Sawmill Creek and welcome back to woodworking.

[David DeCristoforo]

Flush trim (I use a 1/2" 3 "flute" trimmer) as close as you can and clean up the corners with a sharp paring chisel. Belt sander... scary! Also, try to get the frames an boxes to match as closely as possible. If you leave too much frame overhang you can end up with unsightly offsets where vertical (stiles) and horizontal (rails) members intersect. Not so much of an issue with painted cabs.

[Joe Vincent]

Yeah, I'd go with a flush trimming bit on a router. Last time I did that, however, I had the bit tear out a couple of chunks on the side of the face frame. But I'm guessing that was because of grain orientation issues.

[Kelvin Penner]

Adam,

I would not use a belt sander, you can do more damage then good. Use a fresh router bit with a bearing, be careful to stay true, do not rock the router. You could also just use a sharp cabinet scraper then finish with a hand block sander or just leave the excess on. Many face trimmed cabinets have a up to 1/8 overlap.

Kelvin

[Leo Graywacz]

If you want to take off material where the face frames will meet with each other cabinet to cabinet I would be leery of taking any off. Getting a perfectly straight cut would be pretty tough. If you are talking about where the cabinet is going to meet wit the wall then you want to scribe a line using a carpenters scribe and take off the excess with either a belt sander or a jigsaw. Then you can use a belt sander or a hand plane to get right up to your line. If you need to do this on the FF where the cabinets meet a straight bit with a guide on your router or an electric hand plane is the way to go.

[mike holden]

Adam,
flush trim on a router is the simple way, but I would use a handplane - either a block plane or a smoother. Quiet, quick, and easy - but it assumes some practice with planes.
Mike

[Adam Slutsky]

I am trying to get the edges flush since the middle cabinet stick out about 4" more than the side cabinets. I need to get the face fram even with the cabinet sides. It seems that the consensus is to use a router. What about the glue on the underside of the face frames? Will that screw up the router alignment? I guess I can scrape the glue out first with a chisel but I'm afraid that if the outside of the cabinet is not perfectly straight then the face frame will also not be perfectly straight. Any hints for trimming with the router are greatly appreciated. Thanks for the advice!

[David DeCristoforo]

Well, first of all, that glue should have been cleaned up way long ago when it was still soft. And you should be checking out sides for straightness while you are gluing up.

[Adam Slutsky]

Yes, I realize that now!

[Paul Demetropoulos]

Hey Adam,

I would heed Leo's advice, and think twice before going at the stiles where they meet, especially with a hand plane if you're not extremely practiced.

If you're intent on trying it, the painted finish giving you a little wiggle room, a straight edge guide with pattern bit in the router or something like the EZ Smart guide that would clamp right on to the face frame would work. There's actually a post where a guy has pictures of trimming an installed cabinet stile with that guide clamped vertically to the cabinet.
That post is on the EZ Smart manufacturer's forum.

Either way, using the router with the guide or the EZ system, make sure
the guide is exactly parallel to the edge.

[Karl Brogger]

Depending on how much you have to take off, take the bulk of it off with a circular saw, then hit it with a flushtrim bit, follow with a beltsander to get any of the glue that the bearing had to climb over. If you've got gaps because the side isn't straight just pull it into the adjacent cabinet with a clamp and screw it together.

[Fred Voorhees]

I almost always leave the edges a little proud and trim them with a flush trim bit in the router. Works great and I then just touch them up with a light sanding with some 220. Beautiful results.