how would you make these doors?

[David Zaret]

i have a client that's asking for a style of cabinet door i've never made.... i have some theories on how to do it, but i was wondering how others would achieve this look. they will be painted, as in the picture.

i have a good shaper, with good tooling. i would need to make ~90 doors and panels for a whole house build, so whatever technique i adopt needs to be somewhat scalable.

my gut feel on the possible approaches are:

1) build the doors as a straight shaker, flat MDF panel, and apply a small flat strip (probably mitered) to the inside edge, glued and pinned, caulked, primed and painted
2) build these as mitered doors, made from a single moulded profile including the step and groove (probably a one-step operation on the shaper)
3) build these as single-piece MDF doors, cut on the CNC. (this is my last and least favorite option, i really am not a fan of MDF doors)

any ideas? considerations? thanks.

-- dz

IMG_2142.jpg

[Mark Gibney]

Option #1 for me David!

[Dave Seng]

Yeah, I'd be leaning strongly towards option #1 as well. Especially with a painted door, I think they will look great and be fairly straightforward to build in that manner.

[Jeff Bartley]

I’d opt for #1. Out of curiosity, would the doors have a full mortise and tenon or just stub tenons that fill the panel groove? Also, I like the rounded detail at the bottom of the door!

[Jim Becker]

Option number one for me. I might even go so far as to make the door from flat BB ply and apply both faux rails/stiles and the detail as I've done for many kinds of projects. I'd do that for drawer fronts no question and likely for the doors, too. Yea, not traditional, but it works for me.

[David Zaret]

thanks guys. first off, yeah, they would be shaker stub and tenon, made likely with a freeborn cope and stick set. the only thing that gives me pause with option 1 is the effort of banding 90+ doors. if i can figure out how to make that as a single profile, it would save me a ton of time and effort, in both labor and finishing. i most definitely can achieve it through option 1, but my brain is telling me to try to find a more efficient approach given the volume.

i may play with it at the shaper for an hour or so, and report back. thanks again.

[Steve Jenkins]

I have a profile similar to that that I use. I had knives made for an insert cutter head so I get the full profile in cope and stick.

[Bradley Gray]

If you go with #1, somewhere around the 30th door you're gonna wish you had gone with the single moulded profile.

[Kevin Jenness]

Since you don't want to go with one piece doors get a custom cope and stick set made. Corrugated back will probably be least expensive. Mitered doors are much more likely to fail down the road.

[Brad Shipton]

For 90 doors, I would have a custom cope/stick set made. I had a unique stepped profile, and I had a custom set made. These applied details will be time consuming by the time you fit them nicely and deal with the clean up issues that will undoubtedly pop up. You will need to keep the projection of your profile down to less than 1" for a 5/16" blade if I recall correctly. I finished my doors many months ago and there was around 90 doors (pic of one batch below). It is a big job. The best option would be to find a shop to make/finish them.

CAB_DOOR_BATCH2.jpg

[David Zaret]

ahhh... yes, ok. and i have the heads already, both W&H style and corrugated. what do you think, W. Moore for these knives?

[David Zaret]

no, i'll definitely make them. i have the equipment to do this, easily, i have done bigger jobs. just never this profile.

[Jared Sankovich]

ahhh... yes, ok. and i have the heads already, both W&H style and corrugated. what do you think, W. Moore for these knives?

Any decent knife shop should be able to grind corrugated as a matched set in that profile.

[Joe Calhoon]

Dave, hard to see what that profile is exactly but I picture it like this. The bottom one probably stronger.
]1F221212-D01F-4C36-98FA-E4E6A3B31A94.jpg
I think you have a Multiuse cutter? I could do this combining the Multiuse head with a groover inserted with a same size adj groover. Or to do the top one using a different size rebate head stacked. I would have to play with it but I think the cope is possible with these heads also.
98317518-2226-41F8-8542-45D8B66C3BBE.jpg
6B9E62D0-B288-432F-A868-209E1784EE4A.jpg

[David Zaret]

joe that's a great idea - i'll play with exactly that and see how it works. the multi-use cutter is a good call, because i can add the radius knife and slightly break that top edge. thanks.