Best was to cut - back of stiles

[Lee Schierer]

Be aware that a rabbet bit is notorious for massive chip out. I've had them rip out a sliver about 6" long on red oak. You will absolutely have to score the stile to not blow it out past the rail. I used to be surprised that my decades of experience never came across as the way to do things, but now I know those 50+ years of experience are easily ignored on the internet. No idea why I still try to help, it's become a real waste of time.

You can do a very light climb cut all the way around and eliminate the tear out problem. Then reduce the bearing diamter one step at a time and make multiple passes. That will take less time than making a new piece.

[Warren Lake]

dadoe blades drop on and clean out chisel, safer way raise the blade up to height. Negative rake dadoe blades safer Ive used either works fine. If you are going to drop on and more so no stop block you better have some time on a saw.

[Cameron Wood]

I've done that on the table saw plenty, but it doesn't make the cleanest cut

[Warren Lake]

id drop on using dadoes but would use an adjustable groover if I had one. Do have smaller radius ones not sure they would extend to and above the saw table

raising up would be safer than dropping on. less chance of kicking, past dadoes had no chip limiting sure it started at one point in time. Rabbet may or may not show depending on stop block for the glass so may not have to be groover quality.

[Jared Sankovich]

You can do a very light climb cut all the way around and eliminate the tear out problem. Then reduce the bearing diamter one step at a time and make multiple passes. That will take less time than making a new piece.

I just climb cut the entire rabbet in 2 or so passes with a last conventional cut pass to clean anything up.

[Bob Cooper]

Be aware that a rabbet bit is notorious for massive chip out. I've had them rip out a sliver about 6" long on red oak. You will absolutely have to score the stile to not blow it out past the rail. I used to be surprised that my decades of experience never came across as the way to do things, but now I know those 50+ years of experience are easily ignored on the internet. No idea why I still try to help, it's become a real waste of time.

Richard…I really do appreciate your advice and actually will try a 1/4” straight bit. You mention that you use a plunge router and a fence on the router. Any reason I couldn’t just use a router table with the rt fence as the offset. The rails and stiles are all the same width.

[Kevin Jenness]

Be aware that gauging from the outside of the frame with a fence allows for overcutting, so you have to ensure that the work doesn't drift away from the fence. That can't happen with a piloted bit registered on the inside edge. There's no need to worry about "catching" the bit at the corners, you just cut into the corner and change direction. You can make several passes if need be, stepping the cut depth down in increments or using different bearing diameters.

A light climb cut at full depth will score the shoulder and suppress tearout but takes control developed from experience, or a bearing that allows for a narrow width cut to avoid kickback. The same effect can be had by scoring the parts with a marking gauge.

[Joe Calhoon]

Kevin offers some good advice here. In his first post he mentioned doing a square edge shiplap type joint. I have some pictures that were done on the shaper. It’s very simple, the fence is not moved and the only adjustment between cope and stile rebate is moving the cutter or dado up and down. if you don’t have a shaper it could be done on the table saw with a dado head. Router table possibly but no experience with those. The joint will need to be reinforced.
As Kevin mentioned if you don’t have the tools to do a shiplap type joint the router with a bearing rebate cutter is next best choice.
Dropping in with a table saw or routers with fences seems like a hard way to do a simple task.
F8D6815F-A7C3-4688-9482-6B38E16DC368.jpg
1EDB7695-C9A4-4DC7-8896-768D6EDF5CA8.jpg

[Mike Stelts]

I just made frames for someone who was sure 1/4" was enough. We didn't assemble the frame, in case he was wrong. Being wrong, he cleaned out the dado to 5/16" without incident on a router table. It was his first time trying anything remotely similar.