Simple jigs create stylish joints.
by Tim Johnson
My dog’s energetic tail inspired this cabinet. Anything within wagging range was endangered, including a number of my favorite antique toys. After one-too-many near misses, I decided to move these small treasures to safety—above the wag line and behind glass. The cabinet I built for them measures about 27 in. wide by 32 in. tall, so it’s small enough to fit just about anywhere.
This elegant cabinet is deceptively easy to build, thanks to a couple of jigs that make quick work of the most challenging joinery: the doors’ mitered, half-lapped muntins. The cabinet itself assembles with biscuits; the door frames use simple loose-tenon joinery.
I spent about $110 for top-grade cherry, but most of the cabinet parts are short or narrow, so you can save money by buying lower-grade boards and cutting around knots. The door panels provide a perfect setting for one of your treasure boards—I’ve been saving the piece of spalted maple that I used to make my panels for years. I paid $15 for a 2-ft. x 4-ft. sheet of 1/4-in. cherry plywood to make the back.
Build the Cabinet
This joinery is as simple as it gets: four pieces joined with biscuits. The back, top and bottom are glued on.
1. Cut the cabinet sides (A), ends (B), adjustable shelves (C) top (D) and bottom (E) to size (Fig. A, below; Cutting List, below).
2. Rout rabbets in the cabinet sides for the back (F).
3. Drill or rout holes in the cabinet sides for shelf pins. Installing the pins in the center holes will position the adjustable shelves directly
behind the doors’ horizontal muntins and middle rails. For maximum adjustability, drill additional holes in the sides so they run full length.
4. Cut slots for No. 10 biscuits in the sides and ends.
5. Glue the sides and ends together. Make sure the cabinet is square.
6. Drill holes for the rare earth magnet cups.
7. Temporarily install four shelf pins (see Sources, below) so you can cut the adjustable shelves to final length.
8. Bevel the front and ends of the top on the tablesaw with the blade tilted 30 degrees (Detail 1, page 44). With the doors installed, the
overhang on the front and sides will closely match. Plane, scrape or sand the top’s beveled surfaces to remove the saw marks.
9. Glue on the top and bottom.
10. Fit the plywood back; then install it with glue and nails.
11. Mount the cabinet hangers (see Sources) after drilling clearance holes for the screws on which they will hang. These keyhole-style
hangers can be surface- or flush-mounted. To flush-mount them, you’ll have to rout shallow mortise.
Build the Doors
The frame-and-panel doors feature simple loose-tenon joinery. These joints are strong and easy to make. Just rout grooves in the stiles and
rails and mill tenon stock to fit the grooves. Door frames made from straight-grained stock will look the best.
12. Cut the stiles (H) and rails (J) to final size. These pieces must be straight and flat. To get consistent, accurate widths, I rip these pieces
slightly oversize and then run them on edge through my planer. The rails would be too short to plane individually, so I cut them from long
blanks that have already been planed to width. Set aside a couple extra pieces of this 1-1/4-in.-wide stock to use later, while dialing in your
setup for making and fitting the muntin joints.
13. Rout centered grooves in one long edge of the stiles and rails with a 1/4-in. slot-cutting bit (see Sources, below). Make sure the grooves
leave a 1/4-in.-wide lip on the top edge. Use your router table’s fence to set the grooves’ 1/4-in. depth.
14. Rout grooves in the ends of the rails using a sled (Photo 1). Keep the same fence setting from the previous step. Install the rail in the sled
and then raise the bit to match the groove in the rail’s long side.
Photo 1: The door frames assemble with splines that fit in centered grooves (Fig. A). First rout grooves in the inside edges of all the stiles and rails. Then use a sled to rout grooves in the ends of the rails.
15. Make spline stock. For strength, the grain on solid-wood splines should run across the joint, just like the tenon on a rail. Saw splines (K)
from a board that you’ve thickness-planed to fit the grooves. Make the splines oversize in length so they can be trimmed flush after the doors
are glued together.
16. Make panels (L) for the doors (Photo 2). If you want to resaw and bookmatch the panels, you’ll need to start with a board that’s at least 1
in. thick. Your board must also be at least 12 in. long, so the resawn blanks can be jointed and planed. Bookmatching is always somewhat
risky, because you never know what resawing will reveal. Nonmatched or even asymmetrical panels can be equally attractive, as long as
they complement one other and the cabinet. For a more subdued appearance, choose panels made from the same wood as the cabinet.
Photo 2: Resaw a board to make panels for the doors. Opening the two resawn pieces like a book reveals mirror-image, book-matched panels. Assemble the doors after fitting the panels.
17. Cut the panels to final size. Then rout rabbets all around the back to create the 1/4-in.-thick tongues that fit the grooves in the stiles and
rails.
18. Sand the panels and apply the finish. Prefinishing guarantees that seasonal movement in the assembled door won’t reveal unfinished
areas of the panel.
19. Dry-fit the stiles, rails, splines and panels. Then glue together each door, making sure they’re flat and square.
20. Rout rabbets for the glass (Photo 3). After routing, square the rabbets’ corners with a chisel.
Photo 3: Rout rabbets for glass in both assembled doors. Install an oversize bearing (see Sources, below) so the rabbet matches the groove’s depth. Position the bit so the top of its cut is centered in the groove. Routing simply removes the lower lip.
21. Mill stock for the glass retainers (Q). Trim these pieces to fit later, after you’ve applied the finish.
22. Mount the doors by installing the no-mortise hinges. Make sure the doors are flush with the cabinet sides and centered between the top
and bottom. Trim the inside edges to create a slender gap of 1/16 in. or less between the doors.
23. Locate the holes for the doorknobs and magnet washers.
24. Remove the doors and drill the holes.
Make and Install the Door Muntins
The mitered half-lap muntin joints (Fig. D, below) look like a woodworking tour de force, but they aren’t difficult to make. Consistently sized
muntin blanks, a couple of precisely made jigs and a razor-sharp chisel are the keys to success.
25. Mill extra muntin blanks to use while making the jigs, along with the extra rail stock you’ve already milled. Test your jigs and procedures
on this extra stock. Don’t start work on the real doors until your test joints fit perfectly.
26. Make the rabbeting jig (Fig. B, below). The mitered notch determines the size of the rabbet, so it must be precisely cut. It’s best to set the
tablesaw blade’s height a bit low for the two 45-degree cuts and then finish cutting the peak of the notch with a chisel. The width of the rabbet
on the jig’s bottom face must match the stiles and rails’ width, so that when the jig is clamped in position, the outside edges of the jig and the
workpiece are flush. The rabbet’s shallow depth allows clamping the jig on the middle rail without bearing on the door’s panel.
The exact location of the jig’s rails depends on the radius of your router’s base. Locate the rails so that your straight bit cuts just shy of the
notch.
27. Mark the centers of the glass opening on all four sides of each door. Use these lines to position the rabbeting jig (Photo 4).
Photo 4: To rout the mitered rabbets, clamp the rabbeting jig at the center of the glass opening on each stile and rail.
28. Rout the mitered rabbets (Photo 5). The test cuts you made while building the jig have precisely dialed in the 1/8-in. depth.
Photo 5: Rout tiny rabbets with a tiny straight bit. The jig’s rails guide the router so the bit cuts just shy of the jig’s mitered notch.
29. Pare the shoulders of each rabbet (Photo 6).
Photo 6: Finish each mitered rabbet by paring it flush with the shoulders of the notch.
30. Make the mitering jig (Fig. C, below). On the face of the jig, saw or rout a centered groove that matches the width of your muntin stock. The
groove’s depth must be slightly less than the muntin’s thickness. Saw 45-degree miters on one end of the jig, making sure that they meet
dead center, so the groove is precisely centered on the point.
31. Saw and pare the mitered ends of the vertical muntins (M, Fig. A, Photos 7 and 8). Start by cutting the muntins oversize in length. Use the
door’s mitered rabbets for test-fitting. Make an extra mitered muntin to use while setting up the next step.
Photo 7: The mitering jig stabilizes the thin, slender muntins so you can accurately miter the ends. First, rough-cut the miters on the vertical muntins.
Photo 8: Pare the mitered ends, using the jig to support the chisel. Pare each vertical muntin to final length by test-fitting it in the door’s mitered rabbets.
32. Saw half-laps in the mitered muntins (Photo 9). Make test cuts to dial in the fence’s position and the blade’s height. Remember to include
the blade’s kerf when you set the rip fence. Install the muntin flush with the mitered tip of the mitering jig. Then cut the half-laps in several
passes, using the miter gauge and the rip fence. Make the last pass with the mitered tip of the jig (and the muntin) butted against the fence.
It’s best to leave the shoulders a bit long and then pare them to fit (Photo 10).
Photo 9: Saw half-laps on the ends of each mitered muntin using the mitering jig, your miter gauge and the rip fence. You can dial in the exact width of the rabbet by adjusting the fence, but it’s best to play it safe and make this cut slightly undersize.
Photo 10: Pare the half-lap rabbets to fit, using the square end of the jig.
33. Install the vertical muntins in the doors and mark them for rabbeting (Photo 11).
Photo 11: Use the centerpoints of the mitered rabbets in the stiles to locate the rabbets on the vertical muntin.
34. Rout and pare mitered rabbets on the vertical muntins (Photo 12).
Photo 12: To cut mitered rabbets on the vertical muntins, simply add a spacer to the rabbeting jig. A muntin blank is the perfect size.
35. Fit the horizontal muntins (N, Fig. A, Photo 13).
Photo 13: Saw, pare and rabbet the horizontal muntins to fit. Voil`a! You’ve created a stylish, sturdy divided-light door.
36. Glue the muntins in the doors.
Finish and Final Assembly
Choose a clear wipe-on or aerosol-spray finish. Brushing on a finish is difficult, especially when it comes to the doors. Wipe-on finishes are
goof-proof but somewhat tedious to apply. Spraying is faster, but sanding between coats is necessary and drips and sags will appear unless
you apply very light coats. Mask off the finished door panels to protect them from overspray. Remember to finish the shelves and glass
retainers. When the finish has completely dried, complete these three steps:
37. Install the magnet cups, magnets and washers.
38. Install the glass with the doors facedown on a padded surface. Cut and fit the glass retainers. Install the retainers after drilling shank holes
for the 1/2-in. brads.
39. Install the knobs; then mount the doors on the cabinet.
This story originally appeared in American Woodworker September 2006, issue #123.
Source information may have changed since the original publication date.
Sources
VanDyke’s Restorers, (800) 558-1234, www.vandykes.com
- Bungalow doorknobs, 5/8 in. x 1-1/4 in., #CM-02018877, $3.50 each. No-mortise hinges, 1-3/8 in. x 2 in., #CM-02012668, $1.50 a pair.
Lee Valley Tools, (800) 871-8158, www.leevalley.com
-Shelf pins, #63Z06.04, $5.25 for a package of 20.
-Blind cabinet hangers, 1-7/8 in. x 5/8 in., #00S10.11, $2.40 for a package of 10.
-1/4-in. rare earth magnet, 1/4 in. x 1/10 in., #99K31.01, $0.30 each.
-Magnet cup, 1/4 in. i.d., 3/8 in. o.d., #99K32.51, $0.40 each.
-Magnet washer, 3/8 in. o.d., #99K32.61, $0.40 each.
Freud Tools Inc., (800) 334-4107, www.freudtools.com
-1/4-in. slot cutter, #56-112, $17.
-1/2-in. Arbor, #60-102, $6.
-Rabbeting bit with bearing set, #32-524, $52. 1/16-in.-dia. straight bit, #04-096, $11.
September 2006, issue #123
Purchase this back issue.