Cabinet Door Frame Construction

Learn about 4 types of hinge installation for face frame cabinets.

Cabinet door frame construction.

Build the cabinets buy the doors. Frames use 3 4 thick stock with 1 4 panels in various materials and veneers a general purpose saw blade will do the job although. Unless you have unlimited free time consider building your cabinets but buying your doors. Begin by drilling 1 3 8 holes 1 2 deep with a forstner bit below.

Wood magazine s kevin boyle shows you this foolproof method expla. Now mount the doors on your cabinet. Cabinet doors can make or break the look of your kitchen or bathroom cabinets and the longevity of the cabinets. Thanks to their adjustability european style hinges make mounting doors as easy as assembling them.

The terms cope and stick frame and panel and stile and rail are synonymous with a certain construction technique for doors. This frame resembles a flat picture frame that is attached to the door front giving added dimension to the door front. In frameless cabinet construction the door and drawer faces are nearly the same size as the cabinet box. The door and drawer faces are larger than the openings and overlap the face frame leaving only a small visible reveal.

In this type of cabinet construction the rails and stiles form a 1 1 2 inch face frame at the front of the cabinet box. Building kitchen cabinet doors is doable but can be tricky. And if you have a bunch to build you ll need a lot of clamps and even more space. In this video i am copying the dimensions of an old cabinet door in order to replace one that is missing in the kitchen.

Using the straightforward process detailed here you can crank out great looking doors for many applications including furniture cabinets and built ins. I use cope and stick joinery because it makes a good looking and sturdy frame for cabinet doors. Learn how to make simple face frame upper and lower cabinets including doors and drawers. The front may contain drawers doors or shelves or combinations of the three.

Frame and panel doors add class to any project but they don t have to add a lot of assembly time. It sometimes requires powerful and expensive wood shaping equipment. Choose which door to make. These terms are interchangeable and have long been a hallmark of fine cabinetry.

The secret lies in the workmanship and quality of materials used to make cabinet doors. Standard overlays offer less reveal on the face frame and are more forgiving with door and drawer alignments.