CAREER & TECHNOLOGY STUDIES

CON2170: CABINETMAKING 2
DOOR & DRAWER
MODULE NOTES

Door Construction Methods:

Cabinet doors can be made from one piece or they can be made from multiple
components.

One piece doors:

Also known as slab doors, these are the
simplest of door styles used. They can be
made from manufactured materials
(plywood, etc) or solid stock (wood taken
directly from a tree). If a door is made from
Plywood, it is generally used in lower
quality projects. Since manufactured
materials are dimensionally stable they can
make a very serviceable door. The
drawback is that they do not have a lot of
aesthetic appeal (visual interest). If the door is to be made from plywood, the
layers in the core of the plywood will be visible on the edges. Since this isn’t
visually appealing, these are usually edge banded.
 Edge Banding:
There are two types of edge banding used, tape and solid. Edge banding can
be made from real wood or composites (usually a type of plastic).
Tape edge banding is commercially made and comes in
rolls. Cabinet making
companies have machines that will apply this type of edge
banding to the panel (in this case door panel). The
operator feeds in the panel, the machine
pulls the panel along, preheats the glue, coats the edge
banding with the glue, applies the edge banding to the
panel, and then cuts the edge banding
at the end of the panel. The operator off loads the sheet and then trims the
edge banding even with the edge of the
door.
There is edge banding available in small
rolls that has a hot melt glue already
applied to the edge band. With this
product, the edge band is precut to
length and then applied to the panel
with an edge band iron. Most wood
workers will use an old clothes iron if
they are not going to do a lot of edge
banding this way.
Solid edge banding is cut from solid stock. It can be from 3mm to 20mm thick.
This is most often found in premium quality
cabinets due to the labour intensive nature
of machining and fastening these pieces.
These are also used for edges that are
going to be profiled (decorative edge
machined with a router). This type of edge
banding ismachined slightly over width,
glued and clamped onto the panels. In very inexpensive cabinet doors, brad nails
are sometimes used to hold the pieces on instead of clamping. The drawback to
this is that there will be pinholes where the brad heads are and these will
have to be filled to hide them.

Solid stock doors are usually made from laminated pieces. Since wide boards will
cup over time, several smaller pieces are glued together to
make the door more stable. This type of door is more
expensive than a door made from manufactured materials and
is considered a more premium product. A slab door made from
solid stock can have the edge profiled and the middle portion
of the door contoured as well. Occasionally, solid stock door
panels are laminated, surfaced to thickness, and then a CNC
(computer numerical control) router is used to apply a
contoured pattern to the panel to give it aesthetic appeal. This
is a premium door product.
Multiple component doors:
 The most common type of multiple
component cabinet door is a rail and
stile. A rail and stile door is also known
as a frame and panel door. The rails are
the pieces that are horizontal and the
vertical pieces are the stiles. Rails and
stiles provide the structural framework
for the door. These doors have a third
major component called a panel. The
panel fits in a groove machined in the
rails and stiles and fills in the area
between the rails and stiles.
Rails and stiles are most commonly made from solid stock material. There are
router bit sets made specifically to make joints between rails and stiles that give a
great amount of strength to the rail/stile framework. These router bit sets also
add profiling to the edges to give aesthetic
appeal. One of the most common joints to use
on a rail and stile door is a mortise and tennon.
The mortise is the groove that the tennon will fit
in as well as being the groove the panel will sit
in. This makes the machining of the
joinery/panel groove very efficient.
Door panels can be made from manufactured
materials (plywood) if they are to be flat. Door
panels are usually made from solid stock when
they will be profiled. This is referred to as a
raised panel door. A raised panel door adds
aesthetic appeal to the door. Since these
panels float (are not glued to the rails and stiles), they don’t add any structural
strength to the door. Glass is added to a furniture or cabinet door when the items
to be placed in the cabinet are to be displayed. The glass replaces the panel, but
the inside edge of the panel groove is removed so that the glass can be inserted
and removed. Glaziers’ points or silicone can be used to keep the glass in.
A typical multi-component door will consist of two stiles, a bottom rail, a top rail,
and a panel. There can also be rails and stiles added in the middle portion of the
door. These components, which act as dividers, are referred to as mullions.

Door edge treatment:

To give a door edge some aesthetic appeal, there are a number of options that
can be considered to tie the door style with the
rest of the furniture/cabinets or interior
decoration theme. A popular cabinet door
profile is the shaker door. The interior and
exterior edges are left squared off with a flat
panel. This is the most basic style of multi-
component doors. It is desired for its clean
straight lines. Other door edge treatments
include ¼ radius, ¼ cove, ogee, stepped edge, tulip, hip, chamfer, and just about
any combination a person could think up.
Fitting doors:
There are several ways that doors are made to fit to the cabinet/furniture. Some
common door fitments include flush (inset), overlay, fall flap, and tambour.
Flush fitting doors fit into the door opening with the front of the door even with
cabinet face.
Overlay doors are the most
common type of door used in
cabinetry. The back of the door sits
on the edge of the cabinet frame
door opening.
Flush (inset)
door faces sit even with the face
frame of the cabinet. This allows
more of the frame to be seen.
Fall flap doors hinge from the
bottom and can be flush fitting or
overlay. These are commonly used in secretary desks
and built in bars.
Tambour doors are a multi-component door that moves
in a track. Pieces of the door (called slats) are attached
to each other and follow in the track. These are used in roll top desks and
breadboxes.

Mounting doors:
Hinges for mounting doors are available in a wide variety of
shapes and sizes. Hinges can be visible and decorative, or hidden
and purely functional. The choice of hinge usually rests on
aesthetic considerations, budget, and function. In the photo of the
hinge on the right, the wings (more commonly called leafs) can be
placed on the side of the frame and door (hidden), on the face of
the frame and door (visible), or a combination of hidden and
visible. The most common type of cabinet hinge are European
hinges, while these are rarely used in furniture.

Mortised hinge: The leafs are installed on the side of the face
frame and door and are hidden. The leafs must sit in a mortise or
the gap between the door and the cabinet will be too big. This is
usually done with a router and jig or by hand for smaller hinges.
The pin/knuckle portion of this hinge is visible.

Zero mortise hinge: On a zero mortise hinge the leafs are

installed between the door and cabinet, but since the door leaf
fits inside the cabinet leaf, a mortise is not required.

Semi-concealed hinge: Half the hinge is visible and mounted on

the cabinet face frame and half the hinge is mounted to the
inside of the door.

Pivot hinges: These are installed on the top edge and bottom
edge of the door. The knuckle and pin part of the hinge are very
small, making them a good choice for situations where the
hinge is not to add to the aesthetics of the cabinet.

Surface mount hinge: This type of hinge is used where it is

supposed to add to the aesthetic appeal of the project.

European hinge: These hinges are the most common type

used in cabinets. It is totally concealed when the door is
closed. One of the main advantages of this hinge is it pivots
the door out of the way allowing drawers and pull out shelves
to be deployed. The more premium versions of these hinges
have a soft close feature which prevents the door from
banging against the cabinet frame.
Constructing a frame and panel (rail and stile) door:
A frame and panel door is one of the most common types of door used in
cabinetry. There are many styles but the basic construction process for the door
will still be the same.
1. Determine the type of door to be used. An overlay door will obviously need
to be of a different size than an inset door.
2. Measure the cabinet opening for the door size required.
3. Machine to width and thickness material for the rails and stiles.
4. Cut the stiles to length. These are usually 2mm (1/8”) less than the height
of the opening for inset doors.
5. Cut the rails to length allowing for the extra material needed for joining the
rail to the stile.
6. Machine the tennons and mortise grooves
7. Dry fit rail and stile pieces.
8. With rails and stiles together, measure the size of panel required. Make
sure to allow for the extra material required to have the panel sit in the
grooves. Your measurements should be 1mm (1/16”) smaller than the
amount required to allow for contraction (shrinking) of the rails and stile
solid stock pieces.
9. Dry fit with panel.
10. Glue the joints where the rails and stiles intersect. NOTE: do not glue the
panel in to allow for expansion and contraction of the rails and stiles.
11. Scrape/sand the door getting it ready for finish.

Drawer Construction Methods:

Though there are many joint types for used to make drawers, there are four
common methods. These are butt joint, finger joint, locked drawer joint
(rabbet/dado), machined dovetail, and hand cut dovetail. The strength of the
drawer is dependent on which one of the methods is used.

Butt Joint:
This is the weakest and least expensive of the drawer construction methods.
Generally home builders will use this method as their standard drawer type.
Since a butt joint is weak, the joints have to be
reinforced with screws. If the drawers are made
out of MDF or particle board,
the screws that would offer
the best strength advantage
would be confirmat screws.
Dowels or biscuits can also be used to
strengthen the butt joint.
Finger Joint:
Finger joints can be hand made or machine
made. These are very strong due to the
large surface area for gluing and the
multiple plane contact surfaces. These are
considered a premium joinery choice.

Locked Rabbet Joint:

A drawer lock or
locked rabbet joint
incorporates a dado
and a rabbet. This is
much stronger joint
than a butt joint.
Since the pieces lock together, the
drawer becomes stronger. This type of
drawer joint is considered an upgrade to
the butt joint drawer.
Drawer lock joints use a combination of a
rabbet joint cut into the front and back of the drawer while the sides have a dado
cut into them. The rabbeted front edge is inserted into the side dado, creating a
joint that resists the stresses of opening and closing a drawer. These can be
machined using a table saw, a router, or a combination of these tools.

Dovetail joints:
There are many ways to construct a dovetail joint for the drawer. These can be
grouped into hand-cut and machine-cut
dovetails.
Hand cut dovetails:
These are considered a premium joint
to be used on furniture. There are
many variations and methods of
constructing these. Generally, finding
these on drawers means that the piece
will be worth more. How these are
constructed will not be covered here.
Machine cut dovetails:
These use a machine
process to form the
joint. There are
industrial machines
that can cut several
pieces at once, or
dovetail jigs that are
made using a hand-
held router and a
template jig. For this module, you will be
constructing a drawer with dovetails using a router and jig.
Procedure:
a) Cut material to size. The front and back pieces should be the finished
width of the drawer. The sides will be shorter by the amount the front and
back overlap the sides (usually around 7/16” or 7 mm).
b) Lay out the drawer pieces in the order they will be put together, making a
rectangle. In each inside corner number the adjoining pieces in the corner
with the same number.
c) Label the front, back and sides with their part name, again on the inside.
d) Place a side in the of the jig and temporarily clamp it down. Note the
number you wrote on the end
touching the jig comb
e) Place front or back in the top of the
jig, so the corresponding number is
against its matching side. Make sure
this piece is aligned against the guide.
f) Reposition the side piece making sure it is also against the guide. NOTE:
the two pieces in the jig will be offset from each other by ½”. This is
intentional to create the offset necessary for the pieces to fit together.
g) Once both pieces are positioned and clamped securely in the jig, you will
now use a hand-held router to machine the joinery.
h) Repeat this for each corner.
Slide Hardware for Drawers:
There are many types of drawer slide hardware that are used. Each is designed to work
in certain applications. Due to the vast selection of drawer slides, only the most
common will be dealt with here.
Classic wood centre-mount drawer slide:
This slide incorporates a dovetail to keep the drawer running on
the rail. This is mounted on the bottom of the drawer. These can
be made using a router and dovetail bit or purchased as a set.

Self-closing bottom mount drawer slide:

These are commonly used in kitchens for an economical
drawer slide. Their advantage, besides price, is the ease of
installation and that they will self-close, although not softly. In
recent years they have grown out of favour, with ball bearing
full extension slides with a soft close feature gaining
prominence.

Ball bearing drawer slides:

These slides come in a variety of configuration. Some can be
mounted at the bottom, while those, such as in the photo on
the left, are designed to be mounted in the middle of the
drawer side. These slides can be purchased full extension or
soft close, two of the most common desirable features.