Skinny/Narrow Shaker cabinet doors.

[Packard]

I am seeing more and more of the “skinny” Shaker style doors.

The rails and stiles appear to be about 3/4” wide. 

Assuming that the door itself is made from 3/4” thick plywood (thinner would be an issue with the cup hinges). How would you construct this?

I can think of at least 5 or 6 viable candidates for this.  The simplest would be like picture frame molding applied around the perimeter.  That is not what was done in the image above (no mitered joints).

I have a picture framers dedicated sliding table miter saw that makes production cutting of these miters fast and simple.  So that appeals to me. 

The edge gluing would not be very strong but the part that overhangs the face would glue up to be very strong. 

Other options would be to use a biscuit cutter,  tongue and groove cutter for the plywood and edging, or simple edge gluing of the perimeter rails and stiles. 

I could not find any videos online on how to build these.  But these would be far faster to build than traditional rails and stiles for a shaker cabinet door.

Any thoughts?

 

[tjbnwi]

We do them. I’’l post some pictures later.

Tom

 

[4nthony]

I would do this one of two ways:

[list type=decimal]
[*]I would edge band the doors with hardwood strips then use the same material to cut the strips for the face (?) banding. I'd cut them a little thicker depending on the look I wanted to achieve, then glue the strips around the perimeter. You'd probably have to flush trim the edge banding before installing the face banding.
[*]I would edge band the doors with a piece of stock that was cut 18mm x 23mm (depending on the width and offset I wanted to achieve). If you get the banding lined up correctly at the back, you wouldn't need to flush trim.
[/list]
I think I'd prefer option 2 as there would be less chance of noticing a seam.

 

[Peter Kelly]

I'd probably make up the perimeter material out of some 1" x 1" stock with a 3/4" rebate at the back. Glue lengths to panel edges, joinery not necessary. Miter-ing the corners would look fine here.

 

[waho6o9]

They're fun to make. I used 1/4" ply and a CMT router set to make the groove in the stiles and rails. 
The flat inset look appeals to us and I like the way it turned out. 
Best.......
View attachment 1

 

[guybo]

this way

 

[Packard]

this way

The rails and stiles would be wider than I was looking for and with 3/8” ply, not thick enough for the cup hinges.

 

[guybo]

Hi, you do have control over the size you want

 

[tjbnwi]

We have been playing around with various narrow width rails and stiles.

The most common is a piece of 5/8 or 3/4 ply or MDF wraped with a L corner piece. The R&S can be butted or mitered. This method allows you to control the width and thickness of the R&S. These will accept a normal hinge, the back of the L is faced to the back of the panel.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

(back with more, kitchen timer just went off.)

Tom

 

[tjbnwi]

This one has a 1-3/8" stile, we'll use a 20 mm cup hinge on these.

[attachimg=1]

Tom

 

[Packard]

We have been playing around with various narrow width rails and stiles.

The most common is a piece of 5/8 or 3/4 ply or MDF wraped with a L corner piece. The R&S can be butted or mitered. This method allows you to control the width and thickness of the R&S. These will accept a normal hinge, the back of the L is faced to the back of the panel.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

(back with more, kitchen timer just went off.)

Tom

This is the construction that I was leaning towards.  I did want to get some opinions on this and I will make a sample door. 

The picture framing saw makes repetitive miters of the same length extremely easy and efficient, an appealing side benefit.

Thanks everyone.

Packard