Hi,
My son-in-law called a short time ago to ask if I knew of a trick to correct an overlaid cabinet door to close flat against the face. It seems that the upper right corner will not sit flat against the cabinet face now that it is installed.
When he built the doors from maple with a cope and sticking set he double checked for square as he was glueing up and everything seemed fine until he installed the door.
It sounds to me like this could possibly be a lumber moisture problem i.e. all the door lumber was not the same moisture content when it was built. It’s been a rough winter and our homes are extremely dry this time of year.
This was rather coincendental to me as I have just noticed a cabinet door in my own kitchen has developed the same problem except my cabinets are 15 years old. We live in Massachusetts and have steam heat (radiators) and wonder if the dry heat of winter has dried out the oak my doors are made of.
Is there a way to correc it or should we leave them alone and wait for spring. Ah Spring…sunshine….warm weather….green grass…Anyway thanks for any suggestions.
Replies
In such a case, I'd put a 3/8" block of wood between the frame and the lower right corner and clamp the upper right corner flat to the frame and leave it over the weekend. I did that 2 wks ago with a door 24 x 30 that was out 1/4" and it worked fine.
Rob,
Thanks for the quick response. We both will give that a try. Any thoughts on what caused the problem in the first place?
Ken
Sometimes it just happens. I can make a dozen doors and 11 will lie flat, but one of them when mounted has one corner away from the frame. It might be mounting, wood orientation, maybe one of the rail ends isn't 100% square (my doors are all frame and panel) , who knows. If the 3/8 block doesn't do the trick, go with a thicker block. For a door which wants to keep warping, I'll put an "industrial strength" magnetic catch at the wayward corner.
You just made my day! I am building kitchen cabinets using inset frame and panel doors in the Shaker style. Of the 14 doors completed, one is at least 1/4" bowed. All made at nearly the time and with lumber from the same source. I can't figure out what happened, but I like your answer.Dan T.
The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.
Nicholas Butler (1862 - 1947)
I've been working on a mahogany and walnut Louis XV style display cabinet for the last month or so. It's 3' high and 8' long and is a wall mount.I had to do the door bending trick on 1 of the 4 doors, no big deal, it lined up perfectly. Today I put the glass in and in three of the doors the glass laid flat but it was 3/16" high on one corner of the 4th door. The glass panel is about 20" x24", but is deeply scalloped and is not exactly rectangular. I tightened the glass holding buttresses to give me glass flat to the door, and tomorrow I'll rehang the doors with the glass in them and see if it's still flat. If it isn't, I'll find out if the door bending trick works on glass. Since glass is a viscous liquid, it should work, but maybe not in my lifetime.
Ken,
Lumber that was perfectly dried and at equilibrium moisture content with the air when it was joined up will still change shape when it later gains or loses moisture so even a perfectly made door could have a problem.
To greatly reduce the chances of this happening, choose only very straight grained quarter sawn boards, that show no twist when rough, for the door frame material.
John W.
Thanks John, that is exactly what I was thinking in my post. I am going to give Rob's solution a try and my son-in-law as well. Appreciate everyone's input on this.
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