Help!!!
For my kitchen cabinets I want the doors to be a little different than the common raised or recessed doors, so I’ve been thinking of doing rails and stiles out of 3/4 birch plywood with a 3/8 recessed panel with applied molding on the inside and outside of the rails and stiles to really dress it up and to cover the ply’s. If I miter the corners and dowel them with 3/8 spiral dowels I think it would be more than strong enough, any one else try this before or have any input???
Thanks again,
Nate
Replies
I'm not experienced but my guess is that the issue will be the dimensional stability of the plywood over time. If that's so, then one issue to address would be to seal it thoroughly so you don't have water penetration. I use 13 ply baltic (nee Russian) birch for jigs which was recommended to me for being particularly stable and void free so my guess is it could work in principle assuming the extra water and humidity in a kitchen don't change the situation.
Just thinking out loud here...
Yes I have tried this approach on two occasions and I doubt I ever will again. I know it sounds like it would be easier but it just doesn't produce consistent quality results like a stile and rail set up.
I would'nt bother. The cost of materials compared to the amount of work you will have into your cabinets is minimal. I built drawer boxes out of baltic birch plywood and it always looks like plywood. If you are worried about cost try using soft maple, it's fairly cheap, machines well and stains beautifully. Most of your painted maple high end cabinets are soft maple. Soft is a relative term, it is still harder than cherry and walnut. With all the new stile and rail cutter sets available for router tables you don't even need a shaper to make doors.
Why do you feel your birch ply drawers always look like plywood?furnitology - The study of furniture. Furnitology is the term one uses when bringing the history, design, and building procedure under one umbrella.
e.g., What's the provenance of that antique highboy? Anybody here a furnitologist?
I second the suggestions by the other knots members. If you don't mind all the extra effort, and all your cab doors are relatively small (no large glass uppers) then your apropsed approach would look good and certainly b es trong enough, just be sure to seal them well.
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