Novice's router problem

[Wade Lippman]

I am making a cabinet door. I cut 4 pieces of 1x3 and routed a 1/4" grove in them to take a plywood panel. I then routed a 1/4" tongue on the ends of the short pieces to mate with the grove in the long pieces.

I "intended" on assembling the door and then routing a 1/2" roundover on the inside and outside edges of the 1x3. I made up a partial sample, and like how it looks; simple but strong.

Well, it just occurred to me that panel will get in the way of the router bit and prevent me from doing the inside roundover. And I can't do them before assembly because they won't fit together properly. And I can't do a temporary assembly because it will be too flimsy to hold together properly without glue.

I know there are special router bits for this purpose, but I have already cut the panel grove, so I am kinda committed.

Any suggestions how to make this work? In the end I expect I will have to assemble it temporarily and hope for the best, but hopefully someone will have a better idea. thanks

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I'm not sure I'm following this properly. You have four pieces that make the frame of the door; two sides, a top and a bottom. . You want to round over the inside of the frame.

By doing the roundover after assembly, the part where the panel is would be rounded, but where the sides meet the top and bottom rails, you want to remain straight. If this is correct, can you just mark the place where the two meet and just rout to that line? Ed

[Wade Lippman]

Well, I was intending to round over the corner, but your way would work; perhaps even better. I just wish I were capable of such precision! If I am off by an 1/8" on either piece it will show up horribly. Or am I exaggerating the difficulty?

I suppose I could change to a mortised joint, where running the router before assembly will be fine, but a mortised will be a lot more difficult with the crappy equipment I am working with.

[Robert Bonomi]

Howsabout: place the pieces together, face down, on a flat surface. place some scrap blocks, say about 2"x5", on the back (i.e., the exposed 'top') of the frame, at each corner, and 'tack' them to both pieces. turn it over, so the face is up, and clamp the assembly, at all four corners, to a piece of scrap approximately the size of the entire door route all four sides of the inside edge. dissassemble. insert center panel, and glue up. route the outside edge.

If the base construction would be subject to flexing, because the center panel is missing, then you just need to 'reinforce' it during the temporary assembly, so it _can't_ flex. As my H.S. shop teacher was wont to say, "You have to out-think the materials you work with."

Which involves: recognizing, allowing for, and *maintaining*the*upper*hand*

*over* "the inate animosity of inanimate objects". :)

[Kim Whitmyre]

As long as your rails (horizontal pieces) are not cut to length yet, you can simply do the roundover, and then cope the joint. You cut the profiled portion off of the stiles (vertical pieces) the width of the unmolded portion of the rails. Then you cut the rails to the proper length, and cope the roundover to the stiles. . .Clear as mud, right? Do some practice joints first. I have made full size doors this way, as it is the original way it was done.

Kim

[Kim Whitmyre]

You can do the roundover and then cope the rails to the stiles. All you need is a good sharp chisel and a good sharp gouge. The rails need to be longer by double the width of the profile of the roundover. You remove the profile on the stiles by the width of the unprofiled portion of the rail, and then cope to fit. I've made several full-size doors this way, which is the original way of doing it.

(excuse me if this gets posted twice, btw)

Kim

[larry in cinci]