5 piece shaker doors using textured melamine
5/4/18
Website: http://morantzcabinets.com
Hi guys, I am building 3 rooms of closets and the doors will be 5 piece shakers using 3/4 textured melamine for 3 stiles and rails and 1/2 matching melamine for center panel. Some doors will have a center clear glass panel and others will have the 1/2 center panel and some will have an 1/8 mirror glued onto the center panel, still giving a shaker look with about an 1/8 inset to the face of the mirror. I am planning to rip my 3 rails and stiles, band both sides of rails and inside edge of stile. Make a groove for clear glass in center of 3/4 , insert glass into rails and cap with stiles and use my lame lol zeta with the Tenso snap fasteners with polyurethane glue to glue rails and stiles. The Tenso will click in place and hold butt joint till glue dries.
For the 1/2 solid matching melamine center I will use my router table with hold down spring device and run a groove with a slot cutter the thickness of 1/8 Masonite registering from the back of the 3/4 and 1/2 material and join the whole door together with the same glue and Tenso joints at rail and stile. This will give me a flat surface inside the door or drawer front and then add the 1/8 mirror afterwords for the 6 doors that need mirror fronts. The drawers will be built the same way and mirrors will be added and handles will be attached to stiles to avoid drilling into glass fronts.
We have bought these 5 piece doors in the past, but they are very pricey and my center panel being 1/2 thick compared to the 3/8 panels that are usually used means my usual suppliers wont touch it.
We do have a great Brandt bander with premill that will do a perfect job of banding the 1mmbanding, so no problem there.
We will have to band the top and bottom of doors after assembly so that the rail to stile joint looks like one piece at top and bottom.
Some of the large doors are 80 high with clear glass and my question is do you think I can use 1/8 glass to keep weight down or will I need 3/16 glass? We can use silicone to glue glass into groove all around to add strength to the whole door. We cannot have any center stiles in this project. The upper doors are only 20 tall, so I do not foresee any issues there.
Although this is an all melamine job, it is 50k worth of closets and want to get it right.
Any advice is welcome and any pitfalls that you can see are also welcome. Thanks, Harold.
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5/5/18 #2: 5 piece shaker doors using textured ...
Hello, I have looked at the manufactured doors you referenced, I think they use a spline that matches center panel to hold rail and stile joint together , then they edge band exterior of door to hide joint.
I have made some mitered doors with clamex fasteners and glue with good results. just a small hole at the back. Maybe best to use tempered glass , I think 1/8 would be fine, the openings don't look too wide. How do you like that dust collector in the background of first photo?
Best of luck to you.
Ed
5/5/18 #3: 5 piece shaker doors using textured ...
Website: http://morantzcabinets.com
Hi Ed, thanks for your response. The 2hp dust collector is not that strong. Its working for us well for the two top/bottom trimmers on our bander. The premill is hooked up to a another collector at other end of machine which also collects from a slider. Should have bought a 5hp, but its doing the job. I have samples of these 5 piece shaker doors and had removed the banding to see how they are constructed. We use the tenso14 devices with our zeta machine and they do not need the hole in back. Those are designed for RTA cabinets. The Tenso devices snap together with a lot of strength.
We will be adding some poly glue for added measure. Thx, Harold.
6/6/18 #4: 5 piece shaker doors using textured ...
Website: http://Www.pauleichenlaub.com
I had a job like this and the doors were 72" tall x 24" wide with 3.5 s&r mine was a veneer over 3/4 mdf . I used 1/8" glass and my supplier said he would do 1/4" min. But I was worried about the weight also. Out of 10 of them 4 cracked an I silicon them in but once any kind of flexing happen with the door it cracked. I built new doors with 1/4" glass and it's been 7 years and not a problem. For the weight problem I use 5 hinges on the door and for three of them I double up the hinge so 8 hinges to a door and they haven't moved a trace.
6/6/18 #5: 5 piece shaker doors using textured ...
Website: http://morantz Cabinets.com
We ended up using 3/16 glass set into 3/4 groove all around frame and assembled with plywood splines that matched glass thickness. They came out great and I will post pictures next week.
A Hugh job to make all the doors and I would not do them again. Will only show textured melamine samples from companies that will make the doors for me.
All in all it was profitable work but wouldntvwantvtonrepaet thevorocess.harold.
11/27/22 #6: 5 piece shaker doors using textured ...
Harald Do you have pictures of this spline meathod?
11/27/22 #7: 5 piece shaker doors using textured ...
Website: http://morantzcabinets.com
No I dont have pictures, but its just a 1/4 hick groove cut into the railed and stiles and 1/4 plywood splines glued in to assemble.