You will find two fundamental kinds of cabinet: "frameless" cabinets, that are basically only a box made from plywood or particleboard, and "face frame" cabinets, that have an additional wood frame on their own front edge. When building face frame cabinets, joining the various components from the face frame together is perhaps probably the most challenging task within the entire process. So, what's the best joinery way of cabinet face frames? There is no lack of options: pocket screws, mortise and tenon joinery, dowels and biscuits have the ability to their champions. Ultimately, the option really is dependent in your situation and objectives.
For many professional cabinetmakers, the choice to adopt one way or any other needs to square having a pressing curiosity about getting cabinets out of the door as rapidly and effectively as you possibly can. For that enthusiast, that has a lot more freedom to experiment, it is a slightly different story. In case your livelihood does not rely on shaving a couple of seconds from this method or that, then your choice really is dependent around the conditions the cupboards will need to face, your level of skill, the gear available for you, how long you need to provide your cabinetry projects, and what you believe it requires to become listed on a face frame "right".
Mortise and Tenon Joints
Some cabinetmakers just appear to prefer time-examined joinery techniques, and could visit the period of cutting a genuine mortise and tenon for each face frame joint. There's little question this technique is the slowest, there is however also no doubt it creates the most powerful joint. Many would reason that structurally, a mortise and tenon joint exceeds overkill within this application. But when you are devoted to creating cabinets within the greatest possible craft, then your understanding that you have used probably the most resilient joint possible might be well worth the extra effort.
Obviously you will find many different ways to create a mortise and tenon joint, some being considerably faster than the others. If you are dedicated to concept of building cabinets appropriate for hundreds of years and centuries useful, but would rather move along as rapidly as you possibly can, here are a handful of choices to consider.
Faster, Simpler "Loose" Tenon Joints
Perhaps just as strong like a traditional mortise and tenon joint, a "loose tenon" joint is usually much simpler to create. The "loose" in loose tenon joinery only denotes that rather than cutting the finish of 1 joint member in to the form of a tenon, a mortise is reduce both parts and so the two are became a member of with a separate bit of stock. The operation is simpler since the primary task is just making two identical mortises, as opposed to the exacting process of cutting a precisely matched up mortise and tenon in 2 separate - frequently setup-intensive - steps. The loose tenon stock itself may either be bought ready-made included in a joinery system, or can be simply created using common woodworking tools.
The affordable BeadLOCK Joinery Product is a longtime favorite among weekend carpenters and produces loose tenon joints easily and fairly rapidly. The BeadLOCK system utilizes a distinctively formed mortise comprised of overlapping drill holes along with a matching "ribbed" tenon stock, that is available ready-to-use, or can be created using tenon stock router bits along with a router table. The BeadLOCK Jig includes a multi-holed drill guide along with a mechanism for positioning it around the stock to ensure that the BeadLOCK mortise could be dependably and repeatably performed utilizing an regular hands drill. Lately remodeled, the BeadLOCK Jig now is available in a Fundamental and Professional version, each of which could be upgraded with accessory kits that permit greater flexibility in mortise/tenon size. A BeadLOCK joint can be created in a small fraction of the who's takes to chop a conventional joint, and lots of enthusiasts reason that the initial, interlocking form of the various components really creates a more powerful bond.
The Festool Domino Joinery System also creates a loose tenon joint, and helps make the process as clever as it is ever prone to get. The Domino looks much like a biscuit joiner, and produces joints about as quickly, however the similarity backward and forward tools finishes there. Rather than cutting a skinny slit in to the stock, the Domino uses an oscillating carbide cutter to create a mortise wide enough to accommodate among the system's specifically designed "domino" formed hardwood tenons. It makes sense a reliable joint in a short time span. Obviously all that speed, strength and precision does not come free the Domino's cost is not exactly for that average person. But when you intend on finding yourself in the cabinetmaking game for some time, prefer to speed along as rapidly as you possibly can, and like a joinery manner in which leaves no questions regarding the integrity of the face frame joints, the machine doesn't seem possible to conquer.
As the Domino is certainly to not be mistaken with a biscuit joiner, that does not imply that a biscuit joiner can't be employed to join face frames. Actually, the Porter Cable Luxurious Biscuit Joiner comes standard having a second, more compact cutter designed particularly for that task of cutting biscuit slots in 1-1/2" face frame stock. When it comes to strength, a biscuit joint isn't any match for any kind of mortise and tenon joint - loose or else. However, many cabinetmakers find that notion to be simply near the point. When you are getting right lower into it, a face frame joint really does not need to endure a great deal of stress. Once it's connected to the cabinet box, it really needs to remain stuck together. And we'd guess nearly all cabinetmakers would deem a biscuit joint a lot more than comparable to the job.
Faster Still - Pocket Screw Joints
Still more cabinetmakers recommend pocket hole joinery for joining face frames. Pocket hole joinery can be used broadly within the cabinetmaking industry, by all accounts may be the obvious champion if this involves during the face area frame set up process fast. A pocket hole joint does not require clamping, but rather comes with its permanently installed clamp - i.e., the screw. This means that once its put together, a face frame became a member of with pocket screws is prepared for the following stage along the way, and could be became a member of towards the cabinet box without further ado. Fast, strong and self-contained, pocket hole joinery seems almost tailor-designed for face frame joinery, where joint stress is low, along with a visible fastener on one for reds from the end product isn't a problem.
For that enthusiast, the title Kreg is becoming symbolic of affordable, simple to master pocket hole joinery systems. Through the years, Kreg has ongoing to enhance its groundbreaking jig, and today offers numerous kits. Beginning for less than and varying as much as around 0 for that K3 Master System, Kreg jigs are for sale to just about any woodworking budget. And then, whenever you turn professional, the semi-automatic Kreg Foreman will take you as much as industry production speed.
More Options...
Still other cabinetmakers would rather dowel their face frame joints. Nothing wrong with this: Dowel joints have been in existence for 100s of years, tend to be more than sufficiently strong for any face frame and - provided you already possess a hands drill - require merely a modest purchase of a doweling jig and couple of dowels.
A Side Benefit - Learning New Abilities
No joinery techniques pointed out listed here are restricted to face frame set up, obviously. All may be used in a multitude of woodworking situations. Quite simply, purchasing the gear essential to try a number of on the specific project involves hardly any risk - whether it turns to not function as the preferred method in a single situation, you'll, certainly, look for a use for the recently acquired joinery technique elsewhere.
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