Carpentry and Woodworking - building a glass panel door

I am building a display cabinet that has an 8 light glass panel door and the directions to build the door are poor. Can anyone direct me to find directions to build such a door. I have build raised panel doors before but not a 8 panel piece. I assume they are similar.

thanks
johnmck

Go to home depot and buy a door through them. The company should be called "Quality Doors" You're going to save yourself time and money.

Mike,

Depending on John's "time factor", he could cut the stiles and rails of a "face frame".

Depending on his taste, he could cut a 3/4" X 3/4" notch, as an example, out of the centers of the upper and lower rails to receive the center stile. (Window frames: 3/4" X 3/4". John doesn't specify the dimensions.)

Three more cuts (same dimensions) on the right and left stiles of the face frame, to receive the cross pieces (rails), would give him eight panels.

Do a "lap joint" where the horizontal rails intersect the center stile and he'd have the basic framework of his door.

The very tedious part would be fitting quarter-round, or whatever, at the front of each of the "panels". (I've been trying to figure out how to use a stile/rail bit to accomplish this in one move, which would be very cool but....)

Once the glue has set, plop in the glass and attach those little plastic retainers...BINGO!

Sand the face frame completely smooth and, if meticulously done, John would have his eight-panel door.

Far more time, and bad-word spouting, than expense. :D

Feel free, Mike. Dave? Chfite? Anyone?

Tom

Time frame nothing my friend Tom. Just like John Belushi said in Animal House. "Start Drinking Heavily" if you're going to attempt trying to make one and expect very few mistakes the first time around.

It's a lot easier to order doors from a company that does it day in and day out, than it is to buy the bits, take the time and aggervation to get it done. It would actually probably end up costing him a lot less money to order the door as it would be to have the necessary equipemnt/tools/routerbits to do it. :)

Mike,

I have no problem deferring to your judgement on this one.

Personally, I'd build the door or, at least, take a darned good shot at it. However, when a pro says, "Don't do it!", it's hard to argue the point. :)

Tom

but what fun would that be? Plus, it's a great excuse to the wife for buing new tools or accessories.

Kwick

Seeing as how I'm not married, no kids, I still opt to order my doors and with the money I'd save, I could still go out and buy new tools that will be more fesible for my shop. :) For someone to buy enough cutter heads/profiles to suit the needs of each person, it would be outragously expensive.

Instead of trying to build yourself, don't go to home depot. Buy from a company in Paramount called DREES. The quality is much better than home depot. What you want is called an 8 panel french lite door. They have many styles to choose from and you can pick your own edge detail.

With how expensive the cost of living is along with materials in the field of Woodworking, it's hard to justify making doors, crown, base, fluted casing, and a few other items. It's a lot easier, cheaper, and consistant if you buy it already done. Unless one has a lot of time on thier hands, I wouldn't suggest making the doors.

Everything I do is still manufactured from scratch, but I, along with thousands of others order the above items.

Kwick,

Mike actually takes this stuff seriously. It's almost like he does it for a living. :D

For all of our goofing around, though, he's right...to a point.

When time and/or expense play a bigger part in a project than the satisfaction of having done something yourself that you can take a certain amount of pride in, you must acknowledge your limitations. Otherwise, you're simply banging your head.

In John's case, we don't know. I inferred that he wanted to tackle the job. (Sorry, John. We don't mean to be talking as though you don't really exist!)

Mike came up with a better solution...this time. (Don't want him getting too big for his britches! :D)

P.S. How's the weather in the Irish Hills? A buddy at Sand Lake told me he had snow 18" deep. (He's been known to take a drink from time to time, so I wasn't too sure about his report! ;))

Tom

I do this for a living Tom? Is that what that big sign above the outside of my shop is? Wow! Thanks for pointing that out! :D

I don't understand this one either Tom:

For the past 15 years of doing Custom Furniture Making, I've some how managed to keep all 10 fingers in the same position as I was born with them. :Scratches Head: I still wonder how I ended up keeping all 10.

It's quite funny when people off the street meet me and find out what my "Position" is. They always ask me, "Who do you work for?" LOL The look in their face is priceless. They typically say. "You're only 29 years old and you have your own shop?" Um, Ya, as I tell them, "See the gray hairs?"

;)