if you're new to woodworking let me show you an easy way to make a shaker cabinet door just
using a table saw and a standard 10 inch blade there are two common methods used today to make
a shaker cabinet door the first method utilizes a router table and a pair of router bits that
are specifically designed to make doors the other method utilizes a table saw with a stacked dado
which is a stack of blades that when added together removes large amounts of material
quickly and cleanly leaving a professional look and fit but because you're just getting started
you probably don't have a router table or dado set and that's fine because you can still build
a great-looking quality door without them it's important to understand and know the difference
between the door style and a door rail suits you can correctly measure and assemble the
door cabinet rails just like handrails on a porch run horizontally while the styles run
vertically when assembled the rails fit in between the styles and this is important to know so that
you can cut your styles and rails to the proper length when it comes to the width of the styles
and rails the standard size is about two and a quarter inches but depending on your specific
overall cabinet or drawer size anywhere between two and two and a half inches is acceptable to
get a quick estimate of the amount of material you need for each door measure the height of the
cabinet opening and multiply by two then measure the width and multiply that by two measuring this
way gives you a little extra material for mistakes and adjustments to get started rip the material
down if you need to to your desired width with that done it's time to start cutting the styles
and rails to the length the styles are easy as they are cut to the exact door height which in
my case is twenty three and a half inches the rails on the other hand are not cut to the exact
door width and require a little bit more math to figure them out the total door width needs to be
seventeen and a half inches but if you remember if the rails fit in between the styles so you'll have
to deduct for those and then add two three-eighths Tenon's to each rail therefore the math looks like
this the total door width seventeen and a half inches - two styles and two and a half inches
each giving us a total of twelve and a half inches then we're going to add to that 3/4 of an inch for
both Tenon's for a total rail length of the and a quarter inches and don't worry if you didn't
follow that exactly it'll all make sense once I start putting the door together after cutting
the Stiles and rails to the proper length it's time to run a groove in all four pieces raise
your saw blade up to 3/8 of an inch and slide the fence over to align the blade in the center
of the board and don't worry it doesn't have to be exactly Center just make it close once set up
properly run all four pieces through carefully holding each board tight to the fence and tight
to the table once all four pieces are done grab a smaller scrap of the same material and run that
through as well so this scrap piece so actually be used as a test to get the exact location of
the fence so that the groove is in the center and sized exactly to match the thickness of the
plywood panel the panel material that we're using on this project is about a quarter inch thick so
we'll have to adjust the fence slightly to make our groove wider once the adjustments made make
a second pass and this time slip the board in for N and run it through again what this does
is centers the groove creating an equal amount of material on either side with that done it's
time to check the fit with the plywood it needs to be snug but not too tight as you
can see we need to go back to the table saw and make another micro adjustment to the fence so
that the groove is slightly bigger they get run one side then flip the board and run it through
again this time around it seems to be a perfect fit not too tight and not too loose now that we
know that the test piece fits it's time to run all the Stiles and rails through at this point
the two styles are done now it's time to start milling the Tenon's on each end of the rails to
set up for that milling operation the first thing you need to do is to add a scrap block of wood to
the fence about two and a half inches back from the blade this block can be used as a guide to
set the proper distance to cut the 3/8 Tenon's and to prevent kick back during the milling process to
get started grab your test piece again and set it next to the blade slowly lower the blade down
until your just below the side wall of the dado the next step is to make a three-eighths mark down
from the end which marks the total length of the tenon with the fence loose place the rail against
the block and move the fence and the rail at the same time in or out to line up the blade with
the three-eighths mark it's a good idea to keep the blade slightly inbound of the pencil line to
start once you're happy with their settings lock the fence down with the solve running slide the
Braille over tight to the block and then advance the rail through the blade using the miter gauge
now that the first pass is complete flip the rail over and repeat the same process with the Tenon's
shoulders now cut nibble away the remaining amount of material creating the face of the Tennant
once complete it's time to test the fit with the styles and as expected it's a little too
tight and that's fine remember you can always remove more material but you can never put it
back on so now that we know that the tenon is too tight its back to the table saw raise
the blade ever so slightly and repeat the same milling process as before with a little effort
this time the tenon goes in to the groove nicely but another problem arises see the gap here to
fix that it's back to the table saw to adjust the fence away from the blade to make this tenon just
a bit longer with those adjustments made you can see that the tenon is now bottoming out in the
end wall and it's fitting really well now that the test piece works and the adjustments on the
saw or dial then run all four ends of the rails to create their Tenon's I do want to make you
aware that because we're not using a stacked dado the single saw blade can leave some jagged marks
on the joints so if you're standing your doors you may want to clean those up with a chisel of
plain or even just some sandpaper wrapped around a block just make sure you clean those up before
you dial your saw in because this will affect the way your Tenon's fit the last thing to do
before assembling is to get the measurement for the quarter inch panel to do that loosely fit the
rails to the Stiles and make marks at each tenant location then measure between the two lines and
subtract an eighth of an inch to get the width of the panel subtract an eighth of an inch from
the total rail length which includes the tenon at the table saw cut the plywood down to the correct
dimensions I do strongly recommend dry fitting everything before adding glue just to make sure
that everything looks good once you're confident set the door parts between two clamps and glue one
side of the door making sure to get good coverage on all surfaces of the tenon and there's no need
to glue the panel so gluing goes pretty quick now that the glue is on assemble one side by pressing
the tenant's into the grooves then slide the panel into place from there glue the remaining
two Tenon's and press the whole assembly together be sure the tighten the clamps evenly and look to
make sure that the door is also tight to the underside of the clamp you don't want the door
the write up on the edge creating a warp if you do find a high side lightly tap it down
the very last thing to check before the glue sets up is the squareness of the or to do that
measure from one corner to the opposite corner and then do the same thing on the other corners
these numbers should be the same or close if your door is square as long as we did a good job at
cutting each individual piece so that they're the same size once everything goes together I
don't think you're gonna have any problems mine here is about a sixteenth of an inch off and
I'm not gonna worry about it now that everything is flat and square let the glue dry well before
sanding everything down now depending on what type of hardware you're going to be using on
the door you're going to want to do those milling operations first before any painting or staining
begins this door will be receiving european-style hinges that are inset into the frame by drilling
35 millimeter holes into the Stiles to lay out for those hinges mark 4 inches down from the
top and 4 inches up from the bottom then use a jig to locate the center lines for the correct
amount of offset from there set up a 35 millimeter Forstner bit in the drill press and drill 2 holes
making sure the drill to the proper depth after paint or stain follow the hinge manufacturer's
directions for proper installation well there it is one complete shaker-style door if you have
any questions leave them in the comment section below thanks for watching see everybody next week