Cabinet doors - rebate or slot?

[Angusdog]

Hi all,

I'm making some cabinet doors in the weekend, no fancy sketchup file or anything :wink: . The design's more or less finalised in my head but I wondered about the doors.

The frames will be 18mm MDF so the rails and stiles will be roughly 70mm wide. The panels will be 9mm MDF. Frames will join with half lap joints.

Is there a difference strength-wise between cutting a slot for the panels, or cutting a rebate? Or nothing worth worrying about? They're the first rail & stile doors I've made and neither method seems particularly difficult.

Thanks in advance, Simon.

 

[MartinCox]

I prefer slots. If you do go that way, can I suggest you rout 9mm slots the whole length of the stiles and 3 sides of the rails. Cut yourself some of the 9mm panel material to use as loose tongues and the whole thing goes together very easily and, in my view, much quicker than another comparable method.

 

[Zeddedhed]

Strength wise with modern glues it'll make little difference. Agreed that rebates is quicker and easier but not by much. We sometimes do this on 'rough' jobs where time is everything, but panels set into grooves looks so much more 'pro'. Do it like Martin suggested with a loose tongue on the rail ends and you don't need to worry about cutting a proper tongue.

 

[mseries]

He's using half laps for the rails + stiles so loose tongues are not needed. I'd affix the panels in grooves.

I'd also join the rails and styles using stub tenons on the rail joining into the stiles groove

 

[Angusdog]

Hey, thanks for the replies, and I really like the idea of spines made from the 9mm. If they turn out okay, I'll post some pics
Cheers Simon

 

[JonnyW]

Hi Simon. Would be interested to see some pics once you've finished as I'm tackling a new kitchen/diningroom job next year, that will involve building in a bench seating area around our dining table, with cupboards and drawers at the bottoms and back etc.

I was thinking about going to go down the MDF route, as the wife wants the bench/units painted but was wondering about knocks and dunts and durability.

I agree with the above comment about slots looking more pro. Personally I think rebating a panel into the back of your styles/rails, looks really cheap and nasty and even worse with the fixings on show when you open the doors.

Cheers

Jonny