Kitchen cabinet doors with class from veneered plywood

[YD Forums]

I have made kitchen drawer fronts from oak veneered plywood, and now it's time for the cabinet doors.

My wife wants the cabinet doors to match the drawer fronts, which is no problem for most of the cabinets.

One cabinet should have a frame from the same oak veneered plywood, with inset glass.

A friend who has done considerable cabinet making, suggested using a table saw to cut out the center, by raising the blade into the work, and then cutting (forward and back) to the marked edge of the cutout. The overcut on the back side of the doors would be largely "obliterated" by the rabbet for the glass, and in any event, it won't be seen and can be filled. The inside is white formica (the plywood comes that way - oak veneer on one side, white formica on the other), so I can easily fill with white acrylic caulking.

Any other ideas for how to do this?

Of course, why keep things simple when they can be complicated. I'd really like the corners of the cutout to be rounded - more aesthetic and easier to clean the corners of the glass. I did a quick and dirty test by drilling 1/2" holes at the corners of the cutouts before cutting out the center on the table saw. It's really dicey getting the locations of the holes just right, and it' also quite difficult to avoid damaging the veneer when drilling the holes. I used a regular twist drillbit, and I suppose that a spur/brad point bit, or even an auger bit (or maybe even a forstner bit?) would cut a cleaner hole. I'm also wondering if having a finish on the wood first might help prevent splintering.

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[eribaMotters]

I think would seal the surface with a coat of your chosen finish first.
Forstner bit drill where you want to finish in the corners.
Cut majority of waste out with a down-cut blade in a jigsaw a few mm away from your fish line.
Clamp a batten in place and bearing guide router cut against this. I'd tray and set up a couple of end stops so you do not go to far in the corners.

Colin

 

[Kayen]

You're going to have cross grain on the top and bottom rails rather than long grain. If that's what you want then I would suggest routing a 10mm groove on the face say 70mm from all edges. Turn the door over and rout down a similar groove 61mm from all edges, thus creating a 9mm wide rebate for the glass and beads.

As long as the majority of your doors are of the same size it's fairly easy to make a sort of frame in which you run a router with a guide bush along, rather than using the router guide fence which will make it difficult to achieve perfection. Add a 9mm strip to the inside of the frame to create the wider door frame without having to remake it.

I always square out the corners with a corner chisel, but leaving them round is of course an option.

 

[dephill]

I’d agree, either cut out a rectangular frame or make one by glueing strips together edge-on. You could then get an offset for the rebate by adding strips to the inside of the template or a couple of other options: either use different sized guide bushes for front cutout and back rebate or the same guidebush and different sized router bits.