# Joint end grain



## bluedome (Oct 25, 2011)

I want to make some solid wood slab cabinet doors with vertical grain, but with a horizontal rail across the top and bottom.

My question is how do I joint the end grain of the panel? Some of these
doors are 15" wide, and one is only 7" wide, so using the jointer seems
like the wrong answer. Besides I know jointing cross grain is dangerous.

So what is the right way? I don't have a shaper with a sled. I do have a router.


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## mdntrdr (Dec 22, 2009)

bluedome said:


> I want to make some solid wood slab cabinet doors with vertical grain, but with a horizontal rail across the top and bottom.



These doors will have no vertical styles? :huh:


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## jschaben (Apr 1, 2010)

bluedome said:


> I want to make some solid wood slab cabinet doors with vertical grain, but with a horizontal rail across the top and bottom.


I don't understand this, are you making a solid door or a panel door?


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Do you have a table saw? Shaker rail & stile doors are pretty dang easy to build with only a table saw. It consist of vertical stiles with a simple dado running on one side and the horizontal rails have the same dado and stub tenons on the ends. The tenons fit into the dados on the stiles giving you glue surface. It's basically really long mortises with comparatively narrow tenons and a panel in the middle.

I suggest you google "how to build table saw cabinet doors" as your starting point. You should find comprehensive design sketches. At that point imagine how to make all of your cuts with what ever tools you do have. 

Despite the thousand plus yrs of combined experience to be prodded here no one can infuse the knowledge directly into your brain. It's going to take some leg work and creative thinking on your part to reach your end goal with your allowed constraints.

~tom ...it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt...


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## rrich (Jun 24, 2009)

*Blasphemy?*

Cut your stiles as you normally would. Glue up your rails as you would a table top. Cut the rails to width and length. Glue up the stiles and rails into an empty frame. (All your glue joints are edge grain to edge grain and should be rather strong.) Route your detail into the frame, inside and outside but leave the back square.

Glue the frame onto an appropriate size piece of plywood. This is a way of making faux raised panel doors. It was popular in the "California Bungalow" style architecture of the 1920s and 1930s.

You could also cut a rabbet on the back inside of the frame and fit the plywood into the rabbet if you want to hide the plywood edge.


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## bluedome (Oct 25, 2011)

Sorry, what I mean is a slab door (no panel), that looks like this:


```
-------------------------------
|                             |
-------------------------------
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
|                             |
-------------------------------
|                             |
-------------------------------
```
The big piece has vertical grain (and may be glued up from several pieces), so the question is how to make the top and bottom of it flat enough to attach the stiles.


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## slicksqueegie (Feb 9, 2011)

bluedome said:


> so the question is how to make the top and bottom of it flat enough to attach the stiles.


If I understand what you are asking:
Hand plane, Belt sander, drum sander.
Any of the above will work...

If you are going the belt sander or hand plane rout, Use a straight edge and mark (with a pencil) the high spots. Remove the marks and repeat until flat.
Maybe use tongue and groove to attach the stiles.

I hope this helps.


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## slicksqueegie (Feb 9, 2011)

bluedome said:


> My question is how do I joint the end grain of the panel? Some of these
> doors are 15" wide, and one is only 7" wide, so using the jointer seems
> like the wrong answer. Besides I know jointing cross grain is dangerous.


you need a hand plane with a sharp blade a square and a pencil

I do not know why you simply dont run it across your table saw? to square up the ends with the edges. If thats not an option do you have a circular saw in your arsenal? use that and a straightedge to square it and cut it flush. the router is pretty much the same process as the circular saw using a straight bit.

I hope I understood your question.


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## mdntrdr (Dec 22, 2009)

bluedome said:


> so the question is how to make the top and bottom of it flat enough to attach the stiles.



Panel sled on a table saw. :smile:


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## jschaben (Apr 1, 2010)

bluedome said:


> Sorry, what I mean is a slab door (no panel), that looks like this:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...


I think basically what you have is a tabletop with breadboard ends, albeit on a smaller scale. May need to contol movement in a similar fashion. I don't see a lot of endgrain issues.


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## WHWoodworking (Nov 1, 2011)

In answer to your original question, you can joint end grain. Make a short pass, about 1/2" or so on one side then rotate the board and make the full pass. The first 1/2" pass is to prevent chipout that would occur if you just did it in one pass. You also want to make light cuts, say about 1/16" at a time. But, as others have mentioned, a sled on a tablesaw with a nice sharp 60-80 tooth blade would eliminate the need for using a jointer.

You could also use a straight bit in your router with a guide board clamped to the door as a guide. But again, you'd have chipout at the end of the pass so if you use this method, make the door a little wider than final dimension, clean up the end grain, then cut the door to final width, cutting away the chipout.

Lots of ways to do this, just depends on what tools you have. Good luck.


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