# Cabinet Door Restoration Repair: Accidentally Sanded One Corner to Thin



## Lovegasoline (Sep 27, 2009)

I've been working on a dozen or so old kitchen cabinet doors, stripping paint and repairing them for a repaint. The cabinetry is a built-in with face frame construction and inset doors.

One door was missing some wood on the lower left corner so I filled it in with West System epoxy w/fairing filler (first time I've used epoxy other than 5 minute version for gluing). After the repair I was overzealous with the ROS and ate away too much wood on that corner of the door so now it's too thin. 

I want to make a repair to the front side of the door to build up the thickness at the corner (area from end of hinge mortise to door bottom) so that it's more or less planar and also structurally sound. 
Any recommendations on how to build the thickness back up on the one corner and without the door frame falling apart, lol?

Thanks for any ideas.









Front side of door








Gap on front side of door 








Gap on front side of door








Back of Door


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

What about ripping most of the stile away leaving the sticking and glue a new piece of wood on. That would fix the the thickness issue as well as making a better repair than the filler.


----------



## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

I'd make a right angle corner, a large notch, in a scrap of 3/4" plywood that you butt up against that corner and clamp it onto. You can make a bottom plate across it so that it will stay flush with the top all around the corner. Line the edge of the form with clear packing tape. Then use an epoxy filler, Dura glass, Bondo with glass fibers, whatever seems best. Glob some on and screed it off using the plywood as the rest for your scraper. It should be very close to flush if not exactly. Sand and paint and you're done.


----------



## DrRobert (Apr 27, 2015)

Adding to what WNT says, I drill a few shallow holes, just for the heck of it.

Power sanders probably are the leading cause of ruining ww’ing projects, the belt sander being the worst. That said, carefully and calmly used, they are ok, get in a hurry, loose focus, típ them - and you could be done.

I suggest you sand using a block of wood wrapped in sandpaper.


----------



## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

That door is not a lot thinner than original. If can place that door on a bottom cabinet I think that I would leave it alone. Nobody would probably ever notice.

George


----------



## Lovegasoline (Sep 27, 2009)

GeorgeC said:


> That door is not a lot thinner than original. If can place that door on a bottom cabinet I think that I would leave it alone. Nobody would probably ever notice.
> 
> George


The corner in question is at face level above the sink ... you look at when at the sink. The issue is the doors are inset and this creates a heavier gap and shadow at that corner besides the door not being in plane at the corner. This built-in is almost 100 yrs. old so it has some 'character' - as all very old kitchen built-ins have - but this is one of the most glaring spots. With so much effort already expended I'd like to make an effort to mitigate it, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered posting and seeking solutions. .


----------



## Lovegasoline (Sep 27, 2009)

Steve Neul said:


> What about ripping most of the stile away leaving the sticking and glue a new piece of wood on. That would fix the the thickness issue as well as making a better repair than the filler.


That's one option. I'd already added strips to many of the doors in order to redo the beads with a beading tool. I'd like to just deal with a corner repair on this, if it can be reasonably done.


----------



## Lovegasoline (Sep 27, 2009)

woodnthings said:


> I'd make a right angle corner, a large notch, in a scrap of 3/4" plywood that you butt up against that corner and clamp it onto. You can make a bottom plate across it so that it will stay flush with the top all around the corner. Line the edge of the form with clear packing tape. Then use an epoxy filler, Dura glass, Bondo with glass fibers, whatever seems best. Glob some on and screed it off using the plywood as the rest for your scraper. It should be very close to flush if not exactly. Sand and paint and you're done.


That sounds like it might be doable thanks for fleshing it out. The other epoxy repairs on that door were done with scraps of wood wrapped in packing tape clamped to both sides of the door - a rough and dirty mold - then filled with a couple applications of epoxy.


----------



## Lovegasoline (Sep 27, 2009)

DrRobert said:


> Adding to what WNT says, I drill a few shallow holes, just for the heck of it.
> 
> Power sanders probably are the leading cause of ruining ww’ing projects, the belt sander being the worst. That said, carefully and calmly used, they are ok, get in a hurry, loose focus, típ them - and you could be done.
> 
> I suggest you sand using a block of wood wrapped in sandpaper.


Holes for additional surface area to increase the mechanical bond? 
The rest of the doors had a mix of ROS and hand sanding. On this particular door - the first of the series to be done - I was rushed under intense time constraints. I also planed too much of the epoxy away on the epoxy edge repair to the stile! I need to add another 1/16" - 3/32" of epoxy to that area.


----------

