Routing advice needed

[Ed62]

I’d like to rout the back part of a kitchen cabinet door, so I can replace the panel with glass, but I need a little advice.

The door measures 14.5” X 34”, and I have a plunge router attached to the BT3K. But I think the door is a little too large to safely rout on the table. I don’t have a pattern bit, but I don’t see why I couldn’t use a straight edge as a fence while routing away the lip. What would be the best way for me to handle this? If needed, I can buy a pattern bit to use with a straight board clamped evenly with my cutting line.

I’m also concerned that if I rout the lip away, I’ll interfere with the hinge. Do I have enough room to accomplish this, while using the existing hinge? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ed

[LarryG]

A top bearing bit and straightedge will work fine. One drawback of bearing-guided bits is that they will faithfully follow (and cause the bit to reproduce, in the workpiece) every small imperfection in whatever is guiding it. That's not terribly important in your case, since you're be working on the hidden side of the door, but even so: inspect your straightedge closely, make sure it's as perfect as possible.

Your pics are a little fuzzy so I can't really see how the hinge works. You'll need to rout a rabbet about 3/8" wide, so yeah, it's gonna be close.

[Tom Hintz]

I think I'd look at cheating the rabbet a little on the hinge side, narrowing it up just en ough to clear the hinge screws. You shojld still have plenty of surface to support the glass. I have made glass doors with rabbets just over 1/4"-wide and they worked fine until my brother in law dropped the cabinet out of a pickup on the highway. They don't work well for that.........

[scorrpio]

That door does not seem large for the TS (to me). Remove blade guard, drop blade below table. move up SMT - and you got more than enough surface to support the door. You can then use rip fence to rout the long sides, and SMT to rout the bottom.

Far as the curved side goes, I would not touch it. Once you clear the sides and bottom, you should be able to take the panel out. Then, using the panel as template, follow the glass cutter along the curved side a couple times, and you'll have a glass that should fit neatly into the top arch.

[cabinetman]

My .02 cents. If I had to do this I would use a straight edge and a router with a straight bit, no bearing. From my take on this you want to remove the panel and have an edge to set glass. The panel is probably set into a 1/4" plus or minus groove. So, just routing off the portion of the backside groove will release the panel, and the glass can sit on what remains from the front groove. As for the top, I would rout it off straight and clean off the landing for the glass. You will still have the arch on the front to show. As for the hinge side, as already stated, you can cheat a little to the hinge. You may get away with less of a step (rabbet), but that won't matter much.



"I'M NEVER WRONG - BUT I'M NOT ALWAYS RIGHT"

[crokett]

I'm with CabinetMan. Use a straight edge and a handheld plunge router. Make a temporary router base that has a straight edge attached that runs along the outside edge of the door. This will register the width of the cut to be consistent. Do the 3 non-hinge sides of the doors, then move the register slightly for the hinge side and do the remaining sides. I'd also use a spiral upcut bit instead of a straight bit. The straight bit gives a slightly cleaner cut but in this case I think it is moot. The spiral bit clears chips better.

[Ed62]

Thank you for the replies. It's not something I'm gonna do right away, but I'm doing my homework. LOML said after Christmas would be fine with her. Maybe I'll do it before that. Thanks again for the suggestions.

Ed