Master Shaker-Style Cabinet Doors: A Step-by-Step Guide for Woodworkers, DIYers, and Furniture Maker

1. Course Intro: Simple, clean, and timeless. The Shaker style cabinet door is one of the most popular and versatile designs in woodwork. Whether you're upgrading your kitchen, building furniture or starting your very first cabinet project, knowing how to make these doors is a game changer. Hey, I'm Eric from Spensley Design Co. And in this course, I'm going to take you step by step through the entire process of making Shaker style cabinet doors and drawer fronts. It's basically the exact same thing from selecting the right material to cutting perfect joinery, assembling the doors, and finishing them for professional. But what makes this different from videos you find on YouTube? Well, here's the dirty truth. YouTube rewards video creators for trapping the attention of viewers. To do that, videos have to be super, super snappy to keep the general audience engaged. The result is a super fast paced video that unfortunately skips the details that are critical to the project turning out well. In short, you miss out on the real education. This course is going to slow down a bit and really dive into all the critical details that you need to succeed. Nothing will be left unturned. So, now that I've got those small gaps filled up with epoxy, these things are ready for paint and primer, right? No. Not quite. I need to ease the transition between the floating center panels and the rails and styles, but luckily, that's super easy to do. We'll cover everything you need, how to measure and plan your doors correctly, the best tools and materials to use, different joinery techniques from simply using a table saw and getting fancy with high end router bit sets. We'll cover sanding, painting. And everything in between. For a flawless finish. We'll cover how to install your doors like a P, too. Oh, and all the critical things you need to know after you're installed that all the YouTube videos skip. This course is designed for beginners and intermediate woodworkers alike. Whether you're working with basic tools in a garage shop or using professional grade equipment, I'll show you multiple methods so that you can choose the one that works best for you. This course is laid out into tons of bite size pieces. So while there is a ton of information here, you can take it one section at a time. And because of the organization, you can easily refer back to previous video sections without having to scrub through hours footage. By the end of this course, you'll have the confidence to build stunning, high quality cabinet doors that will elevate your woodworking skills and your projects. This is a skill that you can leverage on nearly every project you create in the future, and contains tons of helpful tips to use even when you aren't creating doors and draw fronts. And as a bonus, you get my automated calculator that does all of the math for you, so you can just jump into creating your own shaker style doors and drawer fronts faster and with more confidence. Let's get started. 2. Module 1 Overview: Introduction to Shaker-Style Cabinet Doors: Welcome to Module one of this course on building Shaker style cabinet doors. Whether you're an experienced woodworker or just getting started, this module will set the foundation for crafting beautiful timeless cabinet doors or drawer fronts that will enhance any space. In this module, we're going to cover everything you need to know before making your first cut. Here's what we'll go through. Understanding Shaker style cabinet doors. So we'll dive into the history, design, and why these doors are so popular. We'll also cover tools and materials. This will be a walk through the essential tools and materials you need to get started. Shaker style doors are incredibly versatile. They are clean lines fit with modern, traditional and minimalist designs alike. Plus, they're relatively simple to build with the right guidance, exactly what you'll get in this course. By the end of this module, you'll have a strong understanding of what makes shaker style doors and drawer fronts special and be fully prepared to start measuring, cutting, and assembling your own. Let's jump into the first lesson, understanding Shaker style cabinet doors. 3. Understanding Shaker Style Cabinet Doors: What makes this style of cabinet door so popular? It's simple, clean and timeless. The Shaker style door has been around for centuries, yet it fits just as well in a modern kitchen as it does in a classic farmhouse design. These shakers were a religious community in the 18th and 19th centuries, known for their craftsmanship and minimalist approach to furniture. Their philosophy was all about function and simplicity. No excess decorations, just clean lines and durable construction. That's exactly what we see in these doors. And honestly, that's my preferred design style, simple clean lines. I am not a historian. In fact, history was one of my worst subjects in school growing up. So let's get out of the textbook and back into woodwork. So what makes a shaker style cabinet door? It's built from three main parts. These styles, these are the vertical pieces on the sides. The rails, these are the horizontal pieces on the top and bottom, the center panel, a flat center panel that's recessed within the frame. That's it. Three basic parts are all you need. I'm telling you, you can create amazing doors and drawer fronts with just three simple parts. But why are shaker style doors so popular? Shaker style doors work in almost any design style. You'll find them in modern kitchens, often painted in white, gray or bold colors, traditional homes with natural wood finishes, minimalist furniture, built ins, and even bathroom vanities. One of the reasons woodworkers love making these doors is that they are incredibly versatile. Whether you want a painted finish or a natural wood look, the simple design makes them easy to customize. But why bother making these types of doors? Why not just slap a flat panel up and call it a day? Now, you absolutely could, but keeping a large panel that's mostly unsupported, flat over time is complicated. Even with engineered materials like plywood, you run the risk of the material warping over time. For example, up in my miter saw station, I made these doors that are just a solid, simple piece of plywood. Since they're relatively small, they stay flat, no problem. However, look over at the much larger cabinet door like this one here, and you can see that it's no longer flat. Now, when I installed this, yes, it was flat. But because it's so large and it's unsupported over time, it just warped a little bit. Now, it's not a huge deal because this is just a shop project that I was trying to get together quickly, but I wanted to give you guys a real example of how that actually happens in the real world. Use something like one solid piece of hardwood, and you risk the warping even more. You would need to use complex reinforcements like sliding, dovetail, keys, and braces to help keep things flat. And that becomes bulky inside of a cabinet and also not what this course is focused on. So while these Shaker syle doors are a stylistic choice, really, the main reason I use them is for their stability. Framing out doors and draw fronts helps make sure that everything stays flat and with the bonus of being an easy way to add some stylistic elements into your design. Now that you understand what makes a Shaker style door unique and why I use them, let's dive into the details. In the next lesson, I'll show you how to measure and plan for your doors properly so that they fit your cabinets perfectly. Let's get to it. 4. Tools Overview: Alright, well, before we start cutting and assembling our doors, let's talk about the essential tools and materials you'll need. Having the right tools will make your project smoother, more precise, and let's be honest, way more enjoyable. But I want to be super, super clear about this. Just because you see me use a specific tool during this course does not mean that you absolutely need it. In woodworking, there are always tons of alternative ways to do the exact same thing. For example, don't have a mitre saw. That's cool. You can use a mitre gauge on a table saw to do the exact same thing. Now, let's get into those tools. First up, let's go over the must have tools for building shaker style cabinet doors. These are tools you'll find in most woodworking shops, and I'll also give you a few alternatives in case you're working in a smaller, not as fully equipped setup. The table saw. This is ideal for ripping styles and rails and panels to size. Now, a large cabinet saw like this is helpful for its stability and large surface, but doors and drawer fronts are typically not that large, so a job site saw would work great, too. If you don't have one, a track saw or even a circular saw with a guide track can work as an alternative. You just need something that you can reliably make rip cuts with. A mitre saw. This is great for a precise crosscut on stiles and rails. A handsaw with a mitre box can be a substitute, but let's be real. No one is going to do that. And like I mentioned earlier, a mitre gauge on a table saw is also a great alternative. Did you throw the piece of junk miter gauge away that came with your table saw? No worries. Build a simple crosscut sled to accomplish the exact same thing. Jointer and planter. These help ensure that your lumber is flat and square. If you're working with pre milled wood, you might not need these, though. There are tons of workarounds for these tools, but that could be an entire course on its own. Router or router table. These are used to cut grooves for the panel and can add edge profile if desired. Truly, though, the router, I think, is kind of optional and really only if you're someone who wants to build the doors with a fancy router bit set. But more than that later, know that you really don't need a router. Clamps. These are essential for holding everything together during glue ups. These style really doesn't matter much, but I do prefer the larger parallel clamps because they stain on their own and make it a little easier to apply clamping pressure. As far as size goes, just make sure that they're long enough to clamp across the entire dimensions of the door or drawer front, but more on that in a future lesson. Sanding tools, either a random orbital sander or hand sanding blocks for a smooth finish. You really shouldn't have to do all that much sanding, especially if you're painting these doors. But either way, you need some way to sand as a woodworker. And lastly, measuring and marking tools. A tape measure, combination square, and a pencil are key for accuracy. I do use some of these red tools, but you absolutely do not need any of these. In fact, if I were starting over, I wouldn't waste my money on any of them. Now that we've covered the tools needed, let's talk about the materials you will need. And the next lesson, I will teach you about the various materials needed for cabinet doors and drawer fronts and even expose a common misconception that almost all YouTube woodworkers tell you. 5. What Am I using?: Before moving on, I want to jump in and point something out real quick. One of the most common questions I get from people across all social media platforms is, what specific tool or accessory am I using? To help out, under every single video, I included a full list of all the tools and accessories that you saw me use. Simply click on the links, and it will take you to a page where you can learn more about them. In some cases, I've been able to score exclusive discount codes for you to use to help you save a little bit of money if you decide you want to buy one of them. Just wanted to give you a quick heads up, but let's keep things moving. I'll see you in the next lesson. 6. Materials Overview: Now, let's talk about materials. The wood you choose will impact the look, durability, and workability of your doors. Here are a few common choices. First up, we've got hardwoods like maple, oak or poplar. These are strong and durable. If you're painting the cabinets and do not want the wood grain to show through, I recommend using either maple or poplar. These woods don't have a deep grain pattern that will show through the paint. Oak, on the other hand, has grain that will definitely show through the paint. But if that's a look that you're going for more power to you. You will notice that a lot of people recommend poplar, especially for paint grade cabinets. While this does work well and is pretty budget friendly, I think hard maple is a better choice. It's only slightly more expensive, but it is significantly harder and thus, more durable than poplar. If you want to skip the paint and opt for a stained or clear finish, oak and maple are great choices. I would skip poplar here because it often contains green hues which don't look great. Stick to poplar only if you want to paint these. Second, we have softwoods like pine and fir. These are initially attractive because they are much more budget friendly but can be prone to dense. Truthfully, I do not recommend using softwoods for cabinet doors or draw fronts. Yes, they are much cheaper, but you will constantly be interacting with these doors. So things like fingernails, rings, and other jewelry can and will ding them up. For these small amount of increased costs, you will like the hardwood options much, much better. Next up, we've got MDF or medium density fiberbard. MDF is ideal for painted doors with a smooth surface and no visible grain. Most people gasp when they hear MDF, because if this stuff even sees water out of the corner of its eye, it swells up instantly. But honestly, it is the perfect option for cabinet doors because it is dead flat. And if you're someone who wants to paint your doors, it paints like a dream. Do not be afraid of MDF here. Truthfully, you could use MDF for the entire door, but it's simply not as durable as hardwood. I prefer and suggest to leave MDF living as the center panel and not using it for the rails or the styles. Last up, we've got plywood. Plywood gives you the benefits of MDF and that it's an engineered sheet good. So, generally speaking, it will stay nice and flat. Now, plywood does have exposed layers on the side. So again, I don't recommend making your rails or stiles out of plywood. Instead, use plywood just for the center panel and use hardwood on the rails and stiles. But why would you use plywood in the center instead of an MDF panel? Plywood is a great option if you want to see the natural wood grain through the paint or stain. To summarize, I always recommend using hardwood for the rails and stiles and some sort of sheet good for the center panel. Want to paint the doors and want a buttery smooth finish with no woodgran showing. Use hard maple for the rails and stiles and use MDF as the center panel. Want to paint the doors, but you want to see the wood grain, use hard maple or oak for the rails and stiles and use a matching species of plywood for the center panel. Want to stain or clear coat your doors, use hard maple or oak for the rails and stiles and use a matching species of plywood for the center panel. It might seem a little daunting at first, but just take a minute at the beginning of the project to figure out what sort of stylistic outcome you're going for and pick the corresponding material choice. Now that we've talked through the overview of Shaker style cabinet door fronts and what you're going to need, let's move on to Module two, where we'll discuss planning and designing everything that you need to be successful at building. See you there. 7. Module 2 Overview: Planning and Design: Welcome to Module two, where we will take our ideas and turn them into a solid plan. Before we start cutting any wood, we need precise measurements and a well thought out blueprint. A great project starts with great planning. In this module, we'll cover measuring and sizing doors. Learn how to measure accurately for both overlay and inset doors to ensure a perfect fit. Don't worry about those terms, though. I will explain those in the upcoming lessons. Constructing a Shaker style door, learn about the three main parts and how they go together, sizing individual pieces, learn how to figure out the exact size of each individual piece and what it needs to be. Automated part calculator. Not a big math person. No worries. I will show you how to use a free calculator I created to ensure that you have every single measurement. Creating a cutlist and blueprint. Develop a precise cut list and blueprint to minimize material waste and maximize efficiency. Taking the time to plan properly prevents costly mistakes. Poor measurements can lead to ill fitting doors, gaps, and even having to start over from scratch. With the right blueprint and cutlass, your build will go smoothly from start to finish, and most importantly, you will have confidence during each and every cut. By the end of this module, you'll have a clear plan and a complete material list ready to move on to the next phase, milling and preparing materials. Let's dive in. 8. Measuring and Sizing Doors: What's one of the biggest mistakes people make when building cabinet doors? Getting the measurements wrong. Even being off by a fraction of an inch can lead to gaps, misaligned hinges, or doors that don't close properly. But don't worry, by the end of this lesson, you'll know exactly how to measure and size your shaker style doors with confidence. Before we start measuring, you need to know what type of cabinet doors you're building. There are two main types Overlay. These sit on top of the cabinet frame and cover part of it. This is probably the most common style you see in kitchens and in furniture. Then we have inset doors. These fit flush inside the cabinet opening, requiring precise measurements and spacing for proper clearance. For overlay doors, you start by measuring the width and height of the cabinet opening. Then you add the overlay amount. This is just how much you want the door to extend past the opening. There are all kinds of overlay options you can use. Truly just comes down to what look you're going for and how far apart you want subsequent doors to be. For example, if your cabinet opening is 20 " or 508 millimeters wide, and you want a half inch or 13 millimeter overlay on each side, your final door width will be 20 " plus one half inch on the left, plus half inch on the right, is 21 " wide. In metric, that's 508 millimeters wide plus 13 millimeters on the left, plus 13 millimeters on the right or 534 millimeters. You can follow the exact same process for the height. All you need to remember is this simple formula. Opening size plus overlay, plus overlay equals door size. The inset doors are a bit trickier because they need to fit inside the cabinet opening with a small gap called a reveal. That reveal needs to be on all sides for good clearance. A good rule of thumb is to subtract about one 16th to one eighth of an inch or about 1.5 to 3 millimeters from the total width and total height to ensure that the door fits without rubbing. I've tried to be a hero and make inset doors with ridiculously tight tolerances, and all I get is a headache because everything is way, way too close. Use a reasonable spacing for inset doors. So if your cabin opening is exactly 20 " or 508 millimeters wide and 30 " or 762 millimeters tall, and you want a one 16th or 1.5 millimeter reveal all the way around the door, you'll subtract one 16th or 1.5 millimeters from each dimension, making your door size 19 15/16 by 29 15/16. Or if you're using metric, 506.5 millimeters by 760.5 millimeters. But wait, that would only give us a gap on one side of the door. We need to subtract the desired spacing twice. So if your cabinet opening is exactly 20 " or 508 millimeters wide and 30 " or 762 millimeters tall, and you want a one 16th or 1.5 millimeter reveal all the way around the door, you need to subtract one 16th times two, which is one eighth or 1.5 millimeters times two, which is 3 millimeters from each dimension, making your door size 19 and seven eighths by 29 and seven eighths or 505 millimeters by 759 millimeters. I know, I know. That seems like a lot of numbers and math, but here is a simple formula to remember. Opening size minus desired gap, minus desired gap equals final door size. Now, take a little Selter break here and crack those knuckles because we've got a little more math to do. But I swear it's not hard, and now that we know the size of our door, let's set the math aside for a moment and dive into the construction of the door. 9. Constructing a Shaker Style Door: And Remember earlier how I showed you the three main components of the shaker style door or door front. We have the rails, the styles, and the center panel. Yes, it is that basic, but here's where it gets a little bit more complicated. I didn't tell you the full truth. There's more than initially meets the eye, but no worries. That's what I'm here to coach you through. In order for all these pieces to go together, we need to talk a little bit about joinery. If we take the pieces apart, we can first see that the rails and the stiles heavy groove in the middle, that houses the center panel. I prefer to make this groove about half inch or 13 millimeters deep, but honestly, the exact depth does not really matter. But the one half inch or 13 millimeter deep does make the math easier later on, which is why that's the dimension that I like to use. So if I were to just butt up the rail to the style, there would be a gap on the top from the groove for that center panel. Definitely not ideal. But what if I want to fill the gap while simultaneously increasing the strength? That'd be a win win, right? Get this. On the rail, I can add a small tendon on each side that will perfectly slide in the groove on the style. This fills up that gap on the top while also giving a ton more surface area for glue in the added bonus of nothing being able to shift around while things are being glued up. Pretty clever, huh? So in summary, the stiles will have a half inch or 13 millimeter deep groove on the center. The rail will have the same half inch or 13 millimeter deep groove in the center, plus a half inch or 13 millimeter relief cut into both sides of both ends, resulting in the formation of a tenon. And the center panel needs to fit inside all of those pieces. I told you it's not too complicated. So now that you understand the more detailed anatomy and construction of a shaker style door or drawer front, let's get back into the math about calculating the exact size for every single piece. I'll see you in the next lesson. 10. Sizing Individual Pieces: Alright. Once you have your final door sizes, you need to break them down into the parts, the rails, the styles, and the panel. First off, we have the styles. Styles are the vertical pieces and the ones that are probably the easiest. Styles are always cut to the full door height. As far as the width goes, I prefer to make these about 2.5 " or 63 millimeters, but that dimension comes down to entirely what you like and what you visually think looks the best. So for the styles, length equals overall door height. Width equals desired width, which is typically 2.5 " or 63 millimeters. Second, are the rails. The rails are cut to the width of the door minus the width of each style. But remember, the rail also needs to have a tennon that extends into the center groove on each style. So for the rails, length equals overall door width minus style width, minus style width, plus groove depth, plus groove depth. Width is same as the stiles. About 2.5 " or like 63 millimeters. Wow. Alright. That was a lot. But lastly, we have the center panel. The center panel is cut to fit inside the groove within the rails and stiles. For the center panel, height equals overall door height minus rail width, minus rail width, plus groove depth, plus groove depth. Width equals overall door width, minus style width, minus style width, plus groove depth, plus groove depth. Oh. Alright. Alright. Take a deep breath because I've got great news coming up soon, but stick in here for just a moment. Pause the video if you need to. Okay, so let's get back into our example door. We know that we want the door to be 20 " by 30 " or 508 millimeters by 762 millimeters. Let's use the formulas to break down the door into the individual pieces we need. First, vertical styles. Length equals overall door height. So length equals 30 " or 762 millimeters. Width equals desired width typically 2.5 or 63 millimeters. So the width here is going to be 2.5 " or 63 millimeters. So these styles need to be 30 " by 2.5 " or 762 millimeters by 63 millimeters. You're already a third of the way done. Not too bad, huh? Next up are the rails. For the rails, length equals overall door width minus style width, minus style width, plus groove depth, plus groove depth. And the width is same as the stiles. So the length equals 20 " -2.5 ", -2.5 ", plus one half inch plus one half inch or 16 ". In metric, that's 508 millimeters -63 millimeters, -63 millimeters, plus 13 millimeters plus 13 millimeters or 408 millimeters. And the width is the same width as the styles. So the width is going to be 2.5 " or 63 millimeters. So the rails need to be 16 " by 2.5 " or 408 millimeters by 63 millimeters. Almost done. Stay with me. I promise I have good news coming up. We're almost there. Last, we need to calculate the size of the center panel. For the center panel, height is equal to overall door height minus rail width, minus rail width, plus groove depth, plus groove depth. So for the height, 30 " -2.5 ", -2.5 ", plus one half inch plus one half inch equals 26 ". In metric, that's 762 millimeters -63 millimeters, -63 millimeters, plus 13 millimeters plus 13 millimeters, equals 662 millimeters. And remember, door width equals overall door width minus style width, minus style width, plus groove depth, plus groove depth. So for the width, 20 " -2.5 ", -2.5 ", plus half an inch plus half of an inch equals 16 ". In metric, that's 508 millimeters -63 millimeters, -63 millimeters, plus 13 millimeters plus 13 millimeters is 408 millimeters. So our center panel needs to be 26 " by 16 " or 662 millimeters by 408 millimeters. We. Alright, take a deep breath, relax. The math is over and you survive. But before the good news, I do have to toss up a point of clarity. If you want to use solid wood as the center panel, know that you need to account for space on the center panel for wood movement. Personally, I think you get a much better result with using plywood or MDF on the center panel, but just know you do need to account for wood movement. If you decided to go with a hardwood, glue up as the center panel, you were warned. Alright. So with all the complex math done, I've got fantastic news for you. But that's in the next lesson, and you will not want to miss this one. Before we wrap up here, here are some quick pro tips to help make sure that your doors fit perfectly. Measure twice, cut once. Always double check your numbers. Account for hinges. Some hinges require specific overlays. Label your parts, especially if you're making multiple doors. Keep things organized. Alright, now for the good news, I'll see you in the next lesson. 11. Automated Calculator: You now know how all the calculations work to figure out the size of all your pieces. But let's cut the BS. No one is going to remember any of those formulas. Instead, I created an automated calculator that does all of the math for you. This is included as a free bonus item with this course to make sure that everything goes as smooth and as easy as possible for you. Let's dive in and see how it works. First, enter the opening size that you're trying to make a door for. Then select whether or not it's an overlay or an inset door. If overlay, what size overlay are you looking for? If inset, what size gap or revealed are you looking for? Next, enter the desired width of your rails and styles. Lastly, enter in how deep you want the groove for the center panel to be and subsequently, how long you want the tenon for each rail to be. Now, all the math is automatically calculated for you. Foolproof each and every single time. This is something that I use all the time and makes my life so much easier. I told you that this was worth the wait, but it's important to know how and why this works rather than just blindly trusting it. That's why I wanted to show you the reasoning for the math first, before revealing the calculator. Like I mentioned, this is a free download for you to use whenever you would like. It will work in Microsoft Excel numbers if you're a Mac person. And if you prefer, you can also load it into the free web based Google Sheets program. Regardless of how you use this sheet, it will do all of the work for you and make the rest of your project way easier. In the next lesson, I'm going to show you how to arm yourself with a cut list or blueprint so you can hit the ground running in your shop. See over there. 12. Add On: Calculator Changes for Double Doors: Hey, everybody. I've got another update that I think is going to be super helpful for anyone who's building, kitchen cabinets specifically. So the calculator that I showed in the previous video and kind of walked you through how to use it definitely works fantastic if you're doing just, you know, single doors, covering one span. But one of the things that I didn't think of that course member Scott brought up was, what do you do if you have a cabinet that you're looking to cover? Want to have two doors that kind of, you know, not necessarily bifold, but open up towards the middle, like a large kitchen cabinet that you might store plates. So I updated the calculator that you can download here for free, and let's dive in to the calculator and see how it all looks. Alright, so we're now inside of the Excel file, and this is Version three, and there have been a couple updates. The first thing that I've done is especially for imperial users, people who want to use inches. I added a column here that actually gives you the fractions. So if you're doing something, you know, like 2.5, for example, it now tells you 2.5 ", which is a little bit easier. You know, 0.25 quarter inch. Obviously this will work if you do eighth, 16th, 30 seconds, 60 fourths, whatever. I added this, just thought this would be, much easier for everybody else. And honestly, if you flip it over to millimeters, it's the same thing. The column doesn't really change, but I thought that would be helpful. Now, the main reason that I release Update three for this third version of the calculator is for that awesome question I got from course member Scott. His question was basically, Hey, I have this large span that I'm looking to cover with two doors open up in the middle. How do I calculate the size of those? So do you do the exact same thing up at the top, right? You want to know your total height, 20 ". You want to know your total width, 30 ". So that 30 " is going to be this, you know, total span there, right? You put all of your additional information in there, and then what this is saying is that if you're doing one door, you would want that rail to be 27 ". Well, what if you want two doors for them to be, you know, bifolding, right? It's not as simple as just cutting that rail in half. There's a little bit more math to it, but it's already done here, so you don't have to worry about it. All you have to do here is enter the spacing that you want between the doors. So when this door and this door are closed against the cabinet, basically, what space here do you want between those doors? Now, this is 0.125 " or one eighths. See how that's handy to have there. And now this calculates everything for you. So this is why I was excited about the fractional update here. 11.438 I have no idea what that is. But since I have the fractions, I actually know that that rail needs to be cut to a length of 11 and 716. So, Scott, huge shout out for this great thing that I definitely should have covered, and it's just, you know, didn't think about it when I was making the course. So this is the beauty about being able to add these additional videos. So huge thanks to Scott, and I hope this helps. And if you guys have any other questions, let me know. Sea. Hey, jumping back in here again, there was one additional update that course member Scott when we were going back and forth together on email developing this part of the calculator, realized that both of us have overlooked. So I added the part down here where they have the double door modification as I just showed you. And that's, you know, kind of figuring out how big these rails on the doors need to be. But the thing that both of us neglected to add was now the center panels are also different sizes. So I added a section down here in Version five that will have the length and width for the center panel. Ooh, excuse me, I got something. Oh, God. Something to my throat. Anyway, I just wanted to give you guys this update and let you know that version five of this is now fixed. So the rail and the center panels are both adjusted for making double doors. Alright. Of this helps. See you. 13. Creating a Cut List & Blueprint: Now that we measure cabinet openings and determine our door sizes, we determine the exact size we need for each and every piece. It's time to create a precise cut list and blueprint. This will help us stay organized and ensure every piece fits together perfectly. As a quick reminder, a shaker style door consists of three main components, styles, the vertical side pieces, rails, the top and bottom pieces that are horizontal, and the panel, the recess centerpiece. So let's go step by step to create our cut list. Our styles need to be 30 by 2.5 or 762 millimeters by 63 millimeters, and you need two of these for each door. The rails need to be 16 " by 2.5 " or 408 by 63 millimeters, and you also need two of these for each door or drawer front. Our center panel needs to be 26 by 16 " or 660 millimeters by 406 millimeters. And you only need one of these. Now, let's put these measurements into a simple blueprint. A hand drawn diagram with labeled dimensions works fine. I like to make really rough and rudimentary sketches of the pieces alongside their corresponding measurements. If you're bad at drawing and can't read your own writing, you can use free design software like sketch up or Fusion 360 for a digital version of the cut list. This is beyond the scope of this course, but maybe that would be something that I create a course on in the future. You can always find courses on those programs on YouTube. What's the point of doing this in the first place, though? Having a blueprint makes it easier to visualize your cuts and ensures we don't make mistakes when it's time to start cutting our expensive wood. Now that we have our cut list and blueprint ready, it's time to move on to milling and preparing our materials. In the next lesson, I'll show you how to joint, plan, and cut your wood to the exact dimensions needed. Let's get started. 14. Module 3 Overview: Milling and Preparing Materials: Now that we've planned out our doors and drawer fronts, we know exactly what size every single piece needs to be. So it's time to prepare our materials. Properly milling and prepping your wood is one of the most important steps to ensure high quality finished products. In this module we'll cover quick tips. We're going to walk through a few pro tips that will really set you up for success for the rest of your project. Milling lumber for rails and stiles. Learn how to joint, plane, and cut your lumber to ensure everything is square and dimensionally accurate. This is important because rough, warped or uneven boards can ruin the fit and finish of your doors. By properly milling your lumber, we ensure all of our components fit together seamlessly and stay that way over time. Prepping the center panel. We'll go over different material choices, cutting techniques, and how to account for wood movement if applicable. By the end of this module, you'll have perfectly milled and prep materials ready for joinery and assembly of your doors or draw fronts. Let's get started with milling our rails and styles. 15. Quick Tips: Now, before you start cutting anything, here are a few pro tips to keep in mind. One, always check for warping. Twisted or cup boards can lead to problems later. But proper milling can take care of those issues. More than that in a second. To label your pieces. This helps keep track of styles and rails and panels and also make sure that what you think is scrap is actually a scrap. We've all been there before where you grab a piece, thinking it's a scrap, cut it up for something else, only to later notice that you just cut a critical part in half. Yeah, I've done that too many times to count. Three, use sharp blades and bits. Clean cuts make assembly easier. Not to mention it is a huge safety concern in working with doll tools. Woodworkers are notorious for using the same blade over and over and over again without ever cleaning or sharpening it. This is your reminder to clean your blade, sharpen it, or get a new one. Alright, now let's make some sawdust. 16. Milling Lumber for Stiles & Rails: Before we start cutting our door parts to size, we need to make sure that our lumber is straight, flat, and the right thickness. If your wood isn't properly milled, your doors won't fit together correctly, and you risk having a super wonky door that isn't flat. So let's get that right from the start. First, pick the best boards for your project. Look for straight grain with minimal knots. This will help your doors stay strong and stable over time. Also, check that your boards are long and wide enough to cut your parts without too much waste. I just got back from my local lumber yard, and I picked up some of this walnut, and I am pumped to get started on my next project. But wait, before you ever make a single cut, I hate to break it to you, but you need to let this just sit in your shop for at least a few days and maybe even a few weeks if you had the lumber shipped in. That's because the place where you bought your lumber from more than likely has completely different environmental conditions than your shop. Both the temperature and humidity are going to be different in your shop versus wherever the lumber was stored at where you bought it. By allowing the lumber to acclimate to its new environment, you can lessen the chance of your lumber warping on you further along the project. So, unfortunately, I know you really wanted to get started on this next project, but let's just leave the lumber here and come back in a few days, and then we can mill it down. First, we will start over at the jointer to create a flat reference face and a perfectly square edge. I find that I get the best results when face joining boards by taking multiple shallow passes. The first pass will remove a lot of material, and then that second, third, or depending how bad the board is, fourth pass cleans it up with perfectly flat. This ensures that all of our cuts are precise. If you don't have a joiner, you can use a hand plane or even a sled on your planter. Don't have either of those. You can also purchase some pre milled s4s lumber, where all the milling work is already done for you. Whenever you are using a joiner, please make sure to use push blocks to achieve a higher level of grip and also keep those hands and fingers away from the knives. Now that we have one perfectly flat reference face on the board, we can run that against the jointer face to get a straight edge on the side of the board. Again, I do the same process where I take multiple shallow passes because I find I get a much cleaner cut. And once I go through my final pass, you can see that I have a perfectly straight, perfectly flat edge, too. It's not that hard. If your board is really bowed, you might want to remove some excess material before coming to the jointer just to help you save a little bit of time. Next, we'll run our boards through the planer to get them to the correct thickness. For most shaker style doors and drawer fronts, we're aiming for right around three quarters of an inch thickness. Be sure to take light passes to avoid tear out. Also, most planters have a speed control on them. I almost always keep the speed on the lowest setting as I find it just gives me a much better cut and end result. Sweet. Now we have a board that is perfectly flat. Both faces are parallel to one another, and there's a straight edge on one side. That means it's time to cut them to width at the table saw. I like to use a good quality ripping blade when making these cuts, especially if I'm using hard maple. Always use a push stick or push block to keep your hands clear of the blade. Next, we'll cut our rails to their final length. This can be done at the miter saw or at the table saw. It really doesn't matter. A stop lock helps ensure consistency when cutting multiple pieces. Lastly, our styles are always the full height of the door while their rails are cut to fit between them. So cut the stiles to their final size, right? No, no, no. Hear me out. Make the stiles actually two, three, 4 " or so, too long right now. I know, I know, I know. This sounds crazy. But please trust me on this from now. I will explain my reasoning behind that a little bit later. Fantastic. We've now got perfectly milled stiles and rails. And the next lesson, we will go over cutting the center panel. See you there. 17. Add On - Milling Lumber Without A Jointer: I've gotten more questions about the whole milling and jointing lumber thing, so I decided to make another add on video for you here. So I know that milling lumber can be a challenging topic, especially because if you're anything like me, you definitely did not start out with a jointer. I spent about 5.5 years without ever really having a jointer. And so there were things I had to do to work around that. Now, a while back, I made a full YouTube video all about how to mill lumber properly without having a jointer. But instead of sending you to YouTube, and then you have to watch the YouTube ads that are annoying, I re edited the video and included it in this lesson here so you can learn how to mill lumber without a jointer. Check it out. When it comes to building anything out of wood, everyone thinks that steps like these are the most important precision routing, perfect table saw cuts, flawless sanding, and perfect hand toolwork is what makes or breaks your projects, right? No. That's where you're wrong. It all starts here with a blank canvas. But ignoring everything going on with this blank canvas will destroy any hope you have of actually creating a project that's in your head. You need to do nine essential steps to turn this into projects like these. And today, I'm going to show you how to do all of them. Oh, and none of these steps require an expensive jointer. But what makes all of this so important? Money. Lumber. Is expensive. So when you want to transform rough lumber like this into a finished piece of furniture like this, there are a lot of mistakes that I see tons and tons of people make. But why would you ever buy roughs on lumber like this? When you can easily buy pre milled lumber directly from the store like this, this roughs on board costs me $10.65 per board foot, and this premilled lumber costs me a whopping $14.25 per board foot. That's a 34% cost increase. You're probably thinking that cost is my biggest issue with premill lumber. And no. There's one big issue that no one talks about, and I'll get to that in just a bit. Hi. My name is Eric Bensley. And today, I'm going to show you how to properly mill lumber and avoid the mistakes that can ruin your project and cost you loads of money. I just got back from my local lumber yard, and I picked up some of this walnut, and I am pumped to get started on my next project. But wait. Before you ever make a single cut, I hate to break it to you, but you need to let this just sit in your shop for at least a few days and maybe even a few weeks if you had the lumber shipped in. That's because the place where you bought your lumber from more than likely has completely different environmental conditions than your shop. Both the temperature and humidity are going to be different in your shop versus wherever the lumber was stored at where you bought it. By allowing the lumber to acclimate to its new environment, you can lessen the chance of your lumber warping on you further along the project. So, unfortunately, I know you really wanted to get started on this next project, but let's just leave the lumber here and come back in a few days, and then we can mill it down. The first mistake that people tend to make when it comes to milling lumber is they take an entire board and try to mill this whole thing down. When what you should do is take that board and break this down into much more manageable pieces that are closer to the size that you're actually looking for for the parts for your project. And to better explain what I mean here, let's flip to an illustration to really make things clear. Here's a rendering of an end table that I built a while back. If you want to check out that full video or grab the planes, I'll leave a link down in the description below, but let's just get back to what I was saying. My lumberyard typically sells boards that are about ten foot lengths or so. These lengths are never, and I repeat, they are never perfectly flat or straight. So just as an exaggerated example, to prove my point, let's say that this ten foot board was bowed like this. If I were to try to mill that entire board flat, I would lose a substantial amount of material. That material, especially now, is super expensive, and I don't need anywhere close to a ten foot long length for this end table. What you should do is break that ten foot board down into more manageable pieces that roughly resemble what you're after. So for this table, I should break down the ten foot board into several shorter pieces. Now, if I mill those pieces flat, you can see that I lose substantially less material when I go to mill them to their final size. Not to mention that moving super long boards around in the shop is not only heavy, but you can also very easily run into stuff. And I have pretty tall ceilings. But when the boards are nice and small, you can spin around like a Jedi knight or something without having to worry about anything except maybe be insulted by thousands of strangers on the Internet. I'm sure that'll happen. Now, when I tell you to cut your ten foot boards into those smaller, shorter pieces, you still need to allow yourself some wiggle room. So if this center stretcher needs to be at a final length of about 16 ", I am not going to cut it to 16 " at this step. Instead, I'm gonna cut it to maybe 18 " or 20 " to give myself some margin for error. And if you are anything like me, sometimes you make mistakes on the projects that you're working on. So maybe now you need a piece that's a little bit longer. I would rather keep all of my parts oversized because I can always cut them down later, but I can't make them any larger. That's what she said? Also, by cutting your boards a little bit longer than you need, you can help avoid Snipe. And if you don't know what Snipe is, Snipe is when you run boards through your planar, and the front or the back of them get these little scalloped recesses that are caused by the board going into the blades like that as opposed to being perfectly level. Now, this is obviously a massive exaggeration and I did this on purpose, but I wanted to clearly illustrate what exactly Snipe is. It's typically a very, very, very minuscule dip in the boards, and there are definitely ways to minimize its effect, but it does exist on nearly every planer. Just be aware. But by leaving the boards oversize, you can just cut it off and not really have to worry about it at all. The first step to getting perfectly milled lumber like this is to establish one perfectly flat reference face. And the easiest way to do that is a jointer. A joiner works by running a board across the cutter head to establish a perfectly flat face. Now, a keen eye will notice that this handsome gentleman, unfortunately, isn't met. But you may have noticed that in my apartment wood shop, I don't have a jointer. So, I utilize a hot glue gun and a sled, but I want to cut to a little video that I've talked about this that'll go in much more detail about how this whole method works. Hold on to your butt. So what you need to do is find a way to support this board as you run it through the planter so it doesn't rock side to side at all. And if you're anything like me, you probably already have a ton of flat stuff already laying around in your garage. And if you can't figure out what it is yet, well, it's sheet could. The reason that you buy this stuff is because you know that it's flat. So all that you need is a flat piece that will fully support the size of the board you're using. And on the back, I attach a simple piece of wood that'll keep the stock from shooting off of the sled as it runs through the planer. Now, since we know that the sheet good is gonna be perfectly flat running through the planter, we need to find a way to stabilize this piece from wobbling back and forth. Wo, baby, wobble, baby. So what I'll do is just grab some small off cuts of wood and put it underneath all of the high spots. And now that this piece is shimmed and it's not moving at all, we can run through the planer. But we should probably hold everything down with some otic lot first. I've actually seen some folks use screws from the underside, and while that's a perfectly viable method, it makes me really nervous to potentially run screws through my planer and then hit them, and that's probably something I'm gonna avoid. Plus, I got, like, 50 sticks of hot glue from Harbor freight for, like, two bucks. I'll leave a link in description to this cordless hot glue gun that really comes in handy for this exact task. I go pretty heavy on the glue here because as the glue cools and hardens, it actually helps support the board as I run it through the planter. Then I simply flip the board over and butt it against the backstop. I'll look around for those high spots and toss a little bit more hot glue in those places, followed by some wood shims. These are just cut off pieces that I save in a drawer for this exact reason. Just ignore how messy the drawer is. Anyway, with the board fully supported and shimmed out, I can run this contraption back through the planter. Now, I intentionally made this board unbelievably messed up, so I'm going to have to remove a ton of material to get this top surface flat. In reality, I highly doubt you would ever be working with lumber anywhere close to being this warped, but I wanted to show you that this technique works even in the most extreme situations. That seemed like it took forever, but the board is now perfectly flat and parallel to those planar blades. So now that this board is perfectly flat, you can pry it off with a putty knife. Now the main reason I prefer to use melamine over something like MDF or plywood is because the laminate surface on top makes it super easy to scrape off all the hot glue and reuse it. And just to prove that this is actually flat, Yeah, I'd say that's dead flat. And, of course, I know somebody's gonna say it. You could also use a hand plane and do it all manually, but I don't have time for that. And I don't own any hand planes, but, yes, you can do it like that, too. Now that you have one face of your board, perfectly flat milled, we need to find a way to make this face here perfectly parallel with this face here. And that is what the planar is for. This machine is also commonly referred to as a thicknesser because it has one job and one job only. And that's to take whatever material comes through the machine and make the top side of it perfectly parallel with the hard bed of the machine. So now that we have one perfectly flat surface, we can run that back through the planar and get that top side perfectly flat, too. But before you run it through the planer, make sure to take off as much of those glue and extra pieces of wood that you can. If you skip this step, you'll have things flying around inside your planer and probably shoot back out at you. Ask me how I know. And now you're basically at the exact same step you would be if you owned a joint. Just simply run the board through the planar, and you're all set. And now you've got yourself a perfectly flat and nailed board. No, I know that that's a lot of information to get thrown at you all at once. So let's briefly recap. Ping, ping, ping. And I know what you're thinking. Now that you have one slide perfectly flat and the other side perfectly flat and parallel to the first side, you're ready to bring your board down to final thickness. And that's a mistake. When you take a rough piece of lumber like this and mill it down, you expose new wood, and that new wood is going to have a different moisture content than the wood on the outside. So what you need to do is stack and sticker your boards. This is basically just a fancy way of saying cut some small pieces to act as, like, spacer blocks between each piece of wood. This will allow those newly exposed wood fibers to release moisture and better acclimate to the surrounding environment. And if we check the scrap pieces, you can see that they are wedged tightly between the boards because right now the boards are nice and flat. So what you need to do is after you did that first milling of your boards, you need to stack and sticker them overnight to let the boards re acclimate now that all that fresh wood is exposed. And when you come back the next day, you'll find out that your boards have now warped and they're not flat anymore. And you can tell the boards are no longer perfectly flat, and they've actually warped, because in some spots, the stickers are super, super tight, and in other spots, you can completely pull them right out. Unfortunately, you need to mill your wood down to its final thickness over a course of multiple days. I know. It sucks. This movement is much more prominent when you're removing a lot of material to get down to the final thickness, such as the tabletop that I'm milling down from a little bit over 2 " thick in its rough state down to right about one and a quarter, 1.5 " thick for the finish table. But this will ensure that the tabletop stays perfectly flat, which for me, building a dining table is kind of important. This is one of the major inconveniences about having my apartment setup. While this sled method definitely works to face joint boards, it's incredibly time consuming. But it's just kind of what I have to deal with right now with the limited setup that I do have. If I'm removing about a half inch of material, I'm honestly going to do this entire milling process over, like, three to four days until I get down to that final thickness, which I know takes forever. After multiple days of milling and finally getting your boards to its final thickness, you now need to focus on the sides. And to get a perfectly straight edge on the sides of the board, you can just run your board through the joiner. This handsome gentleman shows you how quick and easy a joiner can make this whole process. But again, I don't have a joiner, so I want to show you a couple methods that work for me. Now, for boards this long, one of my favorite ways to achieve a perfectly straight and flat edge is to use my tracksaw. The tracksaw runs along a perfectly straight track, hence the name tracksaw. Now, this specific saw is commonly complained about for not having enough power, but to make this task work better, just like in a table saw, you need to use a dedicated ripping blade. That'll give you perfect results every single time. Now, I know that a tracksaw costs a lot of money, and I know not everyone is going to have one, so no problem. I want to show you another way that I find works really, really well and gives just as good results. And that's using a router table. To better explain how this method works, I want to cut to a clip from another video that I've made previously. The first thing that we need to talk about is router bit selection. Here we have a flush trim bit, a pattern bit, and some assorted straight bits. In theory, any of these bits would work, but let's take a closer look. This flush trim bit would be a perfect choice. But if you want to join edges on eight quarter stock, the cutter head simply isn't large enough. And if we want to step up to a large pattern bit like this, you could take care of maybe some half inch or three quarter inch stock, but it's still not large enough for eight quarter stock. What you really need is something larger like these bits here. You can see that this massive bit has plenty of size to joint this eight quarter lumber. Plus, it has spiral cutters, which will give us a much cleaner finish. To help you out, I'm going to leave links down in the description to all of the tools and all of the full videos that I've referenced during this video if there's anything that you need more information on. So the next thing that we're gonna do is align our fence to our router bit. Now, everybody's fence is gonna be different, but the same general concepts apply. Now, the fence on your router table should be perfectly flat all the way across so that there are no gaps when you hold a board against it. We want to bring the left fence out just to hair, and my fence has these joiner bars that I can insert behind the MDF sub panel. But some washers, even a few pieces of paper would achieve the exact same effect. So now if we press the board against the fence, we can see the left side is flush, and on the right side, we have a small gap. So if we were to run our board across the fence now, it will just barely catch on the left fence, and that tiny bump is the amount of material that we're going to remove. To get the bit in the correct position, I'll hold my flat board against the router bit and slide the fence forward. Then tighten everything down. So now, if I run my board across, it just barely hits the router bit and passes over the left fence without a problem. Alright, so now the setup is complete, we can run our boards through and get them joined. The key here is to position the vast majority of your weight on the board on the left side of the cutter, just as you would with a regular joiner. And if you found this helpful, consider hanging that like button down below. And if you're interested in seeing more tips and project videos, consider subscribing and hitting that bell icon. But again, there's no pressure. Now, after running the board through the router, we have a nice, clean and flat edge. And if I sit it on my cast iron router table surface, you can see that it's dead flat. So I was talking about eight quarter stock earlier, and does it work for thick stock, too? Of course. Just be sure to have your dusk collection on because this can be a very messy process. And just like the thinner stock, this eight quarter stock is now dead flat two. And I know that I only showed two methods for edge joining boards, but there are tons and tons of really neat hacks and tricks that you can find all across the YouTubes. Now, one that I do know right off the top of my head is Jonathan Katz Moses has an excellent video where he shows, like, four to eight additional methods. So definitely check that one out. And, yes, for all of you hand tool officianados, you can definitely use hand tools, like a hand plane, too. But I'm not going to do that. But now that your boards are perfectly flat and parallel on both faces, and you've established a straight edge on one side of the board, it's time for the final milling process. That very last step involves ripping a perfectly parallel edge on the opposite side of the board. And the easiest way to achieve that is with a tablesaw. And finally, the final step to milling the boards for the tabletop involves running the straight edge that I just established with the track saw against the table saw fence to rip a perfectly parallel edge on the opposite side. Seemed like there were a lot of peas there. Now, with long boards like this, it's often helpful to utilize a feather board to hold the piece flat against the fence. This just ensures that the cut stays perfectly straight. With a tabletop this large, I had to move everything to the floor since my workbench is nowhere near large enough. And while it does seem like a very long convoluted, drawn out process, properly milling lumber ensures that all of your pieces fit together perfectly during a glue up without leaving any unsightly gaps and reduces the chances of having any issues with pieces warping further along in the project. And once you're finished milling, you're ready to jump into basically any project, like creating this brand new dining room table. 18. Preparing the Center Panel: Now that our styles and rails are mill to size, it's time to prepare the center panel. The center panel gives the door its classic recess look, and there are different ways to approach this step based on the materials you're using. Shaker style doors can either use solid wood, MDF, or plywood for the center panel. Each has its own advantages. First up, solid wood. Solid wood is ideal for stained finishes, but you have to keep in mind that it will expand and contract with humidity changes. MDF is perfect for painted doors due to its smooth surface and high stability. But it's hideous if you're not going to paint it. Then we have plywood, which is great for its stability, and you get that wood grain veneer look like you do with hardwood. If you do decide that you're going to be using a solid wood center panel, go through the entire milling process gluing up multiple boards that create that panel. That definitely takes a lot more time than the other options of using MDF or plywood. But hey, go for it if that's what you want. Solid wood panels will expand and contract throughout the season. So we'll have to come back and address that a little bit later on. Are you using MDF or plywood? Well, your life is a lot easier because those just come in giant sheets. No need for panel glue ups. Regardless of the material that you're using, we can now cut the center panel to its final size. So if you're using large sheet goods, they can be really hard and unwieldy to manage in shop, but you definitely can get them up on the table saw, especially if it's, like, a quarter inch or half inch thick. Just rip it down at the table saw, and then over at the mitre saw, you can cut it down to length. Now, here's a trick. If your mitre saw doesn't have enough capacity, just lift up the end, you can cross cut that center panel to its final size. Although the cutlass that we created earlier tells us the exact size, you actually want to make that panel just a touch smaller. That way, it fits inside the rails and stiles without interfering with anything. A 16th of an inch or about one or 2 millimeters is usually sufficient. I find a track saw invaluable here, especially when breaking down larger sheets. I find it too difficult to try to throw around large sheets on the table saw, especially by myself. Before moving on, let's address center panel thickness. If you like the look of the panel being the same shape on the front as it is on the back, I recommend using a quarter inch or six millimeter center panel. If you like the look of the door being completely flat on the back side, I recommend using half inch or 13 millimeter center panels. However, it's 100% your decision to make. I do, however, recommend using that half inch or 13 millimeter center panel if this is going to be used for a drawer front, as it will make the backside totally flat and register against a drawer box really well. With our center panel prepped and ready, it's time to move on to assembling the frame and inserting the panel. And the next lesson we'll cover the joinery methods to create a strong and square cabinet door. Let's do this. 19. Module 4 Overview: Joinery and Assembly: Welcome to Module four. Now that we have our materials prepped, it's time to bring everything together. Joinery is what holds our cabinet doors or draw fronts together. And in this module, we'll explore what I find to be the easiest method to create rock strong long lasting doors and draw fronts. In this module, we'll cover choosing the right joinery method. Explore why the mortis and tenon joint works so well. And despite what you think, it's super simple and an effective joinery method. Cutting joinery. We'll go through step by step directions on how to cut and prepare your joints for a flawless fit, assembling the door frame, how to put everything together for a square and stable frame. Joinery is the backbone of your cabinet doors. A poorly executed joint can lead to weak doors that won't hold up over time. That's why in this module, we'll focus on precision and techniques to ensure a strong and professional result. By the end of this module, your doors will be fully assembled and ready for sanding and finishing. Let's get started with talking about our joinery method, the mortis tenon. 20. Choosing the Right Joinery Method: The joinery method you choose can make or break your shaker style door or drawer front. Today we will dive into a classic joinery method that will provide rock solid doors that will stand the test of time. Unfortunately, we can't just glue our rails and styles together with a simple butt joint. That will fall apart over time. We also need a way to hold the center panel in place. But what if we could accomplish both of those tasks at the same time? Enter the mortis and tenon joint. Mortis and tenon joints are one of the strongest and most traditional joinery methods, and it is great for heirloom quality doors, like we're building here. If you put the strongest joint and have the tools, mortis and tenon is the way to go. Of course, I would be wrong in not mentioning that there are other methods like pocket holes, biscuits or dowels. But I'm not covering those in this course because I find they don't provide as consistent of results, especially if you're talking about pocket holes, which lead that ugly screw hole on the backside of the door. Not something anyone wants. While this cutout may look challenging, it's actually done with just two simple setups. In the next lesson, we'll make our groove to house the center panel for a clean, professional look. Let's get started. 21. Cutting Joinery for the Center Panel: First up in our joinery journey is creating the groove on the rails and styles that will house that center panel. Whenever I do this, I always like to take the time to physically mark out on my pieces where I'm going to be making these cuts. This keeps me on track to make sure that I'm not cutting the wrong pieces, something that I've definitely done before. First, raise your blade up to the desired height or depth. The exact height doesn't really matter just as long as it's what's shown on the cut list that you and I developed earlier. Before making the cut, though, make sure that you are using a blade with a flat grind. Most table saw blades have an ATB or alternating top bevel grind that will leave a V shape in the center of the cut. We want this cut to be flat, so try using a ripping blade for that flat top cut. Do your best to center the blade in the center of your workpiece and lock your fence into place. Before making any cuts, though, I want to point out that you should be using a test piece before you do this on your actual workpieces. That way, if you happen to make an errant cut or an error in your setup, you didn't ruin anything. Just wanted to call that one out, though. Using a feather board to keep the piece firmly against the fence, run your piece through the table saw to create a groove. After the cut is made, flip the workpiece 180 degrees and make another cut. Flipping the board around like this will ensure that the cut is made perfectly in the center of the workpiece and you're not offset to one side. If you're using a quarter inch or six millimeter center panel, now is the time to test the fit. The panel should fit snugly into the groove, but not require a hammer. It should easily slide in but not fall out. If that's the case, you're all set. If not, adjust your fence ever so slightly and make an additional cut, double check your fit again. Now, if you're using a half inch or 13 millimeter center panel, you have just a little bit more work to do. Using a dado stack on a table saw or using a router, clear out approximately one half of the material along the edge of that center panel. After doing this, the center panel should slot into the groove made on the rails and stiles while also being perfectly flat on the backside of the door. Now we have a groove cut into the rails and stiles and our center panel fits perfectly. We are well on the way to making a rock solid door. Nice work. And the next lesson, we will dive into creating the joinery to connect the rail and the style together. See there. 22. Cutting Joinery for Rails and Stiles: Next up in our journey is connecting the rails and the stiles together. Now, before I get started with anything, I do want to address something. Yes, you can purchase specific router bits called Cope and stick bits. The claim is that with just two router bits, you can cut all the joinery for your rails and stiles with ease. Here's the catch though. This requires an unbelievably precise setup that is difficult to replicate. I've bought many, many, many sets of these bits, and they all end up truthfully being more frustrating than I find that they're worth. You're more than welcome to give them a shot if you'd like, but I'm gonna stick with what I find to be easier, more reliable, more consistent, much more approachable. And well, it will save you from having to buy expensive router bit sets that you may only be using for one thing. So when in my book? Alright, so we need to cut the tenon on the rail so that it will slot into the style. This looks more complicated than it actually is. Just check it out. You can absolutely use the same flat grind blade from the previous cut. But since this is a decent amount of material to remove here, I prefer using a stack of dato blades. And, yes, I am aware that certain parts of the world, these are unavailable. Like I said, you would just have to make multiple passes with a standard table saw blade to accomplish the exact same thing. So once you get your dado stack all tightened down, I shouldn't have to say this, but I've fallen victim to this many times, too many to count. Make sure that you come in and look that all of your blades in your dado stack are actually pointed the right way. I've definitely made that mistake before. If not, the cut will still work, but it's gonna be a lot harder to push your material through a saw and you're not going to get as clean of cut. I should also mention that as far as, like, thickness of the dato stack goes, I just kind of max out my arbor length and make this wider than I know that I'm going to need that tenon so that I only have to make one pass. But before dialing in any cut settings, I clamp a scrap piece of wood to my table saw fence. This gives me a place to bury my blade into to help make repeatable cuts. You'll see in just a moment what I mean by that. If you've never seen this before, this is just a scrap piece of wood that I've used many, many times. And I have some of these match fit dovetail slots routed in them. That way, I can take these clamps and it holds it like that. But if you don't have these, you absolutely can just take a scrap piece of plywood and some regular clamps here and clamp it on. Either way, it works. Note that this is not necessary if you're using a regular blade, only if you're using a dato stack, trying to do it all in one cut. Turn the saw on and carefully raise the table saw blade, chewing into that sacrificial scrap clamped onto the fence. The exact height isn't critical here. Just take your best guess. Afterwards, turn your saw off and lower the blade. As far as the fence position goes, the outside of the blade needs to be set away from the fence, the depth of the groove from the previous step. Now, as far as the blade height goes, raise it up to just at the bottom of the groove that we cut on the previous step. Always error on the blade being set too low here because we can always remove more material, but we can't add it back on. With the piece supported by the mitre gauge, carefully run the piece across the blade, taking your time here. I recommend using a sacrificial backer board here to help prevent tear out on these cuts. Once one side has been cut, flip the piece 180 degrees and cut the other side. Now test the fit. It should be easily inserted into the style, but somewhat firm. You're not looking for a hammer to get these pieces together, though. It is unlikely that you will nail the fit on the first try, which is why, again, you should be using scrap to test all these cuts on. If the tendon is too tight, simply raise your blade and make the cut again. If the tenant is too loose, lower the blade on your subsequent cuts. If the tenant is too long, bring the fence closer to the blade. If the tennon is too short, bring the fence away from the blade. After making all those adjustments, you can fly through the remainder of your workpieces. Now, if you are not using a dato stack, the process is basically the same with a few minor adjustments. First, you don't need the sacrificial piece attached to your fence. Position the fence so that the outside of the blade is the length of the tennon from the fence and position the height of the blades so that it matches the distance to the bottom of the groove. Now take multiple passes slowly biting off all the material. This will take a little bit more time here, but just be patient. Now, one thing that you want to be really aware of, especially when you're using a single blade like this as opposed to a dato stack is to make sure that you have firm and consistent pressure downward on the cut. This will make sure that the bottom of your tendon is actually flat and not oscillating in height. It'll make it much easier to fit. But once one side of that tendon is cut, you can flip it over 180 degrees and do the exact same process on the bottom side. Now, once you do this cut, you can really start to see that tennon form as the bottom part of it gets chewed away. Just slowly sneak up on it, take your time, be safe, and you will have a perfect fitting tenon. Now that our rails fit inside our styles and our center panel fits inside the rails and stils, we're ready to get this thing assembled. That's what we'll be covering in the next lesson, so I'll see you over there. 23. Add On - Additional Information About Thicker Center Panels: So I've already received quite a few questions about the end of that last module when I'm talking about putting some half inch thick MDF, in to the rails and styles so that it meets perfectly flush on the back. And I realized that this is an opportunity for me to discuss that in more detail with better explanation. Now, since the dado stack and fence were already set up perfectly to cut the tenon on the end of the rails, you actually don't have to do anything as far as setup goes. Now, this is just a scrap piece of MDF, but all that you have to do is take your center panel that's already cut down to its size and just run it through the exact same setup, and it's going to fit flawlessly. Alright, so after running this piece through the Dato stack on the table saw with the exact same setup that was used to make that tenon, you can see that these pieces fit absolutely perfectly. Now, like I said earlier, the whole point of this course is not to be like, Look how I did this. It's to teach you guys how to build these doors and drawer fronts for yourselves. So let's talk about what could possibly go wrong in this step. Now, just like with any operation, there are really a lot of things that could go wrong, but I think these are the main ones. Let's take a closer look. So again, this is the piece that was cut that has the tenon on the end. Now, this is a piece of MDF here, and you can see that these meet up basically perfectly at the bottom of that. So we know that once the rabbit is cut on this side, these pieces are going to match up perfectly. However, let's say that for some reason you mild your rails and stiles just a little bit thinner than three quarters of an inch with a piece like this one here. You'll notice that up here, the center MDF panel is actually raised slightly above this groove. So what's going to result is this piece is going to get pushed up and you're going to have a large amount of material sticking out on the backside. Now, the other issue that you could run into is that your center panel could end up being thicker than you anticipated. So let's see how that looks. So let's say that for whatever reason, this center panel came in thicker than we anticipated. If I put my rail up against it, again, you can see that there is a bit of a difference between the height of the groove and the height of the panel. So if I were to cut that rabbit in the center panel, this again, would get bumped up a little bit, and you can see that we would have a little bit of a protrusion on the back side there. So what do you do there? Well, you have a few options. One, before you cut the rabbit or anything in the center panel, you could take the center panel and run it through the planer to make it back down to that perfect distance. The other thing that you can do is adjust the size of the groove on the inside, make it slightly bigger so that the panel doesn't protrude out the back of the drawer. To be 100% honest with you. Well, I was making the drawer fronts for the lower part of the laundry room renovation. I did accidentally mill the rails and styles just a little bit thinner than three quarters of an inch. So I ran into the problem where my half inch MDF was sticking out the back side. So let me actually show you that and how I went about fixing it. So just like that, we've got those shaker style drawer fronts, and they look perfect, other than they need to be cut down to their final size. Well, that's a little bit of a lie. I made a little mistake, and on the back side of this, the MDF is sticking out a little bit, but that's an easy fix. So, like I mentioned earlier, one of the easiest ways to adjust this is to simply run the panel through the planar. However, I know that a lot of these doors and drawer fronts will be bigger than the planar, so you really want to solve this issue before you do the glue up, not after. But just know it can be fixed. See? I know this seems like a lot of information, but this is the reason I really, really suggest having a bunch of practice pieces and kind of seeing how everything goes together. You absolutely can make this work, though. Don't be intimidated. You got this. Now, let's get back to the course. 24. Module 5 Overview: Assembly and Finishing: Welcome to Module five. Now that our joinery is cut and ready, it's time to assemble the door or drawer front frame and apply the finishing touches. A well assembled and finely finished door is what truly sets apart a high quality project. In this module, we'll cover assembling the door frame, step by step guidance on gluing and clamping the door frame together. A secret hack to make building doors even easier. Sanding and prepping for finish, learn the best sanding techniques to achieve a smooth, professional surface. Fixing inevitable mistakes, a critical step that most people skip before painting. Finishing techniques, explore different finishing options, including staining, painting, and clear coating. Then we will dive into my full painting process. A great build can be ruined by rushed assembly or poor finishing. Taking the time to assemble your frame correctly and apply high quality finish will ensure your doors or drawer fronts look amazing and stand the test of time. By the end of this module, your doors will be completely assembled, beautifully finished, and ready to be installed. Let's get started with assembling the door frame. 25. Assembling the Door Frame: Alright, now comes the exciting part, bringing everything together. We're going to assemble our door frame, secure the joinery, and insert the center panel to complete that classic shaker style look. Before applying any glue, though, do a dry fit of all your pieces. This ensures everything aligns properly and allows you to make any final adjustments before committing. This shouldn't be necessary as everything should fit fine, but there's always a possibility that something weird happened. So take the time to double and triple check everything before you bring out glue and start the ticking time bomb. With all of the surface area here, wood glue is plenty strong. Apply a thin, even layer of wood glue across each joining surface. Small plastic tools like these are great for getting into those tight spaces, and so were old plastic hotel card keys. Pro tip here. Do not use too much glue. Having glue squeezed out all over the place just makes your life harder trying to clean up all that mess. Use it sparingly. Once the pieces are joined, use bar clamps or parallel clamps to hold everything tight while the glue dries. Check for square using a framing square or by measuring diagonally from corner to corner. Both measurements should be exactly the same. You will notice something that seems glaringly wrong here, but I will adjust that in just a minute. If you're using MDF or plywood as your center panel, I tend to add a few drops of glue to really lock those into the rails and styles, but it isn't 100% necessary. I just find that it helps give the door a little bit more of a solid feel. If you're using a solid wood center panel, there are a few precautions here. First, that panel should be cut down, so it's about a 16th to an eighth or about one to 3 millimeters smaller than its plywood or MDF counterpart. That is because the solid wood panel will need a little room for expansion and contraction. Solid wood panels should not be glued in place to prevent cracking from seasonal wood movement that will happen. To keep this panel in place, you can purchase little rubber balls called space balls that compress and expand, which allow for that seasonal wood movement to happen. With everything clamped up, check all of your joints for alignment and make any final tweaks before letting the glue cure. Great job. We've got a sturdy, well assembled shaker style door or draw front. And the next lesson, we will address the elephant in the room as, why my doors look a little funky? See there. 26. Pro Tip for Making Everything Much Easier: Alright, so the door is glued up, but you will notice that mine looks wrong. Why are my styles so long? Did I cut them wrong? No. This is a pro tip that makes everything much, much easier and simplifies the whole process even more. Instead of agonizing about the rails and stiles meeting up perfectly during the glue up, I will intentionally cut my stiles several inches too long. That makes the glue up process much less stressful. Once the glue is dry, I can cut the excess off the door. It doesn't matter if you're using a mitre saw, track saw or table saw to achieve this. But since the pieces were all cut at the same time, you get an absolutely flawless transition between the two pieces. And want to know how to make things even one step easier. Instead of worrying about the width of the rails and styles as well, cut those oversize, too. That way, once the door is glued up and dry, you can simply measure how wide you need the rails and stils to be and cut them with a track saw and table saw to dial in the perfect size all at once. I probably should have told you that sooner, but I like to reveal these kinds of pro tips and stuff like that towards the end. So after making that cut with the trackle, you can see my rail is the exact width that I want. And so I can mark out the same width over on my style. Now over at the table saw, I can cut to that line. And I suggest slowly sneaking up on this. And then once you get one side cut, you can just move the fence over and again, cut to that line. This process is so, so much easier than trying to nail everything right off the get go. Now the doors are cut to the exact final size, it's time for some finish. In the next lesson, we'll prep everything for sanding and get one step closer to the perfect door or drawer front. See you over there. 27. Fixing the Inevitable Flaws: Alright, so the whole point of this course is to teach you everything you need to know about making shaker style doors and drawer fronts. While it would make me look better, did not have a single error in everything I did turned out perfectly. That's not reality. Just like you, I make mistakes, and I'm not gonna lie about it. Alright, I want to know another thing that I'm not gonna lie to you about. Take a closer look. Alright, so here's Mandor. Looks pretty good, right? On the backside, it also looks pretty good. The transition between the MDF and the maple is flawless. Well, not on this side. You can see there is a pretty sizable gap, and another door has another sizable gap, and this one has a gap, and this Rayon style has a gap, too. And so does this one and right there. And this one, too. While a lot of my joints do look good, the reality is that you likely will see some small gaps. Maybe not on every single door, but if you do enough of these, it's bound to happen. But don't worry. These kinds of gaps are super easy to fix, and no one will ever know. I want my doors to be as durable as possible. So to fill in any gaps, I like to use this Dixo epoxy. It's a tube of epoxy that fits into any hulking gun and automatically mixes itself inside the tip. I find for the best application of this stuff is to use some sort of putty knife or even, like, a plastic scraper, like a hotel room key to get it nice and pushed into all those cracks. Now, the key is to apply this so it's actually kind of mounding up or heaping out of the seam. That way we can come back and level it off in a bit. And it takes about a full day or so to cure and harden. But once that happens, just give everything a nice sanding to smooth out the epoxy, and you're all set. The downside to using epoxy is that it does take forever to cure. However, it's much harder and more durable than wood filler. With that being said, wood filler is a perfectly acceptable medium to use. It will dry way, way faster, but it's just not quite as durable. You call though. And the next lesson, we will cover one final detail you can't skip if you're painting these doors or draw fronts. You definitely don't want to have this gap in your knowledge. 28. Painting Your Doors? You Need To Do This First!: If you're either staining or clear coating your doors or drawer fronts, you don't really have to worry about this step. But at some point in your life, you will likely run across a time where you need to do a paint grade shaker style door or drawer front. This is a tip that will truly elevate how the paint looks, and you will not regret it. So now that I've got those small gaps filled up with epoxy, these things are ready for paint and primer, right? No. Not quite. I need to ease the transition between the floating center panels and the rails and stiles, but luckily, that's super easy to do. I'm going to do that with some clk. I love this dinoflex 230 stuff because it's super flexible and stretchy and it's easy to find. Before you go throwing your ck all over the place, here are a few pro tips. First, take two pieces of wood and a sheet of sandpaper to make a 90 degree joint. With a decent amount of pressure, draw the tip of the kalktube across the sandpaper, resulting in this 90 degree indent. Then take a sharpie and draw a line to help you see the wedge that you just made. That wedge will fit into the corner way better and help eliminate the possibility of using too much calk. After running a bead of coke along the seams, wet your finger with a small amount of water or window cleaner to help smooth out the transition. If you really, really want to make things easier, I like to use one of these kitchen cake fondant decorating tools to help get a nice, even, consistent roundo. All you have to do is wet the tool, take a few swipes and remove the excess kulk as you go along. Always, always, error on the side of not using enough ck and having to go and add more than to use way too much and just making a giant mess. Cking is an art form. So, I'm not going to pretend to be a pro. I left a link to a few videos that I highly recommend you check out to really level up your calkwk down below this video. Now that all the transitions are eased and the alk looks great, let's let that fully cure, and then we can prep for finish. And the next lesson, we can stand the doors and draw front smooth. Let's keep going. 29. Sanding & Preparing for Finish: Now that our door frame is assembled, it's time to get it perfectly smooth and ready for finishing. In this lesson, we'll cover sanding techniques and preparing for paint or stain. Sanding and finishing could be an entire course in and of itself. Come to think of it, maybe I need to work on that soon. Anyway, I want to hit the main elements that will set you up for success for any project. Start with the right grit. If your door has rough spots, begin with 80 or 120 grit. Then slowly work your way up to your desired final grit. The key is to move in stages. Do not skip grits. If you're lucky enough to own one, a drum sander makes Shaker style door and drawer fronts a breeze. Simply feed it through, and you're basically done. You probably don't have one, and I certainly don't either. So we have to do this another way. You absolutely can do this by hand. And if you're going to do that, I recommend using a piece of sandpaper attached to a hard block. I like using a hard block to make sure that all of my faces stay nice and flat. Sand with the grain to avoid scratches and pay extra attention to joints where glue may have squeezed out a little bit. For the center panel, use a foam standing pad or fold your sandpaper to help get into those corners. Be careful not to round over the crisp edges of the frame too much, but you do want to ease the edges so that they're not razor sharp. Hold a light at an angle to check for glue spots or rough areas that you may have missed. If you find any, go back with fine sandpaper and smooth them out. Glue spots won't absorb stain or paint properly, so make sure they're completely gone. After each grit, vacuum the door before moving up to the next final grit. This will ensure there is no residual grit left over from the prior sanding that will scratch up your surface. Once standing is complete, wipe down the entire door with a tack cloth or vacuum once again to remove the dust. One final thing you can do is called a water pop. Simply miss the wood with water and allow it to dry. You can do this on any project, and it will raise the grain of the wood. Then sand the project once again with that final grit to ensure that things stay super, super smooth. Again, sanding prep depends so, so, so much on the specific finish application you're going with. Using a hand rub oil finish will require way different prep than paint. I simply can't cover all of those variables in this course, so please pay attention to the instructions from the manufacturer on the finish that you are using. Our door is now perfectly prep for finishing. And the next lesson, we'll walk through different finishing options, staining, painting, and clear coats to give your door the perfect look. Stee over there. 30. Finishing Options: Now that we've sanded and prepped our Shaker style door or drawer front, it's time to bring it to life with the right finish. Now, surface prep was a topic that is too large to fully cover in one lesson and really demands an entire course alone. And if you thought that topic was big, finishes are even more complicated and nuanced. Before we start, decide on the look that you want. Pick stain if you really want to enhance the wood grain and add depth. Pick paint if you want to create a smooth, modern or classic finish that is the most durable and pick a clear coat if you want to protect the wood while helping maintain that natural look. Whatever you're going for, please, please, please thoroughly read the instructions that go with the finish you are using. I can't possibly cover the application method of every single finish. Instead, I'm going to go over how I think most people will be finishing these with paint. Even paint can be incredibly deep and complex topics. Know that there are tons of way people paint cabinet doors. I'm simply going to share what works best for me. And the next lesson, I will walk through my painting process to get the perfect finish. See there. 31. Priming: Now that the door is prep for painting, let's get after it. Not so fast. Unless you want everything in your shop to be covered with paint, you need to prep the space first. I like to use this plastic painting, drop cloth stuff that has masking tape already attached to it. Simply mask off your entire space to really dexterfy things up. If you're rolling on paint, it's not really as critical, but I'm going to be spraying the paint, and I want to keep things as clean as possible. I set my pieces up on some painters pyramids to elevate them from sticking to the flat surfaces. And as much as I would love to just slap paint on here, unfortunately, we can't do that. First, we need to prime everything. Primer makes sure that we can get the best possible bond with the paint and also seals the surface so we won't have to use quite as much paint, which in the long run, actually saves you money. Now, I have to be 100% honest here. I am slightly biased with paint selection because my dad worked for Sharon Williams for over 30 years, and I'm fortunate enough that I'm able to get a steep discount on product as a family member. But whatever you do, please, please, please do not buy cheap, low quality, crappy paint. It's nowhere near as durable, nowhere near as hard and will not apply nicely or smoothly. You already invested a ton of time into making these doors or drawer fronts. Please finish them well. Sherman Williams or Benjamin Moore are high quality paint options that you should definitely look into. With that being said, I like to use the Sherman Williams premium wall and wood primer. Give this stuff a really good stir before you apply it to make sure that all the solids are evenly distributed inside the can. Just like picking a finish type, there are so many different ways to apply paint, but I'm going to highlight the method that I use spraying. I like this Greco quick shot airless sprayer that runs off of a dual cordless battery. I place a paint filter on the top of the hopper and then pour the primer in to make sure that no large solids get jammed up inside the sprayer. Just take nice even strokes with the airless sprayer, slightly overlapping your paths to get a nice even finish. Next, let this dry according to the manufacturer recommendations, probably several hours at a minimum, and then meet me at the next lesson where we will get prepped for final painting. 32. Prepping for Final Painting: Now that the primer is fully dry, you may notice that, well, things don't look perfect. Don't panic, though. That's normal. Primer typically does raise the grain of the wood a little bit. And if you didn't get a super even application, you might see runs, bubbles, or streaks in the primer. No problem, though. Grab some 320 grit sandpaper and a soft foam pad and very, very lightly sand off all the imperfections from the primer. You will notice that this will leave a lot of dust, though. So make sure to vacuum up all of this and maybe even use a tack cloth to remove it before moving on to the final step, painting, which is what we will do on the next lesson. See you over there. 33. Final Painting: Ooh. So, after all that work, it's time to really make these doors and drawer fronts come alive with a little bit of paint. When it comes to picking the correct paint color, just remember the golden rule. Your spouse is always right. We landed on a color called Marne for our laundry room cabinets that will pair nicely with some gold hardware. Remember what I said before. Please, please, please do not skimp on quality paint. Go with an enamel paint that will dry rock hard like the Sheran Williams emerald urethane trim enamel. This stuff is not cheap at around $130 a gallon, but it covers so well and dries so incredibly hard. It will last a long time. Plus, since we applied the primer in a previous step, the wood won't soak up all of it causing us to use more than we need. And for all the cabinets in the laundry room, I only used about half of a gallon for, like, $65 worth. Really not all that bad for something that comes in at this high quality. Pro tip, apply some painter's tape to the top of the paint can to help reduce the mess when pouring it into your sprayer or paint tray. Then apply the paint to the doors using the manufacturer recommended settings. This paint covers super well. So I only needed to do two coats, but once that is all dry and cured, we can clean up the shop and get these installed. Congratulations. Your shaker style doors are now complete. And the next module will cover installation techniques so you can get your doors mounted and looking great in your space. We'll see you. 34. Module 6 Overview: Installation and Troubleshooting: Welcome to Module six. This is the final step in our journey, installing our doors or drawer fronts and making sure that they fit perfectly. A well installed cabo door enhances both functionality and aesthetics. So we'll take the time to get this right. In this module, we'll cover hinge types, a guide through common hinge types and how to select them. Installing hinges on the cabinet, installing pol hardware on cabinet doors. And remember, shaker style door fronts can also be used as drawer fronts, so we will also cover installing drawer fronts on drawer boxes, installing pol hardware on drawers, common mistakes and fixes. Troubleshooting common installation issues like misalignment and uneven gaps. Final adjustments and maintenance, how to fine tune your doors and keep them functioning smoothly for years to come. Even the best built doors and drawer fronts won't look great if they're poorly installed. Proper installation ensures smooth operation, correct spacing, and a professional finish that enhances the overall look of your project. By the end of this module, your doors will be securely installed, properly adjusted and ready to enjoy. Let's jump in and start with talking about hinges. 35. Hinge Types: Now that our doors are beautifully finished, it's time for the final step installation. But before installation, we need to talk about hardware. More specifically, hinges. The type of hinge you choose depends on the overall cabinet design. As we discussed in the lesson about measuring for door size, there are two main styles. First, overlay hinges. These will cause the door to sit in front of or on top of the cabinet. And this is probably the most common type of application that you've seen. Second, we have inset hinges. These allow the door to sit flush inside the cabin opening. This is less common in places like kitchens, but is starting to become more popular, especially in more modern aesthetics. Now, whatever style you choose, please, please, please, trust me on one thing. I know you can get cheap hinges like these little guys here. Yes, they're cheaper, but they're also harder to install because there's absolutely no adjustment. Plus, you can't get fancy features like push open or soft close functionality. You've spent a lot of time building these stores, so treat them with some respect and get great hardware to go along with them. Pick European style concealed hinges. These are hidden when the door is closed and offer adjustable settings for a perfect fit. Now, remember back when we were sizing our doors from earlier, you had already decided if you wanted them to be inset or overlay. We can't really change that since they're already built now. If you picked overlay, recall back to the amount of overlay you wanted. Most common is about half of an inch or 13 millimeters. When picking out overlay hinges, you're going to buy hinges that are dedicated to a specific overlay. For example, if you wanted a quarter inch overlay, you would buy a quarter inch overlay hinge. If you wanted a half inch overlay, you would buy a half inch overlay hinge. Pretty simple. If you picked inset, well, things are a little easier when it comes to picking out hardware. I am not going to sugarcoat this. Pop open a hinge catalog, and you could spend hours trying to figure out every little nuance and drive yourself nuts trying to learn everything they have in there. The truth is that most of that information really isn't relevant to you. I actually have an easier method. This is not sponsored, but check this out. Go to cabinetparks.com. Click hinges. Then click on the Hinge finding tool that will ask you a few questions about your specific application to guide you to the right hinges. First, does your cabinet have a face frame or is it frameless? We will pick Face frame for this application. Second, what sort of install application is this? Is the cabinet in the corner like a Lazy Susan? Does it need something out of the ordinary? No, select standard. Third, what sort of overlay do you want? Remember, you already decided on this earlier, so click Half Inch. Now, the website has automatically selected a list of hardware that will work for your situation. You first will see the brand in this column. Then you will see the swing angle or how far the door will swing open. 110 degrees here is pretty normal, but anything in that range, you're fine. Then you will see a picture of the hinge itself in any associated mounting plates. Lastly, you can see some brief information, like if it has a fancy soft clothes mechanism. If you want even more choices and the ability to further filter things, click View All hinges. Now you can filter even further to really dial in what you're looking for. After looking through the list, I landed on these ones from Cliche SH CUP 37 d9r. Why? They meet all of my specifications. They are soft clothes, have the ability to adjust the amount of soft clothes, H six way adjustment, which we'll cover later. And, come on. They're under $3 a piece for a premium hinge. Order all the hinges that you need, and then meet me in the next lesson where we can get those hinges installed onto the door. 36. Drilling Hinge Cups: Now that your hinges arrived in the mail, it is time to attach them to the door. Before we start, remember to lay something down like a soft moving blanket to protect your doors during this whole process. We would not want to ruin that awesome finish from earlier. What we need to do is drill a large cup hole into the door for this hinge to sit into. I've got friends like Jason Hibbs who just chalk up a force inner bit in a drill press and go for it, and it works great for them. I, on the other hand, am a little more persnickety and, like, a little more precision and accuracy to reinforce that I'm actually doing things correctly, which is why I rely on a hinge cup jig. There are hundreds of these online, ranging from a few bucks to a few hundred bucks to a few thousand bucks. But unless you are cranking out tons of doors every single week, a cheap one like this will work just fine. All that you have to do is first adjust the edge offset spacing using these cams on the bottom. I can't possibly cover every single hinge out there, but I promise. This number is in the installation manual for your specific hinge. Typically, it's about three to 5 millimeters, but again, check your manual. Then you simply place the jig on your door, secure it in place and attach the drill bit to your drill to drill out the cup. But, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. How do I know where to put the hinge cup on the door? Great question. Hinges are typically installed about two or 3 " or 50 to 75 millimeters from the top and bottom of the door. I have an easy method that has never failed me. First, lay down some painter's tape on the door. Measure from both sides so that you can find the exact middle. We'll need this later. Next, make a line about two or 3 " or 50 to 75 millimeters from the top and bottom of the door. This is where we want to center the hinge cup jig. The jig has a small line marking the dead center, and I can clamp the jig onto the door. Next, drill out the cup hole, taking your time because this is a lot of material to remove. You may notice that my jig looks a little different. That is because I three D printed a custom component where I can actually attach my vacuum to the jig. Not 100% necessary, but an example of how cool three D printing can be. Here is an example of what it looks like regularly. Worked just fine. But there was a buildup on wood chips for sure, and that's kind of annoying. Now, here's what it looks like with that vacuum attachment that I three D printed. Pretty cool, huh? Now this jig does have those little drill bit holes that you can use to make pilot holes for the screws to lock in the hinges, but actually don't use them. Instead, remove the jig, and we can address that in just a moment. Now we have our cup holes drilled out, and you can remove the tape. Now, don't do what I did here. Just remove the tape around the hinge cups. Leave the tape that marked out that center portion. Again, leave the tape on that center portion. Alright, now you can see that the hinge fits inside the cups, but they're pivoting around a bit. No problem, because in the next lesson, we're going to get those secured to the door and installed perfectly parallel to one another, so the door functions flawlessly. See over. 37. Attaching The Hinge To The Door: Now that the hinges fit inside the hole, we drilled out. Last lesson, we need to secure them in place. The critical thing here is making sure that the hinges are coplanar to one another, for the hinge to function properly. If not, the hinges can bind up on one another and give you a less than stellar opening and closing action. Luckily, this is super easy to achieve. First, take a straight edge and place it across the two hinges and press down. Notice how the hinges automatically line up with one another. Pretty cool. Next, using a self centering drill bit, which is a drill bit that lives inside this collar that spring loaded. Drill out a pilot hole for the screw to go into. This self centering bit does exactly what it says. It makes sure that the holes drilled exactly in the center of the hole on the hinge so that the screw doesn't move it out of place when it's fastened in. I will continue the process for the rest of the pilot holes on the hinges, keeping the straight edge in place the entire time to get perfect alignment of the hinges. Now that the hinges are securely attached to the door, we are ready to attach the doors to the cabinet. In the next lesson, I will show you how to attach these to the cabinet, which will make your project really come to life. Let's keep going. 38. Attaching The Hinge To The Cabinet: Now that the hinge is secured to the door, we need to attach the other side to the cabinet. Again, there are so many different hinges out there that I cannot possibly cover every single one in this course. But the main principles here apply. What I do is go to my cabinet, lay down a piece of painter's tape, then measure from both the top and the bottom to find the exact dead center. Now, remember how I told you to also mark the dead center on your door in the previous lesson? This is where that comes in place. You can now line those two marks up to one another and know exactly where the hinge needs to attach to the cabinet. Again, use that self centering drill bit to first pre drill a pilot hole for your screw. Next, you can drive in a screw to secure the hinge to the cabinet. Continue this all the way up your cabinet, and now you've got doors that function beautifully. Now, let's address the possible elfin in the room you may notice. These doors are not perfectly in line with one another. I did that on purpose. So your project is ruined and everyone will mock you, right? No, no, no. This is so easy to fix, but let's tackle that in the next lesson. I'll as you there. 39. Common Mistakes & Fixes: Ha. Looks like I beat you here, but better luck next time. Anyway, even with careful planning, mistakes can happen during installation. In this lesson, I'll cover some common cabinet door issues and how to fix them quickly and easily. Now, because we did not buy the bottom of the barrel hinges, instead, bought hinges with six way adjustment, this process could not be easier. Most concealed hinges allow for height, depth, and side to side adjustment. A small tweak can make a huge difference. But how do you make those adjustments? Look on the hinge itself. Every hinge is different, but you will see a series of screws that will move the door. This one moves the door left and right. This one moves the door forward and back, and this one moves the door up and down. It will take a little bit of time and finst to get the door exactly where you want it, but this will really set your install apart from a mediocre one. If your door isn't closing properly, check for obstructions. Ensure hinges are properly set and adjust the closing tension on the soft closed mechanism if you need to. On the hinges, the soft closed tension can be adjusted with this little lever here. The reason is that not all doors weigh the same. So dial in the setting that works perfect for your preferences. Before moving on to the next lesson, install some soft rubber cabinet bumpers. Even though your hinges do have soft close functionality, the cabinet door still might bang against the cabinet. The bumpers not only protect your cabinet and door, but also make the closing action even smoother and even more quiet. Truly a protuch. With these fixes, your cabinet door should now be perfectly installed. Take a moment to check for alignment, make any last minute tweaks, and enjoy the professional result. But there is a problem. How do I get into the cabinet now? No worries. And the next lesson, we'll talk about installing Dor Pull hardware. 40. Installing Door Pull Hardware: The doors are installed on the cabinet. Everything is perfectly spaced and dialed in. But how in the world do you get inside the cabinet now? Probably an obvious answer, but that's where door pole hardware comes in. Now, this is super easy, but also super hard. Luckily, installing the door pols is easy. Figuring out the style of pol, well, that's the hard work. When it comes to picking out the style, I'm going to defer to my previous instruction. Your spouse is always right. One word of caution here is that 100%, you get what you pay for. Cheap out on inexpensive hardware, and it will make your doors feel cheap, and you also risk the finish on the hardware deteriorating quickly. Just like hinges, I am a huge proponent of high quality door pole hardware. This is not sponsored whatsoever, but I am a huge fan of the hardware you can find from a store called Rejuvenation, and that's where I picked up the hardware that you're going to see me install. I am not an interior designer. So once you figure out what poles you want, that's where I come in. Let's get these installed. Door pulls come in two basic styles. First is a knob style that features one bolt to fasten it to the door. The second is a handle style that requires two bolts to fasten it to the door. Now, if you're just doing one door pull, sure, you could wing it and attach it pretty much wherever you want. But if you're doing a series of doors in, say, a bank of cabinets, having inconsistent hardware alignment will ruin all the hard work you've put up to at this point. My goal is to make your life easier, which is why I recommend picking up one of these cabinet hardware jigs. Check out how easy it makes life. Alright, so whatever jig you pick up, the first thing you need to do is adjust the jig to suit the specific handle you picked. I'm using a six inch pole, which means the exact measurement between the center of the two mounting holes is 6 ". This measurement will always be included with your hardware, but you can simply measure it as well. Adjust the drill collar so they're 6 " apart. And now, you know, the holes will fit the handle. But we also need to align the handle on the door. Again, I am not an interior designer, so you have to figure out what alignment style you want to go with. There are tons of places to attach the hardware to the cabinet, so play around and see what makes the most sense to you and what you like the look of the most. Once you figure that out, you need to adjust the jig to accommodate that specific style. Since my rails and stiles are 2.5 " wide, I set mine at one and a quarter, meaning that the handle will be centered in the middle. Remember that all the measurements here are from the dead center of the drill guide. Last, I need to adjust how high up the handle should go. Again, this is personal preference, but I want my bottommost hole to be centered on the rail, so I will use the side offset of one and one quarter inch. Now, before you drill anything out, stop. If you just place the jig on your door and drilled out the hole, you will get some nasty tear out. That would ruin all of your hard work. Please don't do that. Instead, take any scrap piece of material that you have laying around and place it behind where the holes will be drilled. Then clamp your jig onto the door. Now you can drill out the holes using the drill guides on the jig. Once the holes are drilled, simply remove the clamp, remove the jig, and remove the scrap material to reveal perfectly clean drilled out holes. Now you can insert the machine screws that came with your hardware and secure your hardware in place. This exact same procedure can be used to install knobs, as well. The only difference is that you were drilling out one single hole here and not two holes like you would with the larger poles. Now you've got beautiful hardware installed on your cabinet doors, and things look incredible. But let's not forget that shaker style panels can also be used as drawer fronts. And the next lesson, I'll show you how to install those with ease. Let's get into it. 41. Installing Drawer Fronts: Not every shaker style panel will be used as a traditional cabinet door. You can also use them as drawer fronts as well. In this lesson, I'm going to show you several ways to install them with ease. Method one. Drill out several holes from the inside of your drawer box. With the holes drilled out, drive screws through those pre drilled holes until the tip of the screw is just barely sticking out. Using a shim to space up your drawer front, align the drawer front in place, and then give it a few taps. This will give you a few small indents where the screws meet the drawer front. Next, pre drill a small pilot hole in the drawer front. You can then put the drawer front back on the drawer, position it over the screws and drive the screws all the way in to secure the front. That method works great, but I always want to show alternatives to you, as well. Method two. Another equally as good method is one that I'm going to flash back to an old project to show you how it works. I will first apply some double sided tape to the back of the drawer front. Then using some playing cards of spacers, I can get the drawer front in place and press it onto the drawer box. The double sided tape will grab the drawer box, but you could absolutely toss on some clamps there as another set of hands. From the backside, I can pre drill some holes through the drawer box and into the drawer front before driving in screws to secure everything in place. Simple and effective, but I want to show you another way, as well. Method three. The final way I'm going to show you requires a little bit of forethought, but also maybe the easiest for some folks. Again, let's flash back to an old project to show you how that one works, too. If you already have your holes drilled out where you want to install your hardware, which will come from the next lesson, you can simply set your drawer front in place, maybe even use some double sided tape, like in the last method, and fire in screws from the front to hold the drawer front in place. Then pull the drawer out with the front attached. From the inside of the drawer, drill several pilot holes through the drawer box and into the drawer front. Once that is complete, drive in screws from the inside of the drawer to hold the drawer front in place. Now you can remove the screws from the front, and the drawer front will not move at all. I don't think one of these ways is necessarily better than any other. And in full transparency, there are many, many more ways to accomplish this exact same task. Just try them out and see what works best for you in your specific application. Now that our drawer fronts are attached, and the next lesson, we will go over attaching our drawer pole hardware. See in the next lesson. 42. Installing Drawer Pull Hardware: Now that our drawer fronts are secured in place and installed on the drawer box, just like with the cabinet doors, how the heck do we get in? Again, the answer is installing drawer polls. I won't rehash the exact same info I did about style, selection, and placement that I discussed on our lesson about door hardware, but the exact same things apply here. Again, set up your hardware jig to the specifications you are after and drill out the holes for the hardware you selected. Remember, that scrap piece of material on the backside will ensure there is no tear out when drilling the holes for your hardware. Once the hole or holes are drilled, insert the included machine screws, tighten them down to lock the pole in place, and your drawers are all set. Just like with high quality door hinges, high quality drawer slides have adjustments built into them. Most undermount slides have mechanisms that allow you to shift the drawer fronts around for perfect alignment. Typically, not really needed if you take care when installing them, but great to know they're there if you ever do. That's it. Your drawer fronts and doors are now secured in place, and both of them have functional poles. You absolutely crushed this whole process, and you now know everything you need to know when it comes to building high quality shaker style doors and drawer fronts. But decorse isn't over yet. In the next module, we will cover care, maintenance, and a few other items. See you there. 43. Module 7 Overview: Care, Maintenance, and Applying These Skills to Future Projects: Welcome to Module seven. Now that your Shaker style doors are complete and installed, it's important to keep them in great condition. In this module, we'll cover routine care and maintenance. Learn how to clean, polish, and inspect your doors to keep them looking and functioning their best. Troubleshooting common issues. Tips on fixing misalignments, sticking doors and wear over time. Applying these skills to future projects, how do you use these woodworking techniques for future furniture, built ins, and more? Proper care and maintenance. Proper care and maintenance ensures that your hard work lasts for years. Taking a few minutes to clean and inspect your doors periodically will prevent bigger issues down the road. The skills you've learned in this course go far beyond cabinet doors and drawer fronts. Whether you're building furniture, shelving or even custom trim work, the same principles of precision, joinery, and finishing all apply. This is just the beginning of your woodworking journey. By the end of this module, you will not only know how to maintain your shaker style doors and drawers, but also have the confidence to tackle new woodworking projects. Let's get started with routine care and maintenance. 44. Routine Care and Maintenance: Welcome to our lesson on routine care and maintenance. Your Shaker style cabinet doors and drawer fronts are built to last, but with a little attention and care, they'll stay looking and functioning their best for years to come. In this lesson, we will go over the best ways to clean, freshen up, and inspect your doors to keep them in top shape. The first and simplest step in maintenance is regular cleaning. Dust and dirt can accumulate over time, especially in kitchens where grease and moisture are more prevalent. Use a soft microfiber cloth and a mild, non abrasive cleaner to wipe down the surface. Avoid harsh chemicals as they can damage the finish. If your doors have a wood finish, consider an occasional polish to help them maintain their luster. Use a high quality furniture polish or wood conditioner and apply it with a clean cloth. This not only enhances the look but also adds a protective layer against moisture and wear. For painted doors, a damp cloth is usually sufficient. Avoid waxes that can leave a weird residue on the paint. Now, these are just general recommendations. Please take a look at the specific manufacturer recommendations for the specific finish that you chose. Even just a mildly damp rag can do wonders removing dust and debris to really refresh your project. No need for highly abrasive or harsh cleaners. When in doubt, less is more. Now, let's be real. Life happens, and even the best finished doors can get a scratch or dent. For painted doors, keep a small container of touch up paint handy. But again, I have to harp on this. Please, please, please use a high quality paint when applying paint to your cabinet doors and drawers. It will cost you a little bit more money upfront, but will significantly reduce the chances of you having to make repairs in the future. For stained doors, a woodmrker or filler can work wonders, lightly sand and reapply the finish if needed for a seamless look. Routine car and maintenance doesn't take much time, but it does make a huge difference in keeping your cabinet doors looking their best. A little effort now prevents bigger problems later. And our next lesson we'll go over common troubleshooting tips for fixing minor issues before they come major problems. See you there. 45. Troubleshooting Common Issues: Even the best built cabinet doors and drawer fronts can run into some common issues over time. In this lesson, we'll go over simple fixes for common problems, so your doors continue to function and look great. Over time, cabinet doors may shift slightly due to everyday use. Periodically, check your hinges and screws to ensure they remain tight and secure. If a door starts sagging or doesn't close properly, a quick hinge adjustment can fix the issue. See? Those adjustable hinges not only come in handy during the initial install, but also later on down the road. Definitely worth that added cost. Speaking of hinges, since they are moving parts, periodic application of lubricant to the hinges will go a long way. Something as simple as WD 40 or a dry lube works great here. Just be careful not to spray the lubricant all over your cabinets, though. Use it sparingly. Over time, handles and knobs can loosen. Simply tightening the screws with a screwdriver should fix the issue. If the screw hole has become too large, a small drop of wood glue with a toothpick can help fill the gap before reattach it. Now, if your knobs or poles constantly become loose, try using some lock tight thread adhesive. This will add resistance to the thread, making sure that the knobs or poles don't slowly loosen up over time. With these simple fixes, your cabinet door should look and function just like new. Regular maintenance and quick troubleshooting will help prevent bigger problems on down the line. And our final lesson we'll talk about how to apply the skills from this course to future woodworking projects. See you there. 46. Applying These Skills to Future Projects: You've installed your very own shaker style cabinet doors or drawer fronts. Congratulations. But woodworking doesn't stop here. The skills you've gained in this course can be applied to so many other projects from furniture to custom built ins. And this lesson we'll talk about how to use what you've learned and take your woodworking to the next level. Although you are done with this course, this course is not done. The best thing about these online courses is that I can continually come back and edit them. Over time, I will add more video lessons where people want more detail, and all those updates are 100% free for you. The techniques we've covered, measuring, milling, joinery, assembly, and finishing are essential for all kinds of woodworking projects. Whether you want to build custom furniture, upgrade your home with built ins or take on larger cabinetry projects, these fundamental skills will serve you well. Woodworking is a craft that rewards continuous learning. There are so many techniques, tools, and design styles to explore. Whether you take more courses, read woodworking books or join a community of builders, each project will help you refine your skills. This course has given you a solid foundation, but your woodworking journey is just beginning. Keep practicing, keep experimenting, and most importantly, keep enjoying the process. Looking for what to do next. Consider taking one of my other courses to really elevate your knowledge and skill set. That will be perfect to complement what you learned in this course. I've got a course that goes on a deep dive into everything you need to know about making your very own cabinets. In that course, I tackle efficient ways to break down materials. How to design multiple styles of cabinets, including frameless and face frame cabinets. Multiple ways to build cabinet boxes with a wide variety of tools and tons more. I've also got a course that teaches everything you need to know about building incredible drawer boxes. I'll discuss measuring for the perfect fit, tons of different ways to construct them from the most DIY beginner friendly methods to intricate advanced methods. Dive into how to actually understand drawer slide hardware, and that's just scratching the surface. The beauty is that those courses are fundamental knowledge that apply to virtually anything you build in the future. Want to redo your workshop with tons of storage for your tools? Well, learning to build cabinets for my cabinet course will guide you through that. You also probably want to have drawers for your tools, too, right? That's where the drawer box course comes in. Cabinets and drawers show up in nearly every project. So it's the perfect way to expand your knowledge and give you more confidence to tackle your future projects. I can't wait to see what you create next. Happy woodworking. And thanks so much for spending the time with me in the Shaker style door and drawer front course. See you on the next one. 47. A Note From Eric: Alright, seriously, thank you so much for watching all of my content, purchasing this course and trusting me to teach you what I think is the most enjoyable and rewarding thing in the world. Woodworking. In 2019, I dove headfirst into all of this. And if it weren't for all of the incredible people in the community supporting me, none of this would ever be a reality. I would still be working a dead end job that I absolutely hated every single day. But instead, I get to live my dream each and every day, and that's all because of people like you. I truly cannot tell you how humbled I am to have your support. I can't put my thoughts and feelings into words to thank you enough. But from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Alright, enough with the sappy stuff. Get out and build something cool. See you on the next one.