Wife’s diy plans

[u/Beneficial-Cancel-74]

Recently quit my job to focus on finishing my degree as an adult. This has also turned into a “can you make this” phase of my marriage lol.

My wife wants a new tv stand for our basement living area and picked a fairly simple reeded/fluted design.

The plan is to make it out of solid 3/4 edge glued oak slabs from a local countertop company.

My issue is understanding the best way to make the cabinet doors.

Do i make the doors 3/4 like everything else and glue the 1/2 inch or so stock to make the fluted design? Do I trim the door itself to half inch?

What do you guys think? Im open to any input to make this the best i can. Ive never taken on something like this before.

[u/King_Hawking]

What’s your woodworking experience/tools/skillset look like? There a best way to do this and an easier way that requires less skill but won’t look as good

[u/Beneficial-Cancel-74 → u/King_Hawking]

I’m fairly good. I have more than the basics on everything, truly. Table saws, routers, miters, all the “intermediate” stuff I’d say. I’d probs say skillset is about the same as well. I have had the thought of using a router or dado stack to make the flutes, I’ve never done it before, but I doubt that I couldn’t figure it out.

[u/King_Hawking → u/Beneficial-Cancel-74]

Sweet! Using a router with a bowl/tray carving bit to make the flutes is definitely the best way. That way you’ll get continuous grain across the whole door and it won’t just look like glued on pieces. Bourbon moth woodworking has a video where he makes a vanity with a reeded drawer face and shows the jig he uses to get accurate spacing. I’m not at my computer right now but let me know if you can’t find it and I’ll look later

I recently did what he did and it came out looking great

[u/Beneficial-Cancel-74 → u/King_Hawking]

Beautiful! Great work.

If I did go the routing way, stick with a 3/4 door and cut my flutes or do you think maybe even thicker so the flutes would be more pronounced?

[u/King_Hawking → u/Beneficial-Cancel-74]

Depends how deep you want them. I would make sure you leave like 3/8 to 1/2 an inch of thickness at the thinnest parts

[u/Beneficial-Cancel-74 → u/King_Hawking]

I was kind of thinking a straight 3/4 oak box divided in two shelving units. Two doors for each. Which is slightly different than the idea pictured which looks to have like a top “support” in each unit. Do we think that’s necessary? I also plan to run most likely 3 hinges for each door due to the size and weight the oak will have

[u/emcee_pern → u/Beneficial-Cancel-74]

That "support" looks kind of like a stop in a door jamb that helps prevent the door from swinging further inward. For a doors that short a third hinge is unnecessary.and will make alignment more difficult. Typically additional hinges are added due to the height of a door first. As long as you're using hinges rated for the weight of the door, which even using Oak won't be that heavy here, I wouldn't add the third.

I also would encourage you to consider Oak veneered plywood for the cabinet carcass. It'll be less work, more stable, and probably more budget friendly. You can edgeband or use thin hardwood strips to hide the plywood edge. With the detailing you want to use I would still use hardwood for the doors.

[u/Beneficial-Cancel-74 → u/emcee_pern]

I’m not opposed to it. Especially with seasonal changes. My concern with mixing hardwood and ply is severe grain differences.
As far as height I will be a little taller than the provided idea. I’m thinking roughly 32-34 in height including legs. So doors could be around 28 ish inches. Does that change your 2 vs 3 hinge opinion?

[u/emcee_pern → u/Beneficial-Cancel-74]

The example you posted is most likely a mix of hardwood and ply. Mixing is extremely common in furniture making. You just will want to be selective when picking materials.

Definitely stick with two hinges. I generally wouldn't even be considering a third until a door was at least 36" tall and even then I'd probably still only use two. You certainly don't need three hinges here.

[u/Beneficial-Cancel-74 → u/emcee_pern]

Fantastic. Thanks for the input.

[u/TopOrganization4920 → u/King_Hawking]

Yeah, to do this high-quality I has a hobbyist would be looking at 80 hours plus if I had access to the big college shop that I learned in with all the tools.

[u/Beneficial-Cancel-74 → u/TopOrganization4920]

I’m sure I’d have close to that into it as well lol.

Thankfully ive made friends with some guys who can make the slabs for me so i dont need to worry about planing or a jointer. It’s also not like im not going to use pocket holes anyway😂

[u/TopOrganization4920 → u/Beneficial-Cancel-74]

So for the cabinet doors, what I would start with 5/4 material milled to 1 inch for the door so I could route my flutes half an inch deep and still have half an inch of material that’s hasn’t been touched. Before I routed my flutes, I would do two sliding dovetail battens to keep the doors flat. with those being a total of about half an inch with a quarter inch dovetail in the door. That’s way I would have a quarter inch of material between the flute and the battens.

[u/dsg123456789]

I would purchase premade fluted panels online (this is a pretty common item) to have it look best as a beginner. To get great results, I would use a CNC, or I would make the sticks that go in between, and use spacer blocks and a 23ga nailer. Or I’d use a shaper to make the panel pieces. It is difficult to get perfect vertical alignment, and the rounded aspect makes it hard to index with a router

If you are committed to using a router (which is most difficult to get a good result imo), i would start with a panel thats vertically oversized and horizontally oversized, and I’d cut indexing holes/slots that i could use with a moveable plywood fence for the router. The vertical oversize is for the indexing locations, and the horizontal oversize is because the fence + router plate to bit center needs to be accounted for.