80 - Heirloom Tool Cabinet, страница 26

Inset Doors

Fitting an inset door perfectly is just a matter of taking care of the details.

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▲ Consistency. An even gap around the edges highlights a perfectly fit inset door.

To figure tine depth of the mortises, you need to measure the thickness of the hinge barrel. Then just subtract the amount of the gap you want What's left over is the depth of tine mortises you'lJ need to cut.

Once you've cut the mortises in the door, you can install the hinges. Since you'll end up putting on and removing the door several times as you work on the fit, it's all too easy

Installing doors on a project can be a challenge—especially inset doors that fit inside the frame of a cabinet. But when the gap is nice and even, like you see in the photo at right, the result is worth the effort.

So how do you go about fitting an inset door with a consistent gap? Well, over the years, I've found a few ways of doing this that give me great results without a lot of hassle.

As I mentioned, a consistent gap is the key to a great looking inset door. And this may sound a little odd, but to start with, I don't worry about the gap at all when I build the doors.

Instead, I measure the opening in the cabinet and then build the doors to fit snug — just fiU the opening so there aren't any gaps.

Determining the Gap. Once you have the doors built, you can start thinking about the size of the gap. Now, there aren't any set rules for what size gap you should have around the doors of a cabinet.

I like the look of a ³/i6" gap for most small to medium-sized doors. But for larger doors, like the ones in the tool cabinet shown above, a %" gap is just about right.

The Hmgcs. Once you've decided on the gap, you need to think about the hinges you're going to use and how to mount them. In most cases, the hinges are thicker than the gap you're looking for.

This means you'll need to mortise the lunges into the edge of each door. And that's the key to contro\-ling the gap around the door.

SIZE VERTICAL SUPPORT TO POSITION DOOR FLUSH WITH FACE FRAME

A Door Supports. A set of T-shaped supports like the one shown obove holds the door of a cabinet >'n position while you work.

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ShopNotes No. 80