Cabinets

Besides a table and chairs, no piece fits the dining room better than this quintessentially American country-style cabinet with storage behind doors and a flat surface for serving food. This project fills both needs perfectly and is a study in simple construction. Build a face frame, attach that frame to a four-panel carcase, then add a top and a few simple details and you’re set to store and serve.

Start the Cabinet Face First
Prepare the face-frame pieces according to the cut sheet, but add 1/16" to the width of the stiles so they can be trimmed flush to the frame later. This ensures the assembled face frame overhangs the case when following the cut sheet. Locate and lay out the mortise-and-tenon locations on the rails and stiles.

Because a bead wraps around the inside edges of the face frame (it’s not an integral part of the frame) there is no need to leave shoulders on the tenons. In fact, with the center and upper rails being narrow, I like to use the entire width of the rails as a tenon, which adds strength. The mortises are 3/8" wide and 1-1/16" deep.

Cut the mortises into both stiles of the face frame. I use a dedicated mortise machine for this task, but you can also chop them by hand or use the drill press to start the mortises then square and clean out the slots with a chisel. The mortise for the top rail is open on the top edge of the stiles. These are the only mortises for the project.

Next, create the matching tenons on the ends of the rails. I set up a dado stack and hog away the waste material, leaving a snug-fitting tenon. With these tenons, because they are the width of the rails, cut only the face cheeks of each end.

Set the dado stack for a 3/16" deep cut. Set the fence to create a 1"-long tenon, then make passes for each face to form the tenon. The last pass is with the end of the rail tight against the fence. This ensures that all tenons are the same length. And that extra 1/16" of depth in the mortise is just a glue reservoir.

Check the fit of the first tenon and make any necessary small adjustments. Finish the tenons and assemble the face frame. Apply glue in the mortises and on the tenons then add clamps and allow the glue to dry.

Wrapping Up the Frame
The added beading gives the face frame a “pop” and is so simple to make. Start with a piece of stock surfaced on four sides and milled to 3/4" thick. Next, chuck a 1/4" corner-beading bit into the router table. My setup looks different because I position my router horizontally. With the setup in a standard router table you’ll run the stock vertically to form the bead.

Run the profile on both edges of one face of the stock and rip those pieces off at the table saw to a 5/16" width. Then, after running the edges over the jointer to get a cle...

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