Cabinet Face Frame building - choosing the Best recipe

There are two basic types of cabinet: "frameless" cabinets, which are essentially just a box made of plywood or particleboard, and "face frame" cabinets, which have an added wood frame on their front edge. When building face frame cabinets, joining the parts of the face frame together is arguably the most inviting task in the entire process. So, what is the best joinery recipe for cabinet face frames? There's no shortage of options: pocket screws, mortise and tenon joinery, dowels and biscuits all have their champions. In the end, the option assuredly depends on your situation and objectives.

For most professional cabinetmakers, the decision to adopt one recipe or someone else has to quadrilateral with a pressing interest in getting cabinets out the door as fast and efficiently as possible. For the hobbyist, who has much more relaxation to experiment, it's a slightly different story. If your livelihood doesn't depend on shaving a few seconds off of this process or that, then the option assuredly depends on the conditions the cabinets will have to face, your skill level, the tool you have available, the number of time you want to give your cabinetry projects, and what you think it takes to join a face frame "right".

Jigs Accessories

Mortise and Tenon Joints

Cabinet Face Frame building - choosing the Best recipe

Best Price Micro Jig Thin Kerf SteelPRO MJ Splitter Kit (Orange)

Micro Jig Thin Kerf SteelPRO MJ Splitter Kit (Orange) Feature

• Made of a polycarbonate shell and reinforced with a solid stainless steel core.
• Includes four Splitters to achieve four offsets to the blade, four Auto Kerf Keepers.
• Includes installation jig, drill bit and detailed instructions.

Micro Jig Thin Kerf SteelPRO MJ Splitter Kit (Orange) Overview

This is a low profile splitter that also serves as a mini feather board for the keeper piece behind the saw blade. Simple, exact and extremely effective; cutting results are exceptionally precise and virtually burn free when using the MJ Splitter. Designed to be installed on a zero clearance insert (not included), the MJ Splitter features fool proof installation and a revolutionary concept that provides alignment surfaces of different thicknesses. Also includes the Auto Kerf Keeper, a dedicated device that engages automatically if the saw kerf begins to close to reduce tension on the MJ Splitter and the saw blade for safer operation.

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Customer Reviews

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jun 30, 2012 19:00:07

Some cabinetmakers just seem to prefer time-tested joinery methods, and may go to the length of cutting a bona fide mortise and tenon for every face frame joint. There's minute doubt that this recipe is the slowest, but there's also no quiz, that it produces the strongest joint. Many would argue that structurally, a mortise and tenon joint surpasses overkill in this application. But if you're dedicated to production cabinets in the highest potential craft, then the knowledge that you've used the most resilient joint potential may be worth the extra effort.

Of course there are many ways to make a mortise and tenon joint, some being much faster than others. If you're committed to idea of building cabinets suitable for centuries and centuries of use, but prefer to move along as fast as possible, here are a join of options to consider.

Quicker, Easier "Loose" Tenon Joints

Arguably every bit as strong as a primary mortise and tenon joint, a "loose tenon" joint is typically much easier to make. The "loose" in loose tenon joinery plainly means that instead of cutting the end of one joint member into the shape of a tenon, a mortise is cut into both parts and then the two are joined by a isolate piece of stock. The process is easier because the primary task is plainly production two same mortises, rather than the exacting course of cutting a assuredly matched mortise and tenon in two isolate - often set up-intensive - steps. The loose tenon stock itself can whether be purchased ready-made as part of a joinery system, or can be assuredly made with tasteless woodworking tools.

The affordable BeadLock Joinery system is a longtime beloved among weekend woodworkers and produces loose tenon joints assuredly and fairly quickly. The BeadLock system employs a uniquely shaped mortise made up of overlapping drill holes and a matching "ribbed" tenon stock, which is ready ready-to-use, or can be made using tenon stock router bits and a router table. The BeadLock Jig consists of a multi-holed drill guide and a mechanism for positioning it on the stock so that the BeadLock mortise can be reliably and repeatably executed using an commonplace hand drill. Recently redesigned, the BeadLock Jig now comes in a Basic and Pro version, both of which can be upgraded with accessory kits that allow greater versatility in mortise/tenon size. A BeadLock joint can be made in a fraction of the time that it takes to cut a primary joint, and many devotees argue that the unique, interlocking shape of the parts assuredly produces a stronger bond.

The Festool Domino Joinery system also produces a loose tenon joint, and makes the process as slick as it's ever likely to get. The Domino looks similar to a biscuit joiner, and produces joints about as fast, but the similarity in the middle of the two tools ends there. Instead of cutting a thin slit into the stock, the Domino uses an oscillating carbide cutter to make a mortise wide sufficient to house one of the system's specially designed "domino" shaped hardwood tenons. The corollary is a rock solid joint in article time. Of course all of that speed, strength and precision doesn't come free; the Domino's price tag isn't exactly for the faint of heart. But if you plan on being in the cabinetmaking game for a while, like to speed along as fast as possible, and prefer a joinery recipe that will leave no questions about the integrity of your face frame joints, the system is impossible to beat.

While the Domino is without fail not to be confused with a biscuit joiner, that doesn't mean that a biscuit joiner can't be used to join face frames. In fact, the Porter Cable fancy Biscuit Joiner comes acceptable with a second, smaller cutter designed specifically for the task of cutting biscuit slots in 1-1/2" face frame stock. In terms of strength, a biscuit joint is no match for any type of mortise and tenon joint - loose or otherwise. But many cabinetmakers find that fact to be plainly beside the point. When you get right down to it, a face frame joint assuredly doesn't have to stand up to a whole lot of stress. Once it's attached to the cabinet box, it plainly has to remain stuck together. And we'd guess the majority of cabinetmakers would deem a biscuit joint more than equal to the task.

Faster Still - Pocket Screw Joints

Still more cabinetmakers swear by pocket hole joinery for joining face frames. Pocket hole joinery is used widely in the cabinetmaking industry, and by all accounts is the clear winner when it comes to getting through the face frame assembly process fast. A pocket hole joint doesn't require clamping, but instead comes complete with its very own constantly installed clamp - i.e., the screw. That means that once its assembled, a face frame joined with pocket screws is ready for the next stage in the process, and can be joined to the cabinet box without additional ado. Fast, strong and self-contained, pocket hole joinery appears approximately tailor-made for face frame joinery, where joint stress is low, and a descriptive emblem on one side of the accomplished goods is not a problem.

For the hobbyist, the name Kreg has become synonymous with affordable, easy to master pocket hole joinery systems. Over the years, Kreg has prolonged to improve its groundbreaking jig, and now offers a number of kits. Starting at under and ranging up to colse to 0 for the K3 master System, Kreg jigs are ready for virtually every woodworking budget. And later, when you turn pro, the semi-automatic Kreg Foreman will bring you up to industry output speed.

More Options...

Still other cabinetmakers prefer to dowel their face frame joints. Nothing wrong with that: Dowel joints have been colse to for hundreds of years, are more than strong sufficient for a face frame and - in case,granted you already own a hand drill - require only a modest speculation in a doweling jig and few dowels.

A Side benefit - learning New Skills

None of the joinery methods mentioned here are minute to face frame assembly, of course. All can be used in a wide range of woodworking situations. In other words, buying the tool critical to try one or more on a exact task involves very minute risk - if it turns not to be the adored recipe in one situation, you will, without a doubt, find a use for your newly acquired joinery technique somewhere else.

Cabinet Face Frame building - choosing the Best recipe

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