Radius front cabinet design and construction
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This is the latest, and most complex, secret door that we have designed. the client has given his approval of the initial drawing and we are scheduled to start on it in 2 weeks. I'm looking for some design and construction ideas. this cabinet has two tangent curves to the front of the cabinet on the doors and face frame. the FF rails are standard width but the stiles are aprox 6" wide. I'm looking for some input as to the method of building the curved FF and doors. the doors will be either slab with onlay trim or flat panel. my initial method would involve laminating two layers of 3/8" kerf board, 48"x48", back to back to follow the tangent curves. the FF and doors would be cut from the same piece and 3/4" solid wood edge banding would be added to the doors to make it an overlay door. this is a paint grade project. i feel good about doing it this way but want to here from anyone who has a different approach to doing radius front cabinets. i would also like to hear any ideas on the design too.secret door calkins.skp
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itimas,
I have seen this act before. The architect does his work which is creative, fun, and largely without rules and says to the builder "OK, now it's your problem".
Actually, I really like the design. It is very appealing. Have you considered building the curved doors using many pieces of vertical boards with the inside face narrower than the outside, the edges beveled, and when all are clued together form a near perfect curve, which can be made a perfect curve with the right amount of sanding and hand planing. Then you can veneer it, ob both sides of course. You would have to account for seasonal changes in width, but with the overlay added should be no problem.
Great design. Make sure you show pictures of the end product.
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@chiefwoodworker said:
itimas,
Have you considered building the curved doors using many pieces of vertical boards with the inside face narrower than the outside, the edges beveled, and when all are clued together form a near perfect curve, which can be made a perfect curve with the right amount of sanding and hand planing. Then you can veneer it, ob both sides of course. You would have to account for seasonal changes in width, but with the overlay added should be no problem.
Great design. Make sure you show pictures of the end product.
i like that idea because the end result is a solid wood door and not MDF kerf board. this project will get posted on our website when completed.
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Yeah, and solid wood is likely to be a lot lighter than MDF.
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For solid panel door, the coopered method is about the only way I can think to go other than starting with really thick slabs and carving out the curve. The rail for the face frames might get quite tedious doing it that way, so a laminated bend might be a better option. It would add interest with the grain going perpendicular to the door and would also be a much quicker build, I think.
For a frame and panel door, I would do bent lams for the rails and either cooper a solid panel or use a double thickness of 1/4" hardwood ply. The individual thicknesses of the ply would easily bend to conform to the shape.
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unfortunitaley the client backed out of this project, instead opting to go with a cheaper bid. since we did not want to waste all our efforts in the design of this secret door we decided to build it and use it as a display in our booth at the homwe show. i had some 1/8" strips of stock cut and sanded to be used as bent laminations for the curved parts. by making a large form to press up the parts, face frame, base molding, door rails, center panels and drawer front, i was able to make up all the curved parts at the same time ensuring that their curves would be in relation to each other. in hindsight i would of done it in smaller pressings to eliminate the speed at which it needed to be done but my time was limited.
the finish was a mahogany dye with a tinted lacquer and under the bright lights of the spray booth i did not realize just how dark i was making it by using too many coats of tinted lacquer. since the show i have stripped off the finish and will refinish it with a much lighter tone of dye, allowing the beauty of the wood to show through.
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