Sliding Cabinet Doors

[bperine]

Can anyone point me in the direction of detailed instructions on building sliding cabinet doors. I hoping to make the doors out of half-inch pine framing with quarter inch plywood for the panels. Any help I can get will be greatly appreciated. TIA.
Hugonut in PA

[Miriam C.]

You can look at Steve Fredericks build here on this page, Mary K's build pictures are good too.

You can also look at Tom Swensons build. He has some great information on how to.
http://www.tomswenson.com/teardrop/

There are dozens more if you have time to search.

[diverguy]

bp,
well i am no expert but here is what has worked for me. i ripped 3/4 stock oak down to 7/16 to fit a 1/2 rail. my doors are 11 X 14. so i cut the long side of the 45 deg at each length. two pieces at 14 and two pieces at 11 inches.
next i routed out a slot on the back 1/4 deep and about 3/8 in. ok, i made a jig on a scrap board to fit the pieces. you can see the routed slot in the back

i glued the four corners with gorilla glue and put in the jig, tapped with a mallet to make sure they were set flat on the board. then i measured the back plate size and cut it to fit. glued it in and weighted it down to make sure it was flat on all four sides. kept everything really tight. and biggest hint here. LET IT SIT. let the glue do its job. let it sit about 2 hours.
also. another big hint. before assembly, i stained all the pieces.
if i could go back i would have even waited and applied the poly-ur-thane before assembly. my hint is do everything needed so assembly is the last thing. one more thing i learned the hard way, puts some small pieces of wax paper under the joints or you will glue the frame to your board. some light sanding after will remove it.
here is a photo of results for my sliders

back


front


installed

i am no expert but this really worked great for me. fairly easy also. the joints with glue seem very strong. the first one i really stressed manually. twisting and bending with my hands in they did not break, bend or flex.
hope this helps, i am sure other will have some great ideas. PM me if you have any other question, i will be happy to try and answer to the best i can. good luck.

[Mike C.]

diverguy,

You may not be an expert, but your cabinet doors look great.



Sorry for thread drift.

[diverguy]

thanks U. mike and A. miriam.
you can even route the edges for a more flashy design. but i would do this after assembly. if you do it before the edges may not line up perfect. if you do it last they will look like factory. i made this mistake on my other doors and had to scrap the first one. simple touch up of some stain and you have great doors.

[Creamcracker]

thanks U. mike and A. miriam.
you can even route the edges for a more flashy design. but i would do this after assembly. if you do it before the edges may not line up perfect. if you do it last they will look like factory. i made this mistake on my other doors and had to scrap the first one. simple touch up of some stain and you have great doors.

I was just wondering if anyone used the following technique to strengthen the sorts of joint that Diver Guy used? I was shown this by a school teacher in Wales back in the 60's --- I liked it then and I still like it now because it's easy to do and adds a little decoration. Let the frame glue up as DG shows and then with a tenon saw cut through the end an equal amount down both sides. Insert a small piece of FORMICA and then sand it back level with the wood framing. It will leave a black insert (where the white is in my picture-- I simply used paper to show how it would look) and it adds greatly to the strength.

[diverguy]

hey cracker,
that is a great idea, although i am sure it is something used often, i never thought of it. wish i had but mine are already assembled. next one maybe. very nice joint.

[bperine]

Thanks Aunti M, I found what I was looking for on Tom Swenson's page. And thanks to Tom for his excellent, well illustrated build discussion.
Hugonut in PA

[len19070]

I used sliding/by-pass doors on mine. In the galley the original SlumberCoaches had lift up doors. I thought that would be a pain in the neck because you would have to clear the counter/stove to open the doors for something.





And on the inside you would have to get into the trailer, move out of the way of the door then open it.



With sliders you can see and get things from in the cabinet while standing outside.

Happy Trails

Len

[Tripmaker]

Diverguy those are great looking doors. My skill doesn't rise to that level so I kept it simple and made my doors out of 1/4 ply and set them in plastic tracks I got from HD. There are some pics in my album.

[Roly Nelson]

Bperine, I built my cabinet doors out of pine styles and rails, with a half-lap joint at all corners, then rabbeted the 1/8 " plywood panels in between. As in sliding wardrobe doors in my house, only 1/2 of the closet is accessable at one time. That is the problem I have with my sliders in my little 6 footer. However, I had to do it that way so stuff won't fall out when I flip it up on end. To each his own, what ever works with you is what counts.

Roly