STEP ONE- CHOOSE YOUR BITS

REVERSIBLE BIT SET This is a typical reversible set. You get one cutter that cuts both the sticking and the cope, and one slot cutter for cutting a panel groove. Some manufacturers offer an additional kit with one more slot cutter which allows you to cut a rabbet below the sticking instead of a slot.

There is a wide variety of bits and shaper cutters available that cut cope and stick joints for cabinet dimensioned stock (3/4" standard thickness). These cutter sets are often called 'stile and rail' sets. While you can do this work on a shaper, I suggest you use router bits. Dealing with small parts on a shaper is less easy to do safely when using a guide bearing and no fence. Also, shaper cutters have a greater diameter and so cannot handle the smaller radii cuts that router bits can. I would only do this kind of work on a shaper with a project design that has large parts with large radius curves.

Your bits must be capable of executing the steps shown in drawing 1. All of the available bits will cut a profile that leaves a panel groove as is required for kitchen cabinet doors. If you want to install glass however, you must be able to leave a glass rabbet below the sticking so that glass can be placed and replaced as needed.

Standard bit sets are intended to cut both the sticking and rabbet on part edges simultaneously. While this works fine on large, straight parts it is foolish on small, curved parts. Get a set that will do the two separately. Sets with stacking cutters allow you to arrange the different cutters as you wish for specific operations. Non-stacking, or integral cutters won't do this and are therefore a bad choice for this work.

The least expensive way to go is with a set of reversible stacking cutters, which use the same cutter for both the sticking and cope cuts. That cutter is used in combination with rabbeting cutters and a guide bearing to execute the necessary steps. I used an Eagle America #184-0305 reversible cutter which has a 1/2" shank arbor, along with a #100-8420 accessory kit which gives the set glass rabbet capability. (Eagle America, P.O. Box 1099, Chardon, Ohio, 44024. 1-800-872-2511). There are other bit sets from other manufacturers that will do the job just as well (click here). Be sure that the set you get will make a glass rabbet rather than just a groove for a wood panel.

A reversible set is the least expensive way to go, as well as the least versatile. Because the cutter must cut both the cope and the stick shapes, it must be symetrical, limiting your profile choices. As well, you must reconfigure the stacking cutter between cope and stick cuts. It's a lot easier if you have one bit for cope and one bit for stick, and set them up in separate router tables. (A third router table with the rabbeting cut in it would be nice too- if you have it!) In this way you can make test cuts until all the setups are as you want them, then leave them set up as you do all the work.

Note that some sets cut a panel groove or glass rabbet that is recessed behind the upper lip of the sticking (drawing 1D). These sets can be used for these procedures, but further complicate an already involved situation with different radii and rabbets. I recommend a set where both the rabbet and sticking upper edge are an equal distance from the outer sticking edge (as depicted in drawings 1A, 1B and 1C).

STEP TWO- MAKE A DRAWING

The fanciful design of the door shown here incorporates most of the procedures you might encounter building different designs. Depending on how elaborate your design is, you may have to improvise in certain situations. Note that all of the curves in my design are radiuses, and none are free-drawn lines. This makes the procedure much easier because you can quickly and accurately make templates by arcing with a router. But if you wish you can make templates to free-drawn lines by cutting them out on a band saw and sanding smooth. This will necessitate making matching coping templates by hand which, again, is more difficult than arcing on a router.

Photo 1- A full scale drawing is essential for aligning the curved parts. Strike arcs with a set of shop made trammel points.

The minimum width of the parts on my door was limited by my cutters. The sticking and rabbets are 3/8" deep on the cutters, and any given skinny part must have that on each side plus something in the middle. Thus 1" wide parts gave me a 1/4" center section, which is minimal but adequate. Once I had finalized my design, I made a full scale drawing of it on a sheet of plywood (photo 1) using a set of trammel points for striking arcs. This full scale drawing is essential for aligning parts during the procedure.

STEP THREE- MAKING TEMPLATES

Two different types of templates are required; one group for flush trimming to the outside of the sticking (sticking templates), and one group for flush trimming to the outside of the cope (coping templates). Refer to drawing 2 to see the difference. When you cut a sticking into a curved part edge, two radii are created. The first is the outer edge of the sticking itself, and the second is the edge of the rabbet beneath, which will be greater or lower than the sticking radius by the width of the sticking itself. Whether it's greater or lower depends on whether you have an inside or outside curve.

When you flush trim the end of a part that will butt up against a curved part edge, the radius of curvature along the end of that part must match the radius of the rabbet it meets, not the outside of the sticking. It is the rabbet that the part will hit, except along the cope. The template you use to flush trim the end of the part is called the coping template, because it establishes the surface that will be coped (see drawing 2).

To start my door, I made a list of templates needed, beginning with sticking templates which were to the sticking radii I had drawn on the full scale drawing. Next was a coping template to use wherever any part butted up against the edge of a curved part. (Where a part butts up against a straight part, the end is straight and so is the template required.) But more coping templates are required for making curved cope blocks that fit onto a curved sticking to back it up on the end while the cope is cut (more on this later-but look at photos 16 and 17 to see cope blocks in use). All in all I needed close to 20 separate templates.

Photo 2- Make a list of templates from the arcs in your drawing, including both sticking and coping templates (see text). Use a router radiusing jig and straight flute bit to arc out the templates.

Photo 3- Nest the templates together as best you can on your plywood so you waste a minimum.

Once I had my list of templates, I set up a router arcing jig (photos 2 and 3) to cut them out. That jig pivots the router around a nail that is driven into the 1/4" Baltic birch plywood template stock. Note that for an inside radius you must measure to the outside of your straight flute bit, and for an outside radius you must measure to the inside of the bit. For the smaller radii I set up on the router table as in photo 4.

Photo 5- Flush trim parts to the sticking templates. Install safety handles on the templates with countersunk screws so that you can keep your hands away from the bit. Climb cut against the grain by applying firm pressure down on the table with the safety handles, and take light slow cuts.

STEP FOUR-S4S (surface four sides)

I ripped to width the straight parts at the table saw, and did the equivalent on the curved parts at the router table with a flush trim bit and the sticking templates (photo 5) after band sawing away the waste close to the template. Because the parts and templates are small I screwed safety handles onto the templates to keep my hands above the bit. To orient the location of the template on the top rail, I placed the rail on the full scale drawing in location as shown in photo 6. Then I placed the template on the rail, positioning it by eyeballing with respect to the curved line on the drawing. It is not important that the template be located on the rail at exactly where it is on the drawing, just close.

Photo 6- Align the template for a curved top rail by placing the rail on the full scale drawing and locating the template on it using the drawing. Flush trim the top rail.

I attached the templates to the parts with short nails. Wherever possible, I attached the templates to the back of the parts so the nail holes would not be seen. On some parts I was able to locate them on ends that would later be cut off. But on one part, the sun arc, I was forced to drive two nails into the face during the final coping cut so that I could attach a handle for safety. In this case puttied nail holes were the price of safety.