Tools Required to Build a Kitchen Cabinet Door

Table Saw

• A table saw is the main tool for cabinet door building. With a table saw, you can cut panels and frames to size, shape raised panels, cut the mortise and tenon on the door frames and groove frames to accept panels.

Router

• Use a router to cut grooves in frames to accept panels, create joints on frames and shape frames and panels. Router bits made especially for cabinet making and door making offer a wide range of shaping options. Accessories include handmade jigs, clamps, templates and a specialized table in addition to the many bits available.

Clamps

• Anytime two pieces of wood require gluing, they have to be clamped. Clamps suited to cabinet door making include pipe clamps, bar clamps, band clamps, corner clamps and frame clamps. Bar clamps and pipe clamps must span the width and length of the cabinet door to be useful.

Block Plane

• Block planes are short planes used for cutting across the grain. You can use them for fine tuning tenons on cabinet door frames. For a perfect fit, tenons are often cut slightly over size and carefully adjusted until they fit right. A block plane set to remove a very thin shaving of wood with each pass is the ideal tool.

Random Orbit Sander

• These sanders don't leave marks on the surface of the wood. Start with a 100-grit sandpaper, and work up to 220 grit on the final sanding for a smooth finish that retains the wood texture and grain.

Drill Press

• Although you can use a hand drill to place holes for mounting hinges and hardware, you can't beat the accuracy of a drill press. Making the large round mortises in the door and cabinet for some types of hidden hinges requires a Forstner bit mounted in a drill press for best results.

Chisels

• Keep wood chisels razor sharp for building cabinet doors. A good set of chisels helps clean up and fine tune mortises and tenons or remove a bit of wood anywhere you need to, such as the ends of panel grooves in door frames.

Thickness Planer

• A thickness planer cuts boards and panels down to size, removing material from one side to adjust the thickness. Building cabinet doors from rough stock gives you flexibility, but you need a way to make sure all the doors and parts for making the doors are the same thickness. A thickness planer is just the tool for the job.

Jointer

• Jointers make joints. They perfectly flatten the edges of two boards so that they can fit together and are glued to make wider boards for making raised panel blanks in a cabinet door or any other use. Jointers are also used to make warped or twisted pieces of wood flat or straight by removing material.

Band Saw

• The thin blade of a band saw allows curved cuts for making arched frames and panels, cutting rough stock to size and making veneers -- very thin pieces of wood. Small tabletop band saws may serve well up to a point but won't do the job on large panels or thick, heavy wood, which requires larger, standalone models.