Infinity Cutting Tools Matched Rail and Stile Router Bits for Cabinet Doors

Runway and stile door structure is an elegant solution to the ever-present problem of forest motion. If a door is made from a solid piece of wood or multiple pieces glued together edge-to-edge, the door will have a trend to warp, expand, and contract at dissimilar times of year Rail and stile doors can help convalesce these problems. The frame of the door eliminates concern of woods move and cross-grain joinery. The frame captures the console and keeps information technology from warping while still allowing it to expand and contract with seasonal moisture changes. The fact that rail and stile doors are as good-looking equally they are strong is an added bonus.

Making these stiff and cute doors is easy with a set of Infinity Rails and Stile router bits and a little know how. A lot of woodworkers have questions about how to make their own doors and then allow's dive in a take a look at exactly what is needed and how to get professional results.

The showtime thing you need is a rail and stile router flake set. Infinity tools has several options to choose from. I recommend a 2-piece track and stile set. They offer a ton of flexibility depending on the type of panel yous desire for your door. They're also available in several different profiles so yous can get that perfect look for your project. These sets include both a rails bit and a stile bit perfectly matched to make frames with a ane/4" groove to accept the panel. At that place are also kits available to suit these for plywood panels, but more on that later.

In a traditional door, the rail are the parts of the frame that run horizontally and the stiles are the pieces that run vertically. The difference is that the rails accept what is called a "runway" or "cope" cutting made in each end to fit into the profile on the inside border of the stiles. Both the rail and stiles have the "stile" or "stick" cut which creates the bonny profile and the groove for the console to fit into. The existent dazzler of this arrangement is that it creates a good bargain of gum surface to add together strength to the door. This, and a proficient woodworking glue like Titebond II Premium Wood Glue, makes the need for an extended tenon obsolete.

Close-up view of Infinity Cutting Tools router bit

Infinity Rail and Stile router chip sets accept several features that make a large difference in utilise. Thick, micro-grain carbide cutters increase longevity. CNC-machined router chip bodies create the anti-kickback geometry to make them safer to employ. Shear angles on appropriate cutters aid produce very make clean cuts and help the bit run more smoothly. The router $.25 are finished with a not-stick blanket which makes them easy to clean and helps them run cooler. All these little details combine to make a high-quality, long-lasting router chip set up.

Infinity Cutting Tools Matched Rail and Stile Router Bits are laser-etched

All of the Infinity runway and stile router bits feature a 1/2" shank. This is important for both durability and cutting quality. The larger shank ensures that the flake won't flex or vibrate in use and produces a cleaner cut and tighter-fitting joint. The shanks are also laser-etched to identify which bit is used for the "rail" cut and which is used for the "stile" profile cut. While a big powerful router is e'er nice, a 1-3/4HP router is suitable for making track and stiles. Hither, nosotros're using the Infinity Professional person Router Table Package that includes a router.

A adept router tabular array is required to make rail and stile doors. You don't desire to employ a runway and stile router bit in a mitt-held router. While at that place are a huge number of options bachelor Infinity has put together a really nice option combining not bad components at an exceptional cost. The packet includes a 3.25HP Triton Plunge router, an aluminum mounting plate and sturdy steel stand, a professional debate with congenital-in grit drove and Infinity's router table acme with Micro Dot surface. If you are in the market I definitely recommend yous accept a look. Nosotros use this router tabular array hither in our shop and information technology has been going strong for more than 2 years now no matter what we throw at it. It has seen a lot of apply.

With tools in hand, permit's get to work.

The outset step in making a rail and stile door is to size all your pieces. First, decide the overall dimension of the door, so decide on the width of the rails and stiles. A common size door for a kitchen cabinet would exist 18" x 24" and would have 2-1/4"-wide rails and stiles. Determining the length of the stiles is piece of cake, they run from top to bottom of the door and equal the overall door elevation (24" in our case).

The rails require a fiddling math. They're captured between the stiles and interlock with the contour routed in the edge of the stile. To determine the length of your rails you need to know the contour width of your track and stile router bit set. For virtually Infinity rail and stile router chip sets, the width of the profile is seven/16". At present, subtract the overall width of the finished door and subtract the width of both stiles, 4-one/2" (2-1/4" x two). Then add back in the profile width of the router chip prepare for each end, vii/8" (vii/16" ten 2). This gives a rail length of fourteen-iii/eight" for an eighteen" wide door using 2-1/4"-broad stiles. It'south really not that hard to figure out if you know the profile with of your router bit prepare.

Infinity Cutting Tools Rail and Stile Router Bit Sets for Cabinet Doors with Setup Blocks

With all 4 pieces of the frame cut to size I similar to make the rail cut outset. This is the catchy cutting because nosotros are cutting the ends of the rails. A tool that makes this easy is a coping sled. Infinity makes a couple of dissimilar coping sleds that make this catchy cut safe and like shooting fish in a barrel. The coping sled holds the workpiece while a backer cake profoundly reduces tear out when cutting terminate grain.  The coping sled too references off the router table fence which makes it easy to set and brand the cuts accurately. One thing to note is that most of the Infinity tools rail and stile router fleck sets come with a matching setup block. This block helps set the height of the router flake. From there y'all tin can fine-melody the bit height to adjust your project. Infinity also offers a setup cake (Prepare-COP) that matches the thickness of the coping sled's base of operations, making the setup that much easier. At that place's a reason I recommend making the rail cutting first. If there's a little bit of tear out at the cease of the rail cut, the damage will frequently exist removed when making the stile cuts.

Infinity Cutting Tools Setup Block for Rails and Stile Router Bits

The stile cut is even easier. Considering the cut is made down the length of the work piece at that place is plenty of material to reference off of the fence. Also cutting with the grain is much easier than cut beyond it. I always recommend using some form of hold downward when making the stile cut because the router bit is trapped in the wood and vibration will cause poor cuts, kickback and even impairment to the router bit. My all time favorite hold downs are the Jessem clear cut stock guides. They are easy to prepare, they merely work in one direction so they eliminate kickback, and they concur the piece down to the router table and tight to the argue. At the very least I strongly recommend a skillful pair of feather boards. They are perfectly sufficient only non every bit user-friendly as the Jessem Lucent Stock Guides.

Infinity Cutting Tools - JessEm Clear-Cut Stock Guides for Router Table RTF-SG1

With the stile cuts made in all four pieces of the frame, all that's left is to apply glue and clench the frame up. Of form you volition desire to install a console earlier adding mucilage. The main types of panels are raised panels, flat panels, and glass. The fundamental with all of these is to not glue the panel in identify. The panel should exist able to float and so that it can expand and contract. While raised panels themselves deserve their own spotlight, plywood flat panels are easy. Now, there's some debate most whether you should glue the plywood in identify to create a strong door assembly. The supporting argument is that plywood doesn't expand and contract with seasonal changes in humidity.

If y'all prefer not to glue the plywood, and when using solid-woods panels, cut the panel to fit inside your frame with about ane/eight" of room to breath, and glue upwards the frame, without gluing the panel. A trick to keeping a console from moving effectually in the frame is to pivot information technology from the back with a pocket-sized brad. One pivot at the center of the rail and the top and bottom is all y'all need — you want the panel to still be able to float.

Infinity Cutting Tools - Plywood Slot Cutter Set for Matched Rail and Stile Router Bit Set

The big problem with using plywood for chiffonier door panels is it is rarely i/4"-thick. Oftentimes information technology is 5.5mm or 5.9mm thick. Since the rail and stile router scrap sets cut a 1/4"-wide groove, this means that the groove in the rails and stiles will be too wide and allow the panel to rattle.

Infinity has the solution for this by adding a plywood panel kit to the standard rail and stile router scrap set. These kits let you to alter the cutters in the bits to produce the correct size groove for your plywood panels.

Irresolute out the cutters is easy. By removing the nut on the top of the fleck and removing the slot cutter and replacing information technology with the right cutter from the plywood cutter kit, you can create a groove perfectly sized for you plywood panels. Merely match the "Rail" or "Stile" mark on the slot cutter with the "Rail" or "Stile" scrap. While there are a couple of shims installed on the track and stile bits, all that is required information technology to put them dorsum in the same social club as they came off. Tighten the nut back downwards and y'all're prepare to get.