I have a project coming up for a customer that I have to build bookcases for. The bottom of the bookcase will have raised panel doors. I have no problem building the bookcase, but I don’t have the tools to build the raised panel doors.
Have any of you used any of these company’s that will build you custom doors and if so, which co. would you recommend? How long did it take to get the doors once the order was placed?
Thanks for the input
Tim
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Replies
If you're building the bookcases, I'm willing to bet you have every tool necessary for the doors. If not, you're not looking at a huge additional cash outlay.
You will need a router table (which you could make), and a single doormaking combo bit.
Justin Fink - FHB Editorial
Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderator
Good on you Justin for promoting mind expansion...lol.
I agree. Every builder should try their hand at raised panels. Once they do it they'll see how easy it really is.
Can even be done on a table saw.
My Williams and Hussey makes it simple but with my router table it's even easier.
I've made them for years for all kinds of applications from doing all sides of a platform for a tub to wainscott up stairs to dividers between windows and currently the gable ends of my front porch.
Having that under my belt has saved me thousands of dollars.
Be well
andy...>
But what if raised panels are an affront to my delicate, Craftsman-raised sensibilities? Should I still try to build them? ;-)
Craftsman-raised sensibilities? Should I still try to build them? ;-) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Try switching to
Bosch sensibilities...what you build'll at least be more fun : )>
NOOOOOOOO NOOOOOO, please don't take me for a Craftsman user...I should have said Arts and Crafts, damn!!!
We have gotten doors from Keystone Wood Specialties and also Scherr's.
They both have websites, are easy to do business with, and make great products. It could take up to a month to get them, though, but less if you are buying them unfinished. The lead time I speak of is total . . . start of quote process to delivery at your door.
Conestoga makes the doors for many of the well known brands of cabs. It is funny to hear that many of these big cabinet companies job out the doors, but they do. Conestoga offers a wider range of finishes than Scherr's or Keystone, and they are harder to do business with, but if you want to try, go ahead. We have only used them for whole-package jobs . . . cabs, doors, drawers, drawerfronts, hardware, etc.
Edited 8/29/2006 11:21 pm ET by Gene_Davis
soxfan
I will at times buy my doors out if time is an issue, and they can make what I need.
I get mine from http://www.walzcraft.com , I like them a lot.
There are other places that I'm sure make everybit as good a product but these guys have always been good for me.
Doug
GO TO YOUR LOCAL LUMBER YARD AND SEE IF THEY CAN'T BUY FROM "QUALITY" DOORS OUT OF TEXAS..... 1000'S OF STYLES/ WOOD/ AND OPTIONS... VERY REASONABLE ON PRICE AND DELIVERY IS USUALLY ABOUT 10 DAYS TO TWO WEEKS.
I don't know where you re but a local woodworker may be able to knock them out for you.
Tom
Douglasville, GA
I build my own doors but I can appreciate your problem. Find a local cabinet shop and find out where they get their doors - many shops sub that out.
The most important thing is to be certain of your door style (overlay or inset) and sizes. If you're using inset doors, make sure your cabinet is dead nuts square or you'll have a tough time fitting them right.
Since you have to build them for a customer, I would get them from a door maker and not fool with making them yourself. I used to get hundreds of doors from Dutchman Doors in Fremont, California. I went to their shop once and the tooling they had was unbelievable. Gang-rip and straight-line saws, a row of at least ten shapers, each with a powerfeed, and each with its own profile to cut using high-end insert tooling. Zero chatter, way better than a router will produce. They also had a nice line of Timesaver widebelt and overhead random orbit sanders, which will produce a much flatter looking surface than anything done by hand, unless maybe you're a zen master sander and handplaner. I used to get a lot of good stuff from them in clear hardwoods for ~$10 per square foot or so. Not sure what it is today, but it's less than whatever I could do it for.
Earlier in the year a local, well-automated cabinet shop made us a bunch of stain-grade maple cabinet doors and charged something like $12.50 a square foot for any of the profiles they were tooled up for.
I don't know about the rest of you, but that's hard to compete with cost wise. Heck, by the time the wood is ripped to length and ready to glue up I probably have that much in materials and labor, let alone running it through a $200 set of router bits and sanding it all. Maybe I'm just slow.
If business is scarce, or there are only a couple of doors it makes sense to build them, otherwise the more doors I put together the less money I make.
:-)