MDF Doors with glass/mullions

[sawkerf]

How do you mdf door makers clear away the back of your doors to accept the glass panel? I'm thinking you would do an "Area Clear", but how do you register the door in such a way as to get it centered and square on the table? Could I cut a mask out of .25 mdf for each size door then do an offset vector to the the size of my area clear? If I did that I wouldn't have to worry about correct placement of each door and I could run as many as I could get on one mask all at once. Does this sound like a feasable procedure or is there a better,tried and true method? I'm still a newbie and I've never made a glass door with mullions on my Bot. BTW I'm celebrating my first anniversary with my Bot this month. So far it has never missed a days work, never late, never smells bad from not bathing, has never talked back(well there was that one time, but it was my fault), I've enjoyed getting to know him over the past year and he's a great conversationalist. Whoa, I think I need to go night night. Thanks for your input. Kip

[marshawk]

Kip,

We start by surfacing the table with a 1/2" flat cutter. This leaves us with a straight edge on the plywood to which we butt the edge of the piece to be carved. I then load the bit in the router and position it in the upper right corner of the piece and slightly above the wood. I run the cutter all the way down the edge and watch to see if it drifts to the right or left, and adjust accordingly. I then center the router over the carving area and zero. If there is a slight warp to the piece or the table, I can see it if the bit starts "lowering" into the material.

This method tells me if the edge is aligned with all axes.

Simple and cheap, it works for me.

Chip

[btk]

Kip,

I have not done with Cabinet Doors, however in making screened panes, I have found fastest/most flexible way is to make the cutout with the ShopBot and then use a hand held router and a Rabbeting bit to make the knotch.
http://www.woodcraftu.com/images/Router%20201.jpg

However will have have to clean up the corners with a small radius bit and corner template.

Brian

[sawkerf]

Yeah, I've done those simple door frames and just used a router to rabbet out the edge but I want to remove all the excess material on the back of the door so I can use a single piece of glass for multiple panes. I used to buy them like that from a competitor so I know there's a way. I'm just wondering if there's an efficient way to do it. Kip

[gary_n]

Kip,
I have cut multipane glass doors from MDF using a long roundover bit that cuts out the glass pane from the front side of the sheet. When drawing the glass panes in your software, simply add another larger rectangle--larger than the glass pane cutout--to act as your dado cut on the back side. Make sure all glass panes are centered in the door. It would be best to the back rabbet first, then flip the door over and cut the glass panes. As each pane is cut and falls loose, you will also have the rabbet cut on the back side. Hope this is clearer than mud. If you need more help, send me an email.

[sawkerf]

Just to give you guys an update, my plan worked wonderfully! I had no hold-down problems and they look better than the ones I used to buy from the mega shop down the road with one of those over-priced CNC machines. Thanks, Kip

[mikejohn]

Kip
any chance of a picture?
.............Mike

[sawkerf]

Chance yes, probability questionable. My techno skills are shallow at best. Thanks,Kip