13 end panel stile rail

In this video, I want to show you my favorite method for joining frame and panel assemblies

So this could be end panels that are permanently mounted to the ends of upper or lower cabinets, or it could be doors

The reason I like this method is because it's strong and it's also easy to do with just regular

workshop type equipment. Now this is a mock-up that I use in my seminars

and that's why there's some writing on here talking about the panel and how it works, but it is an excellent

mock-up to show you how it all fits together. So this piece of wood here, this is the style and

the rails. Rails always fit between styles and what we've got going on here is

is the floating tenon arrangement. This is a separate piece of wood

here in the end. In this case, it's oak. The tenons should be hardwood and

what you need to notice about this is that the grain runs this way. We don't want the grain running this way

because that will make for a very weak tenon, but if the grains running this way

it's quite strong, plenty strong. So the grooves I like to make with a wing cutter in this case. I could use a straight bit in

a router table, but the wing cutter is better for one important reason

If you can imagine this sitting in a router table and spinning like this, the bearing rides against

the edge of the style in this case and it regulates the cutting depth. Now

I need to make two passes because the wing cutter is not wide enough to make the width of groove that I want, but the real advantage of the wing cutter

comes in to the end of the rail. So when I'm milling a rail like this and the wing cutter is cutting this way

to cut the groove on the end, I just go around the end

and I cut it like that. So that's something that I can't do nearly as well with a straight bit

in a router table, but the wing cutter works very well, and it gives a nice consistent width too

So I'll do one side and then I'll flip it over and repeat the process to get the width that I need and

then cut my tenons and they just fit in the ends, floating tenons in the ends, and

I'm ready to assemble the outer frame. Now this panel is worth looking at more closely too. This is a raised panel that I have

created with nothing more than a table saw and a hand plane, and I'll be showing you more about that later

But the reason I like that, this approach, is because it doesn't require a fancy equipment

It doesn't require a fancy machine setup either, but most importantly it allows me to create a wide bevel

Wider than I could have gotten with a router table and even wider than what I could have gotten with a medium-sized shaper. So I'll be going into more about that

later on, but you'll notice here that I've stained the edges of this panel

That's because the way frame and panel works is that the frame is more or less

inert. It doesn't change shape with humidity and things, but the panel, because it's free-floating inside, is allowed to move back and forth, and if I plan to stain my doors

then I don't want any unstained wood showing through, so I stain it ahead of time before assembly

But there's the approach in a nutshell