I was getting assembly down for the door frames. (1) Drill holes with the Kreg® jig. (2) Build frames with Kreg® screws with Kreg® screw bit. (3) Shorten 48 Kreg® plugs. (4) Glue Kreg® plugs. Done!
Since I made good time on the assembly of the frames, I decided to remove the cabinet doors so I could cut them to make the panels. Again, an unfinished project was on display in the house. I was working on the pantry doors and the doors above the refrigerator. The pantry doors had a self-contained set of shelves attached to the inside of both doors. I removed all the items from the shelves before I took off the shelves. The weight on these doors from cans and bottles could explain why a couple hinges broke when I removed them.
After I removed the shelves, I was surprised to see that behind the shelves, the doors were not finished. It was a pleasant find. These doors were about 4 feet high and now I did not have to spend a lot of time sanding off the finish.
The lower pantry doors always hit when you closed them. Some of the hinges were broken on them. It was the result of the kids leaning or hanging on these doors. Or maybe it was from me pounding on the doors so they would not hit each other. I would be happy to finally fix this problem.
I cut the panels to size. The tall pantry panels had to be cut by my Sears-Craftman® circular saw. The table saw bed extension was not long enough to cut a 40-inch panel. The 24-tooth blade on the circular saw was used for cutting 2 x 4’s for the master bathroom renovation. A clean cut would not be critical as the rabbet would hide the saw cut. I used a clamped-down metal rule as a guide to get a straight cut.
I needed to rout the back edges of the panels so they would sit flat. I decided to use the dado blade to create the rabbet. Even though that process was faster, less messy, and easier, there was chipping of the oak veneer. I could touch it up with some stain, but I was not planning to finish that side of the panel. I finished the panels by rounding the corners so they would fit. Time to sand.