Cabinet Door Planner

Opening → Rails, Stiles & Panels → Cut List

Getting Started with the Cabinet Door Planner

This planner sizes cope-and-stick frame-and-panel doors made with a router rail and stile bit set (by default the Freud Premier Adjustable set). It turns cabinet openings into door sizes, gives you the rail, stile and panel cut list for a whole job, sizes panel gaps from wood movement, and walks you through setting up the bits.

How to use it

  1. Size doors from the cabinet on the Opening Sizer tab (optional): pick overlay, inset or frameless, enter the opening, then apply the size to the selected door or add it as a new one.
  2. List the doors in the job in section 1. Add, duplicate or remove doors, and give each a name, quantity, size, and how many panels high and wide.
  3. Set your frame stock in section 2: thickness, plus stile, rail, mid rail and mullion widths.
  4. Choose the joinery in section 3: stub tenons straight off the bits, or extended tenons in mortises for large or heavy doors. Set the groove to match your bits.
  5. Choose the panels in section 4: raised solid wood, flat plywood or MDF, or a flat panel rabbeted to sit flush with the back.
  6. Check the warnings at the top of the sidebar. The Door tab draws the selected door and shows how each size is worked out.
  7. Size gaps for solid panels on the Wood Movement tab (optional): set the species, grain and moisture range, then choose to size gaps from the movement estimate.
  8. Go to the shop with the Cut List (printable) and Router Setup: bit order, tenon passes, mortises and panel steps.
  9. Save your work with Save Project: name it, set its status (Backlog, In progress or Complete) and add notes. Press Save again as you make changes. Projects lists your saved jobs, and My Projects in the site menu lists every calculator's. Projects are kept in this browser, on this device.
  10. Share with Copy link: the link opens a copy of this job for whoever you send it to. Reset starts over with the default door.

Key terms

Stile
A vertical frame part on the side of the door. Stiles run the full door height.
Rail
A horizontal frame part between the stiles: top, bottom, and mid rails between stacked panels.
Mullion
A vertical frame part between panels that sit side by side.
Stick & cope
The stile bit sticks the profile and panel groove along the inside edge of every part. The rail bit copes the reverse shape on rail ends so they lock into it.
Stub tenon
The short tongue the cope leaves on a rail end, sitting in the groove: 13/32" on the Freud set.
Extended tenon
A longer tenon that runs past the groove into a mortise in the stile, for a stronger joint. The haunch is cut back on the outer edge so it stays hidden in the end of the stile.
Panel opening
The space the frame leaves for a panel. The panel is the opening plus a groove depth on each side, minus the expansion gap.
Expansion gap
The total room left in the grooves so a solid panel can swell across the grain without pushing the frame apart.
Moisture content
How much water the wood holds, as a percentage. Panels swell as it rises and shrink as it falls.
Overlay / inset
An overlay door laps over the face frame; an inset door sits inside it, flush with its face. A frameless cabinet has no face frame, and the door covers the box edges.

Assumptions

  • All measurements are in inches. Cut list sizes are finished sizes with tenons included, so cut them exactly.
  • Defaults match the Freud Premier Adjustable set: a 13/32" stub tenon and groove, stock from 5/8" to 1-1/4", and grooves shimmed from 7/32" to 3/8" wide.
  • Every door in a job uses the same frame, joinery and panel settings. Within a door, the panels are all the same size, with the grain running vertically.
  • Gaps follow Freud's rule (1/8" across the grain, 1/16" along it) unless you size them from wood movement. Plywood and MDF get 1/16" each way.
  • Wood movement uses USDA Wood Handbook coefficients: tangential for flatsawn panels, radial for quartersawn. Movement-sized gaps round up to 1/32".
  • Mortises are 1/16" deeper than their tenons and should leave at least 1/4" of wood behind them.
  • Raised panel blanks are 1" oversize each way. Material totals add 20% waste for solid wood and 15% for sheet goods.
Open this guide again any time with the Getting Started button.

Door 1

1× · 1 panel
8 11/16" × 14 3/4"12" door8 13/16" rail18" stile
Rails & stiles Panel Panel edge in groove Tenons

How the Sizes Work Out

Rail length12" door − 2 × 2" stiles + 2 × 13/32" stub tenons= 8 13/16" (8.813")
Stile lengthAlways the door height= 18" (18.000")
Panel width (across the grain)8" opening + 2 × 13/32" grooves − 1/8" gap= 8 11/16" (8.688")
Panel length (with the grain)14" opening + 2 × 13/32" grooves − 1/16" gap= 14 3/4" (14.750")
PartQtyT × W × L
Stile23/4" × 2" × 18"
Top & bottom rail23/4" × 2" × 8 13/16"
Raised panel13/4" × 8 11/16" × 14 3/4"