Cutting Cabinet Doors Shorter

How to cut the bottom of a hollow interior door without damaging it.

Cutting cabinet doors shorter.

Here s the method of door cutting that works best for us. This means if you cut more than 1 1 8 off the bottom of the door then you have cut the bottom frame of the door completely off. Cabinets are no more than plywood boxes and most can be changed readily. Sometimes this frame is made out of a product called mdf which stands for medium density fiberboard.

The microwave cabinet door was easier since i was reusing the door that originally went on that once taller cabinet. This one only took me an hour ish to do. The best way to cut off a door bottom. Once your wood filler is dry sand the cabinet down and prime and paint using this tutorial.

Remove the cabinet doors with a screw gun and then mark the location of the cuts you need to make on the cabinet frame under the counter top and or between cabinets. Cut a strip of material out of the middle of the door then glue it back together. All in all though i couldn t be happier with the finished product. Although these doors were made using a rail and stile cutter set you can use the same technique for doors made with tenons domino fasteners or even shudder biscuits.

Trimming a wood door with a circular saw without splintering the wood or damaging the finish is a challenge. So it just took cutting a few inches out of the middle to make this door work. Each side of the hollow door is glued to a wooden frame. Changes in cabinet dimensions can be done with a table saw.

We also cut the previous tall door in half to fit on the top cabinet. Hollow interior doors consist of a solid wooden frame covered with a wood or composite veneer. However since the door is painted a tight seam and some wood filler would make the seam disappear. After cutting the cabinet down on my table saw and putting back together the section i d disassembled i salvaged the doors as follows.

Then we just had all the little finishing projects to do like caulking and extending the backsplash. The doors are often used for. This method wouldn t be as easy if the door wasn t painted as it would be difficult to hide the seam. The process of shortening cabinets typically involves cutting out a section and cutting down doors to fit the shortened cabinet.