A question about gaps

Bruce Page

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Location
Albuquerque, New Mexico
I’m building a bookcase/curio cabinet for LOML out of QSWO. I started on the doors last weekend and now I’m starting to wonder if I’ve screwed up already. The doors will finish up at 25½”w X 36”h X 1” thick with pinned mortise & tenon construction, and each will have 9 beveled glass panels. I was concerned that they might sag because of the weight so I figured a 1/16” gap would be about right. After mortising the outside stiles for the hinges and cutting the stiles to length, the 1/16” gap looks too big to me. The gap between the cabinet side and the stile (which I planned to adjust later) is about 1/32” and looks right to me.
So… do you think I should remake the outside stiles and shoot for the 1/32” gap all around, or stick with the 1/16” gap like I originally planned? The thought of re-mortising the hinges doesn’t make me feel all warm & fuzzy…

Or, should I just go and have another beer and not worry about it..

Thanks for any advice.
 

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Hey Bruce,
I usually shoot for 1/32, but I think the door in the pics looks fine. Question is - how much does it bother you? If its gonna bug you every time you look at at, then do it over. On the other hand, if you ever move to Houston or Florida, that extra 1/32 might go away anyhow.

In either case, I'm all for another beer:D

BTW, love your avatar - where did you find that??
 
your call bruce?.........i build all inset doors 1/8" oversized then fit `em after glue-up, once fit tight i mortise for hinges hang the door and plane a reveal....
good luck and have another beer anyway:D .....tod
 
your call bruce?.........i build all inset doors 1/8" oversized then fit `em after glue-up, once fit tight i mortise for hinges hang the door and plane a reveal....
good luck and have another beer anyway:D .....tod
Tod, I'm going to leave the rails & inside stile oversize and fit like you suggest but my feeble machinist brain was telling me that I needed a datum to start from.:bang:
I'm sure that your fitting method is better.

It feels like miller time!

Jesse, I've had that pic for years - it says it all!
 
Tod, I'm going to leave the rails & inside stile oversize and fit like you suggest but my feeble machinist brain was telling me that I needed a datum to start from.:bang:

Bruce, Love the machinst talk ie.(Datum). Just yesterday I taught a class on Geometric Tolerancing.:rolleyes:

Russ, I taught GD&T to a few apprentice classes years ago. Not sure that I could even read a print today!
 
Nothing to it...Once you understand G Code and M-Code, you can pretty much do anything with a CNC Machine. I am sure I am not the machinist that you two are, but what they hey...the boats I help build float :)
 
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