Presented By Skip Hanson
Written by: Richard Derganc

As a general rule, doors should be kept under 24" max width.
An "ideal" door is in the 15’ - 17" - 19" - 21" range in width.
The proportion also matters, so various widths will look best with different heights.
Skip cited the "golden mean" as the proportion to keep in mind.
I assumed he was not referring to "Mean Joe Golden", prize fighter of the 30s, so I investigated what he meant. Thanks to the Internet, this is what I found-out.

The Golden Mean is a ratio that is present in the growth patterns of many things--the spiral formed by a shell or the curve of a fern, for example. The Golden Mean or Golden Section was derived by the ancient Greeks. Like "pi", the number 1.618... is an irrational number. Both the ancient Greeks and the ancient Egyptians used the Golden Mean when designing their buildings and monuments. The builders of Paestum used the Golden Mean in their temples. Artists as diverse as Leonardo da Vinci and George Seurat used the ratio when constructing their paintings. These artists and architects discovered that by utilizing the ratio 1 : 1.618..., they could create a feeling of order in their works. Even today, artists are still using this proportion in their works, and scientists, like Roger Penrose are discovering new things about the Golden Mean and its place in science, mathematics, and nature.

Skip recommends going from the panel outward.
Decide on the opening
Build the frame, then the cabinet
Then build the door.

The most common rail and style dimensions are 2 ¼" in width.
Overlay doors are easier than Inset doors, and faster to hang, as well.
The hinge is important, too. A Euro hinge can push the door apart, since the metal of the hinge won’t give if the style is too narrow and tries to expand against the sunken hinge body.

Skip uses a Freud 24 tooth Rip Blade in thin kerf form for most of his work.
He sands two grits less for the features, than he does the flats.
He stresses pre-finishing the door parts, so shrinkage will not reveal "white lines."
He showed a remarkably simple but effective jig which uses variable angle blocks, so different angled cuts can be made with one jig.

He described his hefty ¼" aluminum router base plate, which he inserts in his router stand and then runs his pieces across the flat, stable Al base to get uniform cuts.

Some Good Advice:

1. Make extra parts (styles and rails). You’ll need them for errors, experimentation and to keep for set-up (patterns) next time you want to make that exact same door.

2. Keep the table saw blade in the customary position. Use the angle jig to hold pieces in the desired (5deg, 10 deg, 15 deg.) position, so as to increase your likelihood of repeatable cuts.

3. Start with the cross-cuts, so the long cuts (with the grain) will clean-up the ends.

4. Cut the panel, then trim the back to fit into the ¼" slot. Make it loose so it fits after the finish.

5. Use Pure Cornstarch baby powder, not talcum powder to cut friction on the tablesaw top.

6. Skip’s Rule of Thumb: The bigger the panel, the sloppier the fit! This due to natural curve, warp or bend in the wood.

7. Keep the curves (the router bit) simple, because from five feet away, you can’t tell an ogee cut from a chamfered cut.

8. The closer you hold the object, the more the details matter. (Re. small decorative boxes.)

9. Always run larger bits at lower speeds. Even take several passes to make the full cut, if necessary. Woodworkers has a variable speed control for your router.

10. Vertical Bits (taller, narrower) have less margin-of-error than the wider, flatter ones.

11. Skip makes supportive fences by cutting a circle in a piece of plywood, surrounding the spinning bit and then backing-off the fence, so the profile of the bit forma the supporting sides for work run by the bit in the router table.

12. Use 3M #77 adhesive for getting the push block to "stick" to the work. Remember to let it dry thoroughly, first!

13. Start with the coping-end cuts first. Use a backing block to limit break-out. Use scrap backers for end cuts, after sticking cut (long direction) is made.

14. Consider using the Floating Tennon system if you will drill your mortises and don’t have a dedicated mortising machine. It uses the "stacked-log" appearing tennons.

15. Use a straight edge across each corner joint to check for flatness of panel.

16. Eyeball both pipe clamps to "wind" the joint.

17. Male two "L s" … two corners of the frame … then fit them together.