Cabinet Face Frame Material

Prepping face frame material for use.

Cabinet face frame material.

Please note that assembled face frames will have a size tolerance of 1mm on the overall sizes and 1mm within each opening. Making the face frame run past all the plywood edges provides a little wiggle room and hides not so perfect saw cuts on the plywood. A face frame is basically a frame usually made of hardwood in a species for the final finish of the cabinet. Who wants to sand saw marks off the edge of the face frame in a finished cabinet.

A face frame does a better job of this if it overlaps the box edges a bit. You guessed it nobody. This keeps the costs down think about how expensive it would be to build solid walnut cabinets and the labor less you only have to finish the face frame. While it doesn t matter what you build your carcass out of finish wise hidden behind face frame and doors drawers the material you choose for your face frame is the finished look of your cabinet.

To remove saw marks or other imperfections rip all face frames to 2 1 8 wide on your table saw. If staining your piece you want to match your face frame wood as closely as possible to your carcass lumber. I use wood glue and my k5 kreg jig set for 3 4 material and use 1 1 4 coarse thread pocket hole screws. It is available in 1 8 3 16 1 4 5 16 3 8 thicknesses at any width between 5 8 6.

Standard stile rail dimensions for face frames is 1 1 2. Assembled face frames are only grain and color matched on the faces. All natural wood characteristics are acceptable on the inside edges. I generally always build my face frames out of 1 2 poplar when painting.

On the outside edge.