While working on another project where I had to wait for the glue to dry at different stages during the build, I figured I’d start another smaller project to make use of the time. A few months ago, I built a wall mounted storage cabinet directly above my miter saw station and planer / grinder stand to put various items that I use regularly. The open shelves tend to collect dust and look a bit untidy, so I figured I’d make doors to solve both problems. I didn’t want anything too fancy, but I did want them to look good and more or less match the rest of the shop decor.

I started with 1/2″ sanded plywood that I cut down to panels that are 1/2″ smaller than the final door size:

The 1/2″ is to accommodate solid edge banding around each door that is 1/4″ thick.

The banding and face trim for the doors is cut from a piece of regular framing lumber into strips that are about 5/16″ thick, then planed down to the final 1/4″ thickness:

The lumber is pine that has been in my shop for several months, so it is well seasoned. Of course, any type of plywood can be used for the panel and any kind of wood can be used for the trim, including hardwood.

The banding is cut to width and to the correct length and wood glue is applied to the edge:

To hold the banding on while the glue dries, I’m using 23 gauge pin nails. After the banding around the edges of the panels was done, I cut the face trim from the rest of the strips:

The face trim is installed in the same way, with glue and pin nails:

The face trim and edge banding not only dress up the doors, they also add stiffness that will help to keep the thin plywood panels from twisting and warping. These doors can be dressed up further by adding molding around the inside.

To keep the doors flat while the glue dries, I clamped them down to my workbench and left it overnight:

Nice to have some long reach clamps for occasions like this.

The next day, I trimmed the edges flush on the table saw and sanded the doors with the belt sander platform and random orbit sander for the face. Before putting the face trim on the doors, I sanded the plywood panel by hand:

To hang the doors, I used regular cabinet door hinges. These are self closing and help to keep the doors shut:

The cabinet looks a lot neater now. I decided to not make handles for the doors, since it’s easy enough just to grasp them at the bottom edge to open them.

Here’s a detailed video of the project: