Door design question

[russellellis]

Im thinking about a wall cabinet with a locking door and a secret compartment in the door itself for the key. the picture below is a very rough sketch of the idea and you can see the top right small field is the secret compartment that will hold the key sideways. The compartment would be opened by removing a false peg from the case of the cabinet that has a magnet epoxied to the peg, the compartment will have a magnet epoxied into it as well, just place the peg against the compartment and pull.
my question is, concerning wood movement, what would be the best way to construct the door/mullions/etc. the fields/panels as solid wood or veneered plywood/mdf? the "mullions" as solid wood or veneered plywood/mdf? solid mdf field with false mullions dado'd in? just to clarify, the large "t" center square bisecting the "t" are all mullions making up 4 tiny square panels and four larger rectangular panels.

 

[Ray Martin]

Russell,

How big is this door? I ask because the smaller the project, the less you have to worry about wood movement.

Generally, the panels, or fields, of a door for a cabinet would be plywood or MDF. That means no worries about movement for the panels. The rails and stiles should be solid wood but these are smaller / narrow pieces and would most likely not see much movement.

How will you build the door? There are a load of options here; cope & stick (special router bits mounted in a router table needed), stub tenon (simple joint that works well and can be made on the table saw), mortise and tenon (maybe save this one for larger / heavier doors), pocket screws (you need to have a way to hide the screw pockets on the inside of the door to make the door good looking), and there are others.

Some of your decisions will be affected by what you want to use the cabinet for and where it will be placed. Is this furniture? Is it a shop cabinet? If the former, I might think of cope and stick. If the later, anything will work. If your cuts are made carefully, stub tenon will work for either.

 

[russellellis]

Thanks. The piece would be "furniture". I would do pegged tenons for the rails and stiles. The door would be about 18 wide maybe 32ish tall about 8 deep. the hidden compartment would be about 3x3.

 

[Dutchman]

Interesting idea. Are you going to have a key hole in the face of the door? Not much more information about your cabinet. Just based on your given information, I would suggest you use a 3/4 door panel and use 1/4" trim for the framed look nailed onto the face of the door panel. You could then route into the 3/4 door panel behind the removable insert, just deep enough for the key. I would make outside rails and stiles 1/4" think, the cross pieces in the center 1/4" thick, and the pieces fit between the area in the center (including the removable square) 1/8" thick. At 1/8" thick it would be easier for the magnet to attract.