After failing to reinforce the miter joints of the cabinet door with dowels, I thought of cutting slots in the corners and inserting well-glued plates to reinforce the 45-degree joints. Typically, a jig is made for this task to cut the slots with a circular saw, but I didn’t want to go through the trouble of making one at this time, so I decided to try this system with a handheld circular saw.
Fortunately, the stretchers of the table I made for the workshop tools are quite tall, and one of them is perfectly flush with the edge of the table, so I have a good place to position the cabinet door vertically, with the sides inclined at 45 degrees.
It was easy to hold the door by hanging it with some nails and placing a strip next to it as a sliding surface for the circular saw and as a support for its guide, although as I mention in the video, it is not so easy to keep the guide pressed against the strip.
For the reinforcements, the best option might have been to use solid wood, but again I didn’t want to complicate things and used a piece of veneer to get the plates to insert into the slots I cut in the corners, thus reinforcing the miter joints.
Adjusting the cutting depth is simple (I’m not quite sure what depth I should give it and maybe I went a bit overboard), but adjusting the slot width requires a bit of steady hand and patience. If the wooden plate is the same thickness as the saw blade, there is no problem, but this was not the case, and I had to adjust the side guide of the saw to adjust the slot in three cuts.
The result, for a first time, was quite satisfactory. All that was left was to glue the plates (without overdoing it with wood glue in slots and plates), let the glue dry, cut the protruding pieces of veneer with a back saw, and sand them to level with the edges of the strips that form the door. This way, I reinforce the miter joints and give them a decorative touch.
Everything about how to make this wooden display cabinet