Building a Mitring Stick Frame

Here is a way of machining frames with mitring stick which are jointed with tenons at rail ends and mortises in stiles. The mitring stick width matches the moulding width and a groove accommodates the raised panel. You may see below the front and back faces of the complete assembly and squaring the frame could turn the work into a cabinet door with strong joinery.

Overview


After squaring rails and stiles they go through the saw blade locked on the spindle moulder so that forming the tenons and sticks. In short the two following pictures show the tenoning method with a single saw blade and slightly extended to the mitring stick cuts.

Spindle Moulder


Tenon sides and shoulders but also stile sticks are cleared on the table saw.

Table Saw


Mortising the stiles then squaring the mortises or rounding the tenons allow for a dry assembly and a check of the joints.

Mortiser


The four elements of the frame go through the saw blade to shape the top rabbet of the moulding and clear a groove aiming the raised panel. Grooves and rabbets are more conveniently and often safely machined on the spindle moulder but that document purposes to minimize machine operations and tooling.

Rabbet and Groove


The planer fence locked on the sliding table allows for the chamfer cut then replacing the saw blade with the sanding disk enables the frame and its moulding to be sanded.

Chamfer


You may see below the completed frame and machining the raised panel leads to the outcome shown in the top picture.

Assembly