Help needed to find a router bit

[EddieWalker]

I took another picture of the door to show that each stile and rail are one piece.

 

[2manyrocks]

Nice joint. Did the wife get rid of her husband's molding cutters and router bits after he passed? If she still has them, that might be your best chance of actually finding the cutter / bit he used.

 

[jaxs]

I wasn’t clear. The cabinets where not built by the home owner. In my opinion, they are something you would expect from a Big Box type of store. I do not think a cabinet shop made them. They are not really great cabinets. You might even say that they are kind of cheap cabinets. There isn’t anything wrong with them, but there isn’t anything great about them. She is in her 70s and she just wants it all done so her kids can inherit a finished home.

I took another picture of the door to show that each stile and rail are one piece.

View attachment 805683

You are sure making this hard for us Eddie but maybe everyone gets on the same page soon. The doors might not be homeowner built but there's less than 1 in 1k chance they are from big box. As for them being nothing special,beauty is in the eyes of beholder. In my estimation those doors are just as desirable as 50% of doors installed in new homes this week. The picture doesn't change my mind on best way of duplicating doors using 2 piece trim to hold panel.

 

[BigGG]

I took another picture of the door to show that each stile and rail are one piece.

View attachment 805683

They are definitely one-piece. And the panel groove is rounded, not square.

 

[EddieWalker]

Nice joint. Did the wife get rid of her husband's molding cutters and router bits after he passed? If she still has them, that might be your best chance of actually finding the cutter / bit he used.

There is a shop building of sorts. He started building it awhile ago, she's not sure how long he had been working on it. There is a roof, and some walls, but most of all, there is a massive amount of "stuff" all over the place. Piles of it. Some of it might of been worth something, but it's been left exposed to the elements for so many ears, that the rust has destroyed most of it. A really nice upright air compressor at one time is total junk. Half a dozen riding mowers, just about every power tool needed for a full wood shop, but rusted out beyond repair. She said that he couldn't turn down a deal from the pawn shops, and he loved to visit them. He was very proud of the deals he got, even if he already had a dozen of what he bought. I never met him, so I don't know what the plan was. I'm just hoping that she doesn't decide to hire me to finish it off!!!

As for him having anything to make cabinet doors, odds are that there probably is something there. Odds are even higher that it's rusted out, old and warn out, and not worth the time to try and find it. If it was my place, I would dig a massive pit and start burying stuff.

 

[2manyrocks]

Unfortunate.

There used to be places that would custom make a cutter to fit a profile if you have anyone near you who could do it.

 

[dstig1]

Unfortunate.

There used to be places that would custom make a cutter to fit a profile if you have anyone near you who could do it.

Oh you can still get custom cutters made if you really want to. Expensive, naturally. I doubt this situation is significant enough to warrant it. Based on a couple postings, there are bits that should come down to "close enough" for this. It isn't a matching restoration at Buckingham Palace or something. It just needs to be close enough to be passable. And even thought the original now appears to be one piece, doesn't mean you can't make the replacements as a tacked-on molding. With glue and a 23 ga pin nailer, nobody would know. Ya just need to decide how deep you want to go down this rabbit hole.

 

[WinterDeere]

Late to the party, and I only read page 1, but I've had custom router bits made on several occasions. It is not a big deal, if you have a week or two to wait for it. I usually do this when trying to match old hand-planed moldings in old houses, which can use custom patterns unique only to some carpenter who died 200 years ago. Some companies can take a sketch on graph paper, scanned and emailed, others require a CAD drawing in .dxf format.

 

[Gem99ultra]

If you really have to know... Ask Tim from "Ask This Old House". Tim knows everything about routers, bits, wood...
But, if you just want an educated guess, I'm still holding with the 'two piece' bit method.