# how to make bridle joints on interior doors?



## mrpedaling (Jun 14, 2011)

So I'm thinking of making some single panel interior doors for some closets and such, and was considering bridle joints. They are easy enough to make on a table saw with a jig… until I thought of trying to slot the 70+ inch long stiles. The rails are short 20"-30", that's prob still doable on the jig with some good clam-age, but… how does one normally go about doing this? Plunge router it out with a long bit?


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Do you want to make bridle joints or mortise and tenon joinery? Normally you would use M&T and mortise the stile. The mortise can be made with a plunge router and long bit or drilled out and cleaned up with chisels.


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## HalDougherty (Jul 15, 2009)

a1jim is right. Normally you want to use deep tenons on a door. But, I made a shop door a few weeks ago using rails and stiles from 3/4" poplar. I made two frames using 4" wide boards. 2 long stiles and three shorter rails. One frame had the joint on the side and the other frame had the joint on the top so when both were glued into a 1 1/2" door, they weren't at the same location. While the frames were drying, I cut 3/4" boards 4" wide and cut a rabbit on each side of them as well as the ends of the board. They fit into a rabbit I cut in the opening of the door. I stacked them in both openings and put glue on the frames. The interior panels are floating inside the frame. Then I glued and clamped them together. After the glue cured, I planed the edge to the size of the door opening in my shop and mounted hinges and the door handle and lock plate. I cut everything quickly with a hand held circle saw. If I had known how good the door would look, I would have used a sled on my table saw. I need a utility door for a rental house so I'm going to build a nicer one out of red oak, with the panels cut in a herringbone pattern.


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## mrpedaling (Jun 14, 2011)

The bridle ones appeared easier, and I dig the look. Also stops me from chiseling aka destroying work. Sorry, I am new to all this. Keep the comments comming.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Half lap joints have many of the advantages of bridle joints but are easier to make on long stock using the table saw.


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## TDinDC (Dec 1, 2020)

I have a similar issue. My house, built in 1932, has storm doors to a side porch door and front door that have inserts that can be changed from glass to screen seasonally. The inserts have slots on the side which hold them into the outer frame by three screwdriver-rotated tabs in the outer frame. Wood rot has made a screen insert unusable and I want to rebuild it. (In fact, I only have one of the two originals, so I want to build two new ones.)

The insert has 67-1/2" stiles and 27-1/2" rails, each 2"wide by 1-1/8" deep (thick). They are joined by modified bridle joints. Therein lies the issue: The slots (through-mortises) are 2" deep - too deep for a plunge router, and the pieces are too long for a table saw jig (they would have to stand vertically in the jig.) The Rails have the middle tenon, while the Stiles have their middle mortised. Note that the bridle joint has rabbets of differing depths.

How to make this? Chisel? Router, Band Saw? Other? Here are some pix.

The Insert Panel from the top end. Note lower end has damage in the far right corner.









Right Side View looking into Rail









Inside Face View showing bead covering the screen attachment









Outside Face View









Top View looking down on Stile


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