# Why are tenons on the rails?



## maxwellllll (Nov 17, 2016)

Even though I've been weekend warrior-ing for many years now, I still consider myself a noob. I decided to make a cabinet for my shop "from the ground up" as a project to work through the ins and outs of it and to get comfortable with the process so that I can add that to my skill set. This is a base cabinet case with drawers--all in 3/4 ply--with a solid maple face frame and standard shaker style drawer fronts (solid maple frames with 1/2" maple ply panel). 

I'm in the end game now: making the drawer faces. Not having done this before, I have a simple question: Why are the tenons on the rails, rather than on the stiles? Every reference that I find shows that the tenons are _always _on the rails, mating with grooves in the stiles, like this:










To me, this goes against the standard "hide the end grain when possible" philosophy, as it makes the end grain of the stiles visible from above, which--for a base cabinet--is the part that's more visible to the eye. It's obviously not a big deal, but it just seems counterintuitive to me. I'm wondering if there's some sort of structural (or other) reason why the reverse (tenons on the stiles) isn't a viable option, like this:










I'd love to hear your feedback on this. (and I beg forgiveness for my rudimentary "sketches"!)


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## Phil32 (Aug 31, 2018)

Cutting the tenons is likely a table saw task, best done on the longest members (for relative safety reasons).


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## Unknowncraftsman (Jun 23, 2013)

Are making the drawers or doors? Stiles and rails are door components 
Drawers have front,back,sides and bottom


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## northwoodsman (Feb 22, 2008)

That's the way doors have been made for a long, long time. I'm guessing drawers are done the same way to match. Most drawer fronts I have seen however are from a solid piece. As for doors, If you had a larger door that had more than one section (vertically speaking) there wouldn't be as much strength if you broke the stiles into multiple pieces and added hinges. You also have to consider the placement of handles, deadbolts, etc. Think of a 6 panel door. You can make your doors/drawers however you choose, miter your corners and eliminate end grain from any angle if you would prefer. I have done that on smaller projects. EDIT: It may also be done to match the face frame construction.


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## maxwellllll (Nov 17, 2016)

Phil32 said:


> Cutting the tenons is likely a table saw task, best done on the longest members (for relative safety reasons).


Thanks, Phil. I had exactly that thought. Absolutely makes sense--especially for a "short" drawer.


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## maxwellllll (Nov 17, 2016)

Unknowncraftsman said:


> Are making the drawers or doors? Stiles and rails are door components
> Drawers have front,back,sides and bottom


Drawer faces. Perhaps my terminology is wrong when dealing with drawers, but my understanding is that they're effectively the same as doors, construction-wise.


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## Moai (Feb 9, 2009)

If you take a look on a typical home door (Raised panel), the bottom rail and sometimes the upper rail are much wider than the stiles, that means bigger tenons inside mortises, what equals stronger joins and less racking in the future. I do believe kitchen cabinets doors and drawer fronts come from the same type of arrangement, at least visually.


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## maxwellllll (Nov 17, 2016)

northwoodsman said:


> That's the way doors have been made for a long, long time. I'm guessing drawers are done the same way to match. Most drawer fronts I have seen however are from a solid piece. As for doors, If you had a larger door that had more than one section (vertically speaking) there wouldn't be as much strength if you broke the stiles into multiple pieces and added hinges. You also have to consider the placement of handles, deadbolts, etc. Think of a 6 panel door. You can make your doors/drawers however you choose, miter your corners and eliminate end grain from any angle if you would prefer. I have done that on smaller projects.


That makes sense. I was sort of assuming that the method itself probably has more to do with "it always works" whether it's a simple or complex job. Was just wondering if there was some sort of structural reason, and I can see from your comment that there would be structural issues in a more complex door.


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

For a cabinet door or even a house door for that matter, I suspect that it is because after hundreds of years of making stile and rails doors, they have found that it is stronger with the stile going top to bottom and the rails between them connected with tenons sticking into the end. I am sure that an engineer could explain it based upon how gravity converts into the various forces that affect the joints.

For a drawer front, it probably doesn't make any difference from a strength perspective because you are not trying to support its weight along one edge so it becomes just a matter of aesthetics. To an experienced furniture maker, making it so that the rail is vertical and the stile is horizontal would probably look odd to their experienced eye so they normally would not do it that way. If you find it looks better in your particular case, no reason not to do it.


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## firefighterontheside (Apr 26, 2013)

Theres no reason you can do it as you illustrated for a drawer front. I would not do it for a door of any kind as it would not be strong to have the edge of the door be numerous pieces. You want your hinges attached to one long piece of wood.


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## builtinbkyn (Oct 29, 2015)

Long grain. Look it up. Then you will know why.

Edit: Rereading your post I guess we should discount the title. You are referring to stiles and rails - or in your example, a face frame for a drawer. Tenons are structural elements. They are not exposed and are used to join elements together (joinery). Tenons are part of the internal structure which tie the stiles together to provide lateral integrity. For a non-structural element such as a drawer face, that isn't required. You can frame a drawer either way as vertical and lateral loads are not an issue.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Hmmm..


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

There is a Journal going on, about how I build that...."Replacement of a Chest of Drawers"


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## YRTi (Jan 11, 2022)

Lazyman said:


> For a cabinet door or even a house door for that matter, I suspect that it is because after hundreds of years of making stile and rails doors, they have found that it is stronger with the stile going top to bottom and the rails between them connected with tenons sticking into the end. I am sure that an engineer could explain it based upon how gravity converts into the various forces that affect the joints.
> 
> For a drawer front, it probably doesn't make any difference from a strength perspective because you are not trying to support its weight along one edge so it becomes just a matter of aesthetics. To an experienced furniture maker, making it so that the rail is vertical and the stile is horizontal would probably look odd to their experienced eye so they normally would not do it that way. If you find it looks better in your particular case, no reason not to do it.


When I researched about it (I had a similar question), I've read it's for the strength(strong against twists) from Japanese joinery things for typical room doors and sliding doors that are vertically long. They even had a name for it, which I forgot.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

For a drawer front, I don't think it matters, structurally. You would make the tenons on the rails primarily so it matches the doors in the rest of the cabinetry. On doors, you want the stiles to be full length because the whole door hangs on the hinges attached to the stile.


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## jshea132 (3 mo ago)

I've never seen anyone make the drawer fronts other than solid wood with the edges routed to make them similar to the raised panel doors. Drawer fronts don't have styles and rails.


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## builtinbkyn (Oct 29, 2015)

jshea132 said:


> I've never seen anyone make the drawer fronts other than solid wood with the edges routed to make them similar to the raised panel doors. Drawer fronts don't have styles and rails.


Shaker style drawers have frames and panels.


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## CommonJoe (May 8, 2021)

builtinbkyn said:


> Shaker style drawers have frames and panels.


Not only shaker, every style. They're called 5 piece drawer fronts and normally, depending on the size, have the top and bottom rails reduced in width for a bigger center panel. Very Common.


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