Everyone has their opinions on how to build something. A door is going to be supported only on one side so what ever method you use has to be strong! I think mortise and tenon is the best choice for something this large. It is a very old and proven method.

I was a bit concerned about getting the tenons cut on such large pieces. I just couldn't see them standing on end in a mortising jig on my table saw. And while I love using hand tools my skills with a chisel are not that good and the thoughts of trying to chisel 24 large mortises in soft cypress was not appealing. I don't own a mortiser nor did I want one.

The answer was mortise and loose tenons. There are several articles on the web on how to do this, the best one I found is a pdf file located at workbench magazine. I printed this out and used it as my guide. It made the whole process very straight forward.

Once the door frames were assembled and glued together I started on the rabbits for the bead board panels. Since the doors would be closed most of the time I choose to just rout a rabbit rather than cutting a mortise and inserting the plywood. I wasn't to concerned about the back sides looking a little rough. Besides, the bead board plywood has a terrible finish on the back of it and there isn't much you do about it.

To cut the rabbits I used a Freud bit with the ball bearing guide. It did an excellent job on the cypress. I took a sharp chisel and cut the corners square.