Making Raised Panel Doors

Cabinets usually need a door or two and deciding on the style of the door can be make or break the appearance of the piece.

Making raised panel doors.

In a frame and panel construction a large panel is fitted into a groove in the interior edge of a more dimensionally stable frame made of narrow. Frame and panel doors consist of the rails the top and bottom pieces the stiles the side pieces and the panel. The frame parts can be plain but most often they are decorated with a profile on the front edge where they meet the panel. As with any woodworking project however your first concern must always be safety.

If you intend to strengthen the cope and stick joints with loose tenons or dowels cut the mortises after routing the profiles. Raised panel doors are an example of frame and panel construction a method developed hundreds of years ago to combat the effects of moisture on solid wood used in cabinetry and furniture making. A raised panel resides in a frame that is composed of two stiles uprights and two rails horizontal members. Use straight grained stock for stiles and rails to best resist warping.

Raised panels take more work and arched raised panels require the most work. The good news is that with patience practice and a modern router bit set you can make great looking raised panel doors for your next project. The look of sophistication and craftsmanship raised panel doors provide is if my email is any indication both beautiful to the viewer and intimidating to new woodworkers. This prevents tear out around the mortise.

Learn a new way to make beautiful raised panel doors. In part two we ll build the interior panel and and finish it. Arched panels may be simple arches or a cathedral design. How to build a door.

Making doors with a shaper is a great idea if there are more than a couple of doors required. To prove that you don t need expensive cutters to make handsome doors we made the beautiful raised panel doors above using only three common router bits. The panel may be flat or raised. First you cut the parts for the rails stiles and panels to size.

Flat panels are the easiest to construct and install. Size the rail and stile frame to fit the door opening and then size the raised panel to fit that frame. In this article we ll be building the frame for an interior door from wood. There are five major steps to creating a raised panel door.

There s a lot of lumber and a lot of weight plus they re bigger. Making a raised panel door safety instructions creating raised panel doors is a fun and rewarding woodworking project.