How To Build Raised Panel Doors

Traditional raised panels appear in almost every furniture style since roman times though the way to make them varies wildly.

How to build raised panel doors.

The center panel which floats in the frame is a raised piece of solid wood a flat piece of plywood also works. Apply glue with a brush to the inside of the stile where the rail meets it and insert the rail tenon. Cut the door panel insert slightly less than the size you need to allow for wood expansion and contraction. 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.

Begin assembly of the door. One method is to use a tool that is specially designed to do the job such as a panel raising plane or a panel raising router cutter. The doors i build this way often are referred to as shaker style. 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.

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. The vertical stiles and horizontal rails that make up the frame have square rather than contoured edges. Take your time to get the router bits set up correctly test fit everything before gluing and you can produce fine looking doors for any kind of project. You also can make raised panel doors with a portable tablesaw.

There are lots of different choices and lots of different hardware considerations but one door style that makers come back to time and time again is the frame and panel door and particularly the raised panel door.