Question about cabinet door

[Joel Goodman]

I am making a walnut cabinet that will be in a bathroom. It is 9" inches wide and 45" tall. I plan to make a panel door of walnut which will have 2" wide rails and stiles. I plan to put in a mid rail. The panels will obviously be very narrow. I plan to use walnut ply for them. My question is can I glue the panels in or should I float them? I'm thinking that because the whole door is so narrow maybe it would be ok to glue them in. It get's pretty steamy in there as there's a steam shower which the is not 100% sealed. I plan to varnish the cabinet. Thoughts?

[Steve Clardy]

Either way will work on the gluing of the panel.
Personally I never glue the flat panel on ply panel doors.
You run the risk of getting glue onto the panel where it will be visible.

[John Keeton]

Joel, I wouldn't hesitate to glue plywood panels as I don't think you would have any movement to speak of. On the finish, that is a tough one. Perhaps someone will have an idea on a moisture resistant finish. Personally, I have never found one that will do real well. The continual expansion/contraction of the wood seems to take its toll on finishes of any kind.

[Steve Jenkins]

No problem gluing in a plywood panel except as Steve said be careful of squeezeout. I would use a glue bottle with a fairly small opening in the spout and put the glue in the panel groove toward the back. That way any squeezeout should be on the back side so if you can't get it perfectly cleaned-up it won't be as obvious. I think that a good quality spar varnish should work well as they are designed to remain sort of flexible.