Options For Panel Raising

[Jared McMahon]

After spending a weekend using a router to make some basic rabbets and grooves, I now have a much greater appreciation of peace and quiet. There are a variety of router bits for raising panels but I'm struggling to find corresponding neander-ish options. I see a few:

- panel raisers from Philly Planes, and one or two others
- skew-rabbet planes with creative fences
- combination planes a la #55
- making one's own

It seems like simple profiles would be relatively straightforward, but ones that are either complex or an odd size could be a real pain. Right now I'm leaning towards trying to make my own, as much for the plane as for the experience/challenge/etc.

So, in short, how do y'all raise panels?

[David Gendron]

I have a raising panel plane made by Clark & Williams that I bought from a fellow creeker and it work great! I did it befor with a regular #6 plane for a simple profile. you can use a combination of planes if you want a more complex profile. I know that "The Beast Thing" on there vintage tools have a few of them(raised panel planes) for sale and some of them are in good condition!
Good luck and if you make one, keep us posted!

[Sean Hughto]

Derek was kind enough to preserve this. He also added many good points of his own. It may give you some ideas.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...el%20door.html (http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/Making%20a%20frame%20and%20panel%20door.html)

(the part on the raised panel aspect is towards the bottom - scroll down in the linked page)

[Joe Cunningham]

I usually do fielded and raised panels. Mark the center field area, saw about 1/4" down on all four sides. Mark the rabbet to go into the groove of the frame. Saw 1/2" down ( assuming 3/4 stock and 1/4" groove). Use a plane to cut the rabbet for the tongue, or you could saw it off too. On small panels I'll saw it, but for larger ones I get out the plane. Then use a rabbet plane to cut the raised portion of the panel, starting on the end grain first.

Your end points of the angle are predefined with the saw cuts, so it is tough to mess up. I've tried it free-hand like Derek's site shows, but I tended to have slightly 'lozenge' shaped raised areas--the middle bulged out a little.

They come out pretty good, not as 'perfect' as router bits, often with some variation. You do have to be careful with your saw cuts, but I haven't found that to be a problem. I score that gauge line fairly deep and the saw tends to follow it.

[Mark Stutz]

Jared,
Scroll down in this thread I started some time ago about making a raised panel door. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=34097 I have a series of pictures. A simple raised panel can be done with about any bench plane. I like the fielded raised panel, and established the field with a plow plane (#46). Lots of options after that...bench rabbett, skew block, shoulder plane (a skewed woodie is great for this),etc.

I've neverdone one with a profile to the raised part, but expect it coujld be done with H&R. I recently picked up a nice panel raiser at auctionthat I'm anxious to try.

Maark

[David Gendron]

There we go Mark, this is a well done job. I realy like the simplicity of it!
Thank you for the link!

[James Taglienti]

I have a friend with more than a dozen vintage panel raiser planes, if you are interested i can get some photos and prices from him.
I have never raised a panel by hand. I would certainly use one of his planes if i was going to. I wonder if the Stanley 289 would be a good panel raiser? It has a nice wide profile. A friend told me about the LN 140 with a fence, but that just seems too small.

[Jared McMahon]

Thanks all for the replies, many good ideas on how to perform the same task. Also, I've spent lots of quality time ogling Lie-Nielsen's selection of planes, I have no idea how I missed the #140; that's a very intriguing critter right there.

I need to be a good boy and stick to the rule of not buying tools until I need them, lest I cross over from woodworker to tool collector (a slippery slope, I'm sure). I've set myself up to build my first real woodworking bench, but across that window I'll haunt the local antique stores for scratch&dent wooden planes as source material, then hopefully try to make my own panel raiser. Crosscut Hardwoods sells quite thick boards of hard maple, I'm optimistic about getting a few chunks that I can butcher until I have plane-sized pieces of stock that are effectively quartersawn. From everything I've read, maple isn't ideal but it should work plenty well enough for this application. And Seattle isn't exactly awash with big beautiful clear boards of quartersawn European beech. ;)

[Pam Niedermayer]

The LN 140 is great for panels with bevels narrower than its width; and bonuses are that it comes in both left and right handed versions, with nicker option, and it's skewed. Not cheap though.

Pam

[Tri Hoang]

I learned to raise panel with a skew rabbet plane. However, in my last batch of 8 doors, I used a combination of a camber jack and smoother. Once I defined the area for the bevels with a marking gauge, I use the jack to hog off most of it. It takes some practice to get the bevel started at the correct angle.. Once it's started, it goes really fast. The smoother just clean up everything nicely. Using this method, I could get 4 bevels done in 15 minutes and the finish is better than what I've got with the skew rabbet and a fence.

I'd have to try the plow plane with fielded panel...that's a great tip.