Paneled door construction - rails and stiles.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I am getting ready to start building an entertainment center. The design I have selected will have 4 raised panel doors that will be back cut so the panels will be flush with respect to the rails and stiles.

I bought a set of MLCS router bits that included the 2 piece ogee rail and stiles bit set and the ogee panel door bit.

In your experience, is the glue surface at the joints of the rails and stiles enough for strength or do you reinforce the joints with mortise and tenon, pocket hole screws and fill the holes or just pin them?

The one time I've done raised panel doors, I didn't use a decorative edge on the rails and stiles so I used a standard mortise and tenon joint to join the rails and stiles.

Thanks!

[Paul Girouard]

I bought a set of MLCS router bits that included the 2 piece ogee rail and stiles bit set and the ogee panel door bit.

In your experience, is the glue surface at the joints of the rails and stiles enough for strength or do you reinforce the joints with mortise and tenon, pocket hole screws and fill the holes or just pin them?



The cope and run glued will be enough for a cabinet door, even 1 3/8" and 1 3/4" doors , normal house doors , the cope and run is larger as is the overall door , but that's all that holds those together normally , the cope and run.

[Bill Huber]

I have only made a few at this point but if you look there is a lot of glue surface there. The ones I have made with just glue have held up just fine.
I made one set that was 2'x3' and they have not move a bit.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Thanks for the response guys! I was hoping I would not need further reinforcement.

[Peter Quinn]

I've made plenty both at work and at home with just cope and mold, never had a failure yet. When the doors start to exceed 20" in width I like to throw a dowel or two in for security. Takes me less than 3 minutes per door to add and gives me more peace of mnd.

As a side note, to paul's comments above, even the lowest grade of solid wood passage doors I have seen have dowel reenforcement for cope and stick Joinery. The forces involved on a 32X80 are easily enough to destroy the product quick, and the cost of adding this detail with automated machinery is very marginal. Use cope and stick without additional joinery on full sized doors at your own risk.

[Frank Drew]

As a side note, to paul's comments above, even the lowest grade of solid wood passage doors I have seen have dowel reenforcement for cope and stick Joinery. The forces involved on a 32X80 are easily enough to destroy the product quick, and the cost of adding this detail with automated machinery is very marginal. Use cope and stick without additional joinery on full sized doors at your own risk.

Agreed; I'm not wild about stub tenon cope and stick joints even for cabinet doors, but certainly not for passage or exterior doors. Most of the glue surface on the rails is end grain, it bears noting.

[scott vroom]

Yep, Ken, you're fine with just gluing the coped joints.

[Jerry Olexa]

Ken, I've done many raised panels...Gluing the coped joints is more than adequate...G'Luck with your project...

[Steve Jenkins]

I agree that glue is fine. I hold back a bit from the inside corner when applying the glue so I don't get any squeezeout on the corner of the panel thus gluing it in place.

[Curt Harms]

A possible solution for larger doors or those that are heavier due to having glass panels. Freud's adjustable rail & stile cutters will make as long a tongue as you could want, or you could make them bridle joints. You'd still have to deepen the tenon with a mortiser or drill. I didn't understand how they worked until I saw them demonstrated.
http://www.amazon.com/Freud-99-760-Premier-Adjustable-Router/dp/B002ZG7PXC