streamlining raised panel door process

[frank shic]

i usually rough crosscut, rough rip, face joint, edge joint, run it through the planer, finish rip, finish crosscut before i actually get to machining the rails and stiles but ever since i acquired a drum sander a few years ago, i've been wondering if i could get away with eliminating some of the rough stock preparation steps particularly in paint grade doors and drawer fronts? would love to hear others' describe their process in the never-ending quest for efficiency WITHOUT outsourcing!

[Zach Callum]

Order your lumber surfaced to 15/16th and buy one of these. (http://www.griggio.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=122&category_id=20&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1)

[Sam Murdoch]

You made me laugh Zach :D but...

So Frank in the 1st part of your sentence up to "finish crosscut" - you are describing the panel prep? Then you glue up your panels and run the hips? I pretty much follow that procedure. Can't see how you can mill the hips unless your panels are already pretty flat. When I had a wide belt I did use it to skim sand raised (or otherwise) panels after the glue up and before running the hips. Same thing with the frame stock - if your rails and stiles are not flat to begin with you run into problems with keeping the milling - profiles and joints - accurate. The next pass through the sander was with the assembled doors or finished ends etc. just to get the rail to stiles joints flush and flat. Without the wide belt I just spend the time making my rails to stile joints more accurate and I can allow my raised panels to be proud of the frame. Don't really think of the wide belt as a short cut in the door/panel making process, but for a table top or the like it can be very much the time saver.

[J.R. Rutter]

An S4S machine is great - my moulder has paid for itself more than once over in the few years that I've owned it. But you need a rip saw in front of it for it to be really effective.

It is difficult to really save steps if you want to end up with flat doors. Probably the simplest is to combine as many of your stock prep steps as possible by working with longer rippings and then just doing a single finish crosscut. To do this in your own shop requires some room and some power feeders. If you have a good supplier who can handle some of the prep, from just SL1E to doing full S4S oversized to your specs, then you can still control the final quality pretty well. The important thing to remember is that you shouldn't polish crappy wood by excessive crosscutting and flattening. There is a reason why the board is crooked to begin with and it will probably move again with humidity changes. So starting with a pile of pretty flat strips, you can easily see what parts should be used for long and which should be crosscut as short. Keep all of the crowns up for every part, and find a cutter set that will let you mill the sticking to final width in one shot. Like Sam said, the sander isn't all that great at flattening. You still need pretty flat parts and accurate joinery to end up with a flat door.

[joe milana]

Frank, get a CNC router & make MDF doors...

But seriously, you follow my exact procedure, except you forgot the most important step....Waiting for your "staves" to relax a few days between steps before final dimensioning. Here's about half of my current "work in progress". I know of no other way...

225270

[joe milana]

The important thing to remember is that you shouldn't polish crappy wood by excessive crosscutting and flattening. There is a reason why the board is crooked to begin with and it will probably move again with humidity changes.

Now there's some good advice, and probably why we get "burned" from time to time. Even after all the precautionary steps we take.

[frank shic]

thanks for all the responses, guys - especially JR who i was hoping would respond since he makes these things professionally. if only i had a four sided planer or a CNC machine lol... for now, i'll just keep doing what i've been doing. i was just wondering if there were any shortcuts because i hate jointing. i probably should've saved the smaller crosscuts for later in the stage but i was having a hard time mentally sorting out my cut list. btw i tried that trick with spinning the panel around on the jointer and it didn't work... wound up having a big enough ridge that i didn't feel comfortable using that as the "flat" reference point for planing and just ran the other side face down through the planer. maybe i should just build rustic furniture, sell it at a hugely inflated price after peppering it with a few gratuitous gouges, scrapes and dings as clothing store fixtures and forget about flatness altogether!