Minimum Panel Thickness

[Paul Shaffer]

Creekers,
I am laying out the panels for the doors, drawers and finished end panels for my kitchen cabinets and had a question. These are shaker style flat panels on the front, bevel raised on the back for 1/2" thickness total for the doors and drawers. I was wondering if I could reduce the thickness to 3/8" for the panels in the finished ends? For the base cabinets, there is a middle stile, so they are about 9 inches wide and the wall end panels will have 8 inch panels. The reason for this interest is that I could take my generous 4/4 rough stock, resaw it and get two panels out of one thickness and bookmatch them. Will there be any problem with a 3/8" panel is a part of the cabinet that is completely static? Cracking, warping? Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Paul

[Jeff Duncan]

That's thin but I think you should be fine. Those are pretty narrow widths which will keep movement to a minimum, and the frame being fixed should prevent them from wanting to warp/cup etc..

good luck,
jeffD

[Doug Wolf]

I built this entertainment center in 2008 with 3/8" or maybe 5/16" thick book matched cherry panels out of 5" wide stock for a panel that's 10" x 32" and haven't had any warpage, cracks or movement in the panels. The doors open every day and they are just like new. I finished the inside and outside with Danish oil.
257722

[Mark Rakestraw]

I've had resawn panels come out to as little as 5/16 to no ill effects. The thin panels are easily held flat by the stiles and rails. Keeping the width down helps a lot. I put center stiles in door over 14" wide. If you can keep the thickness in your stiles and rails (finished thickness 7/8 instead of 3/4) it keeps the doors from feeling too light.

[Dave Zellers]

+1 to what Mark just said.

Use your generous 4/4 rough stock to get 5/16" thick book matched panels (or perhaps just matching panels top and bottom or side to side with a center stile in his example) and then use your generous 4/4 rough stock to make 7/8" thick doors.

[Paul Shaffer]

Thanks for all the insight, I definitely feel more confident about using some thinner panels for the ends. One more question I thought about as I was reading the responses... Should I use spaceballs in the slots (my normal building method), or do they have the potential to put too much stress on the thinner board and I should leave them truly floating with just a pin nail in the middle of the rails to keep it centered?

Thanks,
Paul

[Mark Rakestraw]

I used them....two on each side, about 2" in from the corner.

[Sam Layton]

Paul,

I used thin panels for the end panels as well. I also used space balls. Everything is just fine.

Sam

[Doug Wolf]

Paul, I used 4 spaceballs on the 32" side and 2 on the 10" sides.

[Darius Ferlas]

I used to use spaceballs but in the last 3 years I replaced them with weldbond glue, applied along the panel's end-grain. The glue keeps the panel from rattling and it expands/shrinks with wood.