Stile and rail door warp

[James Hansen]

Out of my 25 maple stile and rail flat panel doors, A few have a slight warp. Not real bad, We're talking flat against the face frame, one corner will be about 1/8 to 3/16 away from the face frame.

Anyone have any tips on permanently straightening a door out that has this problem?

When installed, I will use the little clear bumpers and I know one trick is to just use a bumper on the warped out corner and let the other end almost touch the face frame.

My OCD wants the doors to be perfectly flat. :)

Jim

[Shawn Pixley]

3/16" seems to be a long way out of flat. Do you know the face frames are all in one plane? Assuming that they are, are the rails and stiles flat to themselves? The flat panel is it floating or fixed? Plywood or solid stock? Was it dead flat before glue-up? If they are, then the warp is likely in your joinery.

I am sure some would suggest the wetting and laying it out in the grass technique to see if that helps. If that doesn't work, and the flat panel is glued in plywood, then you might have to rebuild it. If the panel is loose, I'd disassemble the doors fix the joinery and reglue. Was this a router profile rail and stile joint or other?

[Sam Murdoch]

Like Shawn I wonder if your cabinet face is out of plane. Do you know for certain that the doors aren't flat. Yes, 3/16" is a bit much.
Type of hinge? If you are using adjustable Euro hinges it could be that some pairs of hinges aren't set up equally and so moving the door in or out at the top.
Otherwise - what Shawn says - EXCEPT - for laying out on the grass - that is a problem posing as a solution.

[James Hansen]

3/16" may be a bit over what i have, and the worst door is a very tall one, about 4 feet tall, so the warp is amplified. Pretty sure some of the stiles had a bit of a bow to them and I would assume this is the result.

For added info, doors are 3" wide stile and rail, panel is floating and MDF core maple. they will be hung with euro face frame hinges with 1/2 overlay. Face frames are true, I can see this warp just by laying a door on a flat surface like my table saw surface.

the problem is not even close enough to justify taking them apart, I am merely looking for an easy way to maybe straighten them out a bit.

So what is this "laying out in the grass" trick. BTW, it is raining in Seattle right now and I am guessing today wouldn't be a good day to try this. :D

[John Conklin]

Are they finished equally on all sides? I bought some pre-made, unfinished oak cabinet doors years ago, put a coat of vanish on one side and then was distracted by life for a week. All of them warped pretty badly. Vanishing the rest of the surfaces did help, but they never were completely flat. Didn't have the $ to replace them back then so just lived with it until we sold that house.

[James Hansen]

nope, unfinished.

[Mark Rakestraw]

1/8" inch in a 48" tall door isn't what we shoot for, but it isn't that bad either. If it were in my house I would hang it with soft-close Euro hinges that allow for in-out adjustment. With those you can kick out the opposite corner a bit to split the difference (or put it all on the hinge side if that is less visible) and it will only be noticed by you.

[Dan Hahr]

I'm going to just say that once it's made, you will not flatten it without altering it somehow. I've found that if I've used dead straight stock any warp can be traced to the end or edge of the stiles/rails being slightly out of square. A few thousandths at one end of a four foot door can translate into what appears to be a twist. Check your joinery with an engineers square.

Dan