Raised panel doors with stiles or rails wider than the typical 3/4" thick

[Don Morris]

Can you make raised panel doors where the rails and stiles are 2" to 3" thick? Comments and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated. Thanks!

[Adam Herman]

a residential door is 1 3/8 and a commercial or exterior door is 1 3/4. available in a typical raised panel arrangement.

[Doug Hepler]

Don.

I'm not sure that I understand your question. If you are asking about design, the answer is yes. Usually the face of a raised panel is even with the rails and stiles. Therefore, the distance from the show face to the mortises and the grooves would be the same regardless of how thick the rails and stiles were. (I wonder if that is clear) For example, if the panel is made of 3/4" thick stock and the tongue is 1/4" thick, centered, then the groove for it would be 1/4" from the front of the rails & stiles.

Doug

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I am about to make two end tables where the rail and stiles are 1 1/2" thick. They are chamfered back to 3/4" on the edges. The edges will align with the face surface of the cabinet. Thus the rails and stiles will project out from the surface of the end table front. The top will curve out and project out over the door projection. The drawer has a curved front too.

A drawing will make more sense.

355896

[Mel Fulks]

2 and 1/4 inches is another "standard size" . Often used for doors 7 feet and over . I made a pair 10 feet tall for a hospital. And other non standard sizes are possible. Of course you have to make the frame,too

[Warren Lake]

have a 2 1/4" door sitting beside me, stave core. built that way for more stability and also it allows you to make any thickness door you want I think six inches is the thickest ive heard of. Panels should sit lower than the rail and style.

[Don Morris]

I have a Sommerfeld set of router bits that are designed for the 3/4" thick stile and rail. At least, that's what I got them for and they worked very nicely. But I would like to use them on a project where e stile and rail are thicker. Any problem with that? Should have made this the question in the first place!

[lowell holmes]

Why don't you do a mock up and see if you like the results? That's what I would do.

[Mel Fulks]

Years ago every work order I got for raised panel work had a panel designation of "standard raise, flush raise,or off-set raise". Offset was usually 1/4 inch above the frame and usually had a bead about 1/4 inch bead under the standard surface.

[Edwin Santos]

Years ago every work order I got for raised panel work had a panel designation of "standard raise, flush raise,or off-set raise". Offset was usually 1/4 inch above the frame and usually had a bead about 1/4 inch bead under the standard surface.

Hi, was "standard raise" below the frame? If so how much?
I was once told that the traditional frame and panel door was a configuration where the panel was set below the level of the frame, but these days it is typically flush because shops run the door through a wide belt sander prior to finishing.

[Warren Lake]

thats why, in the old days when my guy was taught they had a stroke sander but not a wide belt, if you sanded you could hit it with the panel with the edge of the stroke sander belt. Visually below looks right to me but like lowell said make a mock up for what looks right to you., For me I was taught stuff is never flush so if I saw a dresser they made the drawer front was not flush with the rails and styles it was set in a bit.

[Mel Fulks]

Sorry,yeah standard was below frame surface. There were sometimes fine point details. Having a place on the work order for panel detail for EVERY job just made sure details were not absently left off.

[George Bokros]

I have a Sommerfeld set of router bits that are designed for the 3/4" thick stile and rail. At least, that's what I got them for and they worked very nicely. But I would like to use them on a project where e stile and rail are thicker. Any problem with that? Should have made this the question in the first place!

They will not remove material thicker than 7/8" when cutting the tongue. You will have to rip off the the material not removed by the router bit. I know because I just used mine to make some tongue and groove parts from 1" thick I am using for a display cabinet.

[lowell holmes]

In my world, 1 3/8" doors are for interior use.
1 3/4" or 2 1/4" doors are for exterior use.

I personally would not use a 2 1/4" door under 7' tall. That size seems to be large double doors in tall walls.

[Warren Lake]

the door beside me is under 7 feet and came from one of the top door and window makers in town guy retired after running his fathers bus for 35 years. Got a high paying job for a big door and window company first order he did there was 400k of windows for one home covered in bronze.

They designed their doors stave core for stability, because you can make any thickness and even the extra grain matching you can do with resawing your material, and making that material go further The thickness they do based on what they need. Profile used dictates part of it where panel and or glass will sit, panel thickness in this case was the glass, They made their own divided light glass up in a special room at the factory so lets say as a guess that added at least one inch you are probably up to 1 3/4 there alone and the glass could have been more I dont remember now. then you have your strips behind the glass to fasten that all in , dont remember the name of those.

[Don Morris]

On the box my Sommerfeld raised panel bits are in, it says: for stock from 3/4" up to 7/8" thick. I take that to mean you couldn't (read shouldn't) use anything thicker than 7/8". I guess the suggestion to do a mock up on a small test piece is probably the best way to tell. I just didn't want to get something started that could be dangerous on a router that I'd later regret not asking the experts first. I'll go slow, particularly with the panel cutter using multiple passes to complete the task....and see what happens. As George Bakros posted above: "You will have to rip off the the material not removed by the router bit. I know because I just used mine to make some tongue and groove parts from 1" thick I am using for a display cabinet." I'll have to see how much of a problem that would be on 2" or 3" stock.Maybe doing it without the back cutter would be best in this case? Oh, well, another test run.

[J.R. Rutter]

Can you make raised panel doors where the rails and stiles are 2" to 3" thick? Comments and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated. Thanks!

Sure. What specifics would you like info on?

[Tim Bueler]

Take your 3/4" to 7/8" bits and make two doors 3/4" to 7/8" thick and glue them back to back to end up with 1-1/2" to 1-3/4" thick? If you want thicker laminate a spacer in between? Laminations do make for more stability.

[Don Morris]

I don't seem to get across what my worry is....What happens when you take a router set designed for 3/4" thick stiles and rails and use them on 2" or 3" thick stiles or rails. Why would that be a problem. Just looking at the bits, to me, if you elevated the bit so it passed through the mid point of the thicker stile or rail, you would just have uncut wood above and below the cut area. The panel wouldn't be at the same level/plane as the face of the stile or rail, but that's not a deal breaker for me. Again, guess I'll have to run a test piece to see why that wouldn't work. I'm sure when I get it started, something will become obvious and it will suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks why that's not a technique that will work. Nothing like experience.

[lowell holmes]

I suggest that you run some test moldings and see what you come up with. You are on the right track in making a test molding.

You can overlay moldings. If you are making stile and rail moldings, it shouldn't be difficult.