Cabinet door construction

[Jason Buresh]

I am building a cabinet for my mother but i still haven't figured out how i am going to do the doors. I have a 5' long x 18" wide by 3/4" thick panel and a bunch of 1x4's i was planning on using. My plan was to build a frame with the 1x4's and then use the panel as almost a raised panel look.

My concern is 3/4" is probably not thick enough to do a raised panel? I was going to rabbet all 4 edges and then add a slight taper towards the middle, and then insert in the back of the 1x4 frame almost like a picture frame.

Anyone have any better ideas or more experience? Thanks for the help.

[Jim Koepke]

My concern is 3/4" is probably not thick enough to do a raised panel?

My wife's Tea Cabinet uses a piece of 3/4" fir for a raised panel:

447085

This was my first attempt at a raised panel.

If you want something fancier, take a stroll through the local arts & crafts retailer. They often have carvings that can be glued on to the face.

jtk

[Jason Buresh]

Jim,

Not looking for anything fancy, what you did is exactly what I am trying to do. Do you happen to have a post with details of the build?

[Ben Ellenberger]

I’ve done a couple of frame and panel doors with raised panels. One for a cabinet and another for the top of a tool box. A 3/4” panel should be fine in a frame made from 1x4’s. I kind of like it when the panel doesn’t rise all the way to the face of the frame.

The ones I’ve done have all been completely standard mortise and tenon frames with a 1/4” groove and 1/4” thick tenons. Then I mark the edge of the panel for a 1/4” thickness, mark a line in from the edge of the panel a distance that looks correct, and bevel the edges with a hand plane using my lines as a reference. I test the panel in the groove as I go and focus on keeping the bevels consistent and the edge at each corner at 45 degrees.

if you plan to make a rabbet along the back and set the panel in that, how are you planning to hold it in? There are probably a couple of approaches that would work, but I’d think you would want to let the edges of an 18” panel expand and contract a bit so you don’t risk splitting it.

[Jason Buresh]

Ben,

You are right, that is probably going to be a bad idea if i build it like a picture frame.

If i plowed a groove all the way down the stile, could I use that groove as a mortice for the rail?

I also assume it ia probably best to plow the groove down the entire board and the cut the stiles and rails ao the groove is even all the way around?

[Ben Ellenberger]

I use a plow plane to cut the groove. I get the faces of my rails and stiles straight and free of twist before plowing the groove, but I cut the individual pieces to length first. If the grooves are all done at the same time and referenced off the face of each piece, they will all line up as long as your fence doesn’t slip.

I think some people do just use the groove as the mortise and cut a stub tenon. I’ve never done that. I’ve always chopped a mortise at least 3/4” deep.

I learned from watching a series of Paul Sellers videos on YouTube. He has 4 videos about 45 minutes each where he walks through the standard way for making a frame and panel door. I’d really recommend watching them. They are really clear and gave lots of good points to learn. A big part of getting doors to come out straight and untwisted is to make sure all the stock is prepped correctly. You also want to make sure your mortises and tenons are cut precisely.

[Jim Koepke]

Jim,

Not looking for anything fancy, what you did is exactly what I am trying to do. Do you happen to have a post with details of the build?

There wasn't any posts on building the door. It seems my only posts at the time was on building the cabinet, making and attaching the molding.

My recollection of the technique was to cut the mortises and tenons first. When they were fit the edges were plowed to accept the panel.

A panel can be raised with a regular bench plane. Rabbet planes also can be used. Some like using a #140.

jtk