Panel door frame crack repair/fix?

[Mark Rios]

I have a small crack in the face frame of one of the doors of my cabinet project that I didn't see before now. I'm very close to these doors being ready to hang and I really don't have time to retool and make another door.

Is there a trick to filling in a small crack in an oak cabinet door frame? The door stile is 2 1/2" wide and the panel is inset. The crack isn't moving as far as I can tell. Is there a formula of some sort like mixing some sanding dust with some magic putty and filling the crack?

Any help is really, really appreciated.Thanks very much.

[jack duren]

its usually better to take the edge of a putty knife and spread the crack and force glue if possible. but if you think woodputty is going to work fine and the cabinets have a natural finish just mix sanding dust from a belt sander or ROS with a small dose of glue and fill. you dont want the filler to be wet but like playdough.......jack

[Joe Chritz]

The glue and sanding dust works. I have heard it works ok if you use stainable glue and can still stain the project but haven't tried that myself.

That said I haven't had great luck with it on anything that is noticable. Last cracked stile I found was on one of my own so I hung it and when I tooled up to make more doors I replaced it. May not be an option for you.

Glue is cheap, try it out. As always, your result may vary. :)

Good luck

Joe

[Steve Clardy]

What Jack mentioned works.
Another tip. If the crack is on the end of the stile, you can sit the door on your table saw, cut into the crack, making a 1/8 wide cut through the crack. Then cut a 1/8 fill strip and glue it in.
Door face up. Raise blade up as far as it will go, having as less of an arc cut from the blade at the stopping point of the cut.
I did this some time ago. Was installing doors on a new cab installation. When I mounted the hinges, one of the screws split the door stile.
Other than making a complete new arched raised panel door, [which I was out of time on this job] I repaired it, refinished the door.
Couldn't tell there was a repair on the front of the door.