Raised panel door ???????

[Greg Dykes]

I am about ready to start building 58 raised panel doors. I have my new DW 12 1/2" planer, new Delta 6" jointer and the new Bies fence on the old table saw. I just picked up 184bdft of popular and going to plane it off in the morning. I could'nt wait to try out my new toys so I ran a few tonight. I don't know what I ever did without all these new tools I just bought. Xmas in Sept..

I want to start gluing up my panels tomorrow afternoon and this is where the question comes in. I have not seen any cup to the boards I bought today and was wondering how wide should the widest board be when I am gluing up my panels? The boards I have range from 5" to 9" in width.

Is there any certain way I need to position the boards as I glue them up?

One other thing in to keep in mind is that the doors will be painted.

P.S. For those of you that might be considering an inexpensive dust collector, I just hooked up my new Harbor Freight 2 H.P. DC to the planer and jointer and it worked great. I bought it off of E-Bay for $199.00 and no freight (didn't know it was coming from HF but had a strong suspicion). My neighbors don't seem to love my new toys as much as I do and for the life of me I can't see why. Either way I could'nt hear any of them yelling over all the noise the planer makes.

[Greg Funk]

I wouldn't worry about the grain orientation. The rails should help take care of any potential movement. I would leave the boards as wide as you can, in your case limited by the size of your jointer.

I know you've already bought the wood but I would consider making the rails & stiles from poplar and the panels from MDF. MDF is stable, machines and takes paint extremely well.

Greg

[Greg Robbins]

Since you're painting the doors, you may want to consider using MDF for the panels. I've built a lot of raised panels using it and it paints up great. Plus you don't have to spend a lot of time gluing up the panels. Also, MDF is cheap.

[Paul Greathouse]

Another vote for MDF panels. Poplar rails/stiles and MDF panels are a great combination when painting.

If you would rather use all wood for the doors, you probably won't have much of a problem with warping as long as your moisture content is low enough, but if you want a little added insurance you can alternate the growth rings on you glue-up.

As for the Harbor Frieght dust collector, what size micron filter or bag did you get? If your kind of new to dust collection you may want to read up on some of the good dust collection threads to ensure that you keep your lungs healthy. If you do a search on Harbor Frieght you will eventually come across a thread talking about an aftermarket low-micron filter for your collector. The same filter works on the Delta and a few other systems comparable to yours.

[Alex Berkovsky]

Greg,
I would let the poplar acclimate to your shop environment for couple of weeks before surfacing the stock. At the very least, surface the stock close to its final dimensions and let it sit for a few days before milling it to size.

[frank shic]

no better way to WARM up your newly acquired tools than to build a FLEET of raised panel doors, eh greg? if you do use MDF, make sure you invest in a minicyclone or else your shop vac will gum up from the OVERWHELMING MDF dust real fast. make sure you've got dust collection set up UNDER and BEHIND the router - even this will not catch 100% of that stuff!

[David DeCristoforo]

Well, as usual, I will go "against the grain" and beg you not to use MDF. Make your door panels out of wood. The sawdust should be on the floor (or in the DC), not in the door...or something like that....

There are two "schools of thought" on how to glue up door panels.

1) You can leave the boards as wide as possible. Look at the ends of the boards so that you can "read" the end grain which, on most of the boards, will have a discernible arc. You can also select boards that will allow you to glue up a panel from more or less equal widths, i.e. 3 6" widths to make an 18" wide panel. Orient the boards so that all of the arcs "face the same way".

2) You can rip all of your stock to 2-3" widths and glue up the panels from these strips and "flip" every other one

In the first case, you are allowing the panel to act as a "whole" so that any "cupping" will be more or less equal over the entire width of the panel. In the second case, you are creating a "wave" pattern which will reduce the tendency of the panel to cup across the entire width by limiting the widths of the individual strips in the panel.

The first method is generally considered better for panels that will be "finished". The second method is generally considered "better" for painted doors.

[Steve Clardy]

I use the panel boards as wide as I can get.

I am just finishing up 52 oak RP doors, and only had to do 1 panel glue-up.

Painted doors, I use real wood. ;)

[Brian Jarnell]

My vote is for MDF where painted.

MDF is very abrasive on your knives,tungsen being the best when working with custom wood.

(custom wood + MDF)

[Greg Dykes]

Thanks for all the advice. I was originally going to use MDF for the panels. I decided against MDF do to the weight. I have over 24 doors that are between 20-22" in width. If I went with MDF I would have had to add additional hinges to handle the weight.

The other reason I chose the wood over MDF is the number of doors and the life of a raised panel bit. I would like to use the bit on a few more projects and was afraid that the MDF would reduce it's life.

As for the cost, I was able to get 184 BDFT of popular for $200 even. Based on the door program I have that will give me 20% waste. I am sure after all is said and done I will have to get a few more boards since I may not be as efficent at getting the most out of my wood.

[frank shic]

20-30% is about right. what are you using the doors for anyway? kitchen remodel? library? extremely ambitious shop remodel?

[Greg Dykes]

Frank, I have remodeled my kitchen. I have already built and installed all my cabinets. Some of the doors are for cabinets I have built for the dinibg room as well. I did not have the space to build my cabinets and doors at the same time. I usually do things backassward but it owrks for me.

[Dixon Peer]

[quote=Greg Dykes;654726]Thanks for all the advice. I was originally going to use MDF for the panels. I decided against MDF do to the weight. I have over 24 doors that are between 20-22" in width. If I went with MDF I would have had to add additional hinges to handle the weight.

There is a lightweight MDF on the market that would probably be lighter than your glued up poplar. But it's still quite abrasive and will dull your tooling quicker than real wood.

[frank shic]

greg, i did the same thing with my kitchen cabinets - it took me another six months before i had doors and drawer fronts! have fun and please WATCH OUT for those fingers.

[David DeCristoforo]

"...please WATCH OUT for those fingers..."

Please indeed! But don't forget to watch out for all those other body parts too!
(inc. but not limited to eyes, nose, ears, midsection,etc.)