Door question!!

[Don Voegel]

I am making some EC doors approx 17x35 with rails and stiles 1 3/4" wide and grooves on inside edges for 1/2" ply panels. Will it be strong enough to miter the corners and use a large triangular spline at the corners? Thanks, Don

[Dave Avery]

Don,

A spline should work fine, but I'd be a little concerned with 1 3/4" rails and stiles on such a large door. Dave.

[Steve Schoene]

I'd agree with Don that the rails and stiles seem a bit skimpy for that large a door. The miter joint will work OK as long as you use the plywood panel, and glue it in. The corner joint will have little stress in that situation. I would use mortice and tenon if you went to a floating panel door, which would be required if you used solid wood for the panel. It that case they would need all the strength they could get--especially with skinny frames.

[Lee Schierer]

A mitered lap joint will give you the mitered look on one side and give more strength than the spline. They look more complex than they are to make.

[Todd Burch]

But I would just glue the ply panel in and not worry about a spline on the mitered corners, unless you wanted it for decorative purposes.

One option that you might consider, since the panel is so big proportionally to the frame, is to make up a "dummy" rail and stile (in this case they would be called mullions) with the same profile as the frame, make them 1/8" thick, and glue and tack them on the panel to make it look like a 4-panel door.

Todd.

[Phil Phelps]

Originally posted by Todd Burch
[
One option that you might consider, since the panel is so big proportionally to the frame, is to make up a "dummy" rail and stile (in this case they would be called mullions) with the same profile as the frame, make them 1/8" thick, and glue and tack them on the panel to make it look like a 4-panel door.

Todd. [/B]
You could make molding and rabbet it, as in picture frame molding. It would be above and below the style and rail.