Wide-reveal raised panel?

[Jamie Buxton]

I've made raised panels with a vertical panel-raising router bit. These bits make a reveal of 1 1/4" or so. I'm working on some larger cabinet doors (24x36), and this reveal looks disproportionately narrow. Does anybody have a scheme for making a wider reveal -- short of buying a big shaper?

[Todd Burch]

Jamie, you could raise them on your tablesaw. I fuss over the same types of issues sometimes.

[Jamie Buxton]

Todd --
How do you do the raising on a tablesaw? The approaches I've considered don't provide parallel faces on the tongue that slides into the dado in the frame.
Jamie

[Chris Padilla]

Todd --
How do you do the raising on a tablesaw? The approaches I've considered don't provide parallel faces on the tongue that slides into the dado in the frame.
Jamie

Jamie,

Thanks again for training me on your 16" Laguna BS! Folks, this guy is an AMAZING ww'er! He has some fine, fine pieces...do check out his website!

The only way I can think of to do this on a TS is with a tilted dado blade and a jig to hold the panel and fit into the miter slot. However, I think there will be several steps to get the tongue 'n groove or floating flat portion of the panel.

It is entirely likely that I've no clue what I am talking about nor clearly follow what you want. :)

[Todd Burch]

Jamie, I will raise a scrap piece, just one edge of a scrap piece, fronts and backs. I prefer a raised back panel too, although the back panel does not get raised as much, 'cuz the frame's groove is not usually centered. I fiddle with my setup on the scrap piece before I make the money cuts.

I've never done this, but you could cut your tenons first with your router rabbet bit, mortising bit, or your dado set on the tablesaw - get that fit just how you want it, then raise the panel, stopping right at your tongue. A little scraping followed by some sanding, and you're off to the races! This would provide a more consistent tongue width than raising them by eye and continuous test fit (my method).

I've never tilted the blade (I use a standard blade, not a dado - you get a larger radius) to raise on the tablesaw, but you could I guess. A couple years ago I saw someone had put together a nice graphic for the cove patterns you could get with various blade heights, tilts and feed angles. I should have saved it. The more perpendicular your feed angle to your blade, the longer arc you will get. You can always make a test cut on the edge of a piece of wood to see the result before you raise.

I've just done this Sketchup drawing to see the maximum raise than can be done, without pre-cutting tongues. This drawing shows me that if I raised a 3/4" thick panel, and divided the panel's thickness into thirds, the middle being for the tongue, the maximum length of the cove would be 1 9/16" (½ of the full arc) - not long enough for what you want, and your blade angle would have to be 90° to the blade... not real practical. Therefore, I would cut the tongues first to gain a longer cove, and cut them accordingly, based on your test scrap you cut first, to provide the total length you want for your arc. And, you have to decide if you want a "flat bottom" for your cove if you add more than your frame's groove depth for the tongue. I would guess that with a 3/8" groove depth, plus a 3/8" "flat (which equals a 3/4" long tongue, or tenon), plus a 1½" or less cove, you might could achieve a cove look of about 1½" + 3/8" = 1 7/8" or probably closer to 1¾".

Todd

[Jamie Buxton]

Todd --

Cove it, hunh? I'd briefly considered that for this raised panel, but remembered trying to make coving on a table saw many years ago. The cross-grain cutting ripped the heck out of the surface, and it took hours of sanding (hand-sanding!) to get it back. But maybe I'll give it another shot.

I've also thought of another way to do this. It looks a little complex in the sketch, but might be fairly easy to do. All the cutting is done on a table saw, and it is all straight cuts.

Jamie

[Chris Padilla]

Jamie,

That solid wood cut might be scary on the TS...perhaps the BS might be better? It should clean up on the jointer nicely? Heck, with a little jigging, you could use the jointer to cut the whole thing!

[Todd Burch]

Jamie, one of my suppliers makes that moulding you drew, specifically for this application. They have several styles to choose from even. For my next block paneling job that gets painted, I will be using it. They have styles that are proud at the panel, flush and rececessed to give a small fillet.

When coving on the tablesaw, you have to take small bites. A thin kerf blade is not a good choice, since it will flex a whole lot more.