How To Build Raised Panel Doors

Building raised panel doors is mostly an exercise in setup and patience.

How to build raised panel doors. All the methods however fall into two different camps. One method is to use a tool that is specially designed to do the job such as a panel raising plane or a panel raising router cutter. Raised panel doors are an example of frame and panel construction a method developed hundreds of years ago to combat the effects of moisture on solid wood used in cabinetry and furniture making. Traditional raised panels appear in almost every furniture style since roman times though the way to make them varies wildly.

The center panel which floats in the frame is a raised piece of solid wood a flat piece of plywood also works. There are lots of different choices and lots of different hardware considerations but one door style that makers come back to time and time again is the frame and panel door and particularly the raised panel door. The vertical stiles and horizontal rails that make up the frame have square rather than contoured edges. Begin assembly of the door.

In a frame and panel construction a large panel is fitted into a groove in the interior edge of a more dimensionally stable frame made of narrow. The doors i build this way often are referred to as shaker style. You also can make raised panel doors with a portable tablesaw. Take your time to get the router bits set up correctly test fit everything before gluing and you can produce fine looking doors for any kind of project.

Cut the door panel insert slightly less than the size you need to allow for wood expansion and contraction.