Making Frame And Panel Doors

Making a frame and panel door.

Making frame and panel doors.

The process at least. The basic idea is to capture a floating panel within a sturdy frame as opposed to techniques used in making a slab solid wood cabinet door or drawer front the door is constructed of several solid wood pieces running in a vertical or horizontal direction with exposed endgrains. Frame and panel doors consist of the rails the top and bottom pieces the stiles the side pieces and the panel. Simple frame and panel doors in 30 minutes frame and panel doors add class to any project but they don t have to add a lot of assembly time.

Clamps clamps and more clamps. I don t know if this will be worthwhile to anyone but as i m making some panel doors for a project right now i thought i d take some pictures along the way and share the steps i happen to use. Here are all of the rough cut parts for the eleven doors i ll need. Frames use 3 4 thick stock with 1 4 panels in various materials and veneers.

Raised panels take more work and arched raised panels require the most work. With all of the upper cabinets for my kitchen made and installed i moved on to making the cabinet doors. Frame and panel construction also called rail and stile is a woodworking technique often used in the making of doors wainscoting and other decorative features for cabinets furniture and homes. Interior doors are usually 1 3 8 thick.

Flat panels are the easiest to construct and install. The door frame is built using loose tenons or dominoes with a panel that floats in a groove in the frame. This yields a stronger more stable door frame which has less tendency to warp or distort over time. The panel may be flat or raised.

Using the straightforward process detailed here you can crank out great looking doors for many applications including furniture cabinets and built ins.