Raised Panel Door

Sean Wright

Member
Messages
902
Location
WNY, Buffalo Area
I am in the midst of working on a cabinet with shelves for my family room. Usually before I build something I have never done before, I make a practice run. This raised panel door is my practice run for the 3 doors that I will be making for my cabinet. I made this from pine. It was done using a set of rail and stile router bits that I picked up from Rockler. The panel was raised using a horizontal panel raising bit, again from Rockler.

side note:
-- you might have noticed that I get a lot of stuff from Rockler, it just that they have a store about 25 minutes from my house, so its a matter of convenience. When it comes to router bits and the like, i prefer to buy them in person.
 

Attachments

  • door1.jpg
    door1.jpg
    39.6 KB · Views: 70
  • door2.jpg
    door2.jpg
    32.3 KB · Views: 47
Looks great Sean, I got my RP bits from Rockler too, and I made some practice doors as well.............

door_standing.jpg

Pine rails and stiles, and a lamcore plywood panel, worked well.

Cheers!
 
Looks great Sean, I got my RP bits from Rockler too, and I made some practice doors as well.............

door_standing.jpg

Pine rails and stiles, and a lamcore plywood panel, worked well.

Cheers!
Stuart,

Did you have any problem with tear out when you raised the plywood panel? Also was that horizontal or vertical panel rasing bit? Did it have a back cutter?

My panel raising bit is horizontal without a back cutter. After doing this practice panel, I determined that I will need to run the stock for the panel through my planer to take it down by about a 1/16 of an inch. This will give me the look that I want, as far as how much the center of the panel protrudes. I suppose that I could rabbet the edges (to create a back cut) in place of this step.
 
I used to rabbit the back of all my 3/4 panels, so the front was flush with the frame.
I now just surface my panels down to 5/8", eliminating the need for the rabbit on back. Plus it lightens the hardwood doors a lot.
 
Sean, sound like you have the same bit set up that I do, no back cutter, and I don't need one, I, like Steve, make my panels a bit thinner than the rails and stiles.

Yeah, the Lamcore plywood tore out badly, but it was just for practice.

Do you have a VS control on your router?

Without this, I did not have much success making clean cuts, but with one, the cuts were good! :thumb:

doors_waiting.jpg

These doors are Ash, I like them, and so does my lovely wife, so I'm good to go! :thumb:
 
Stuart,

I like the Ash door, very Nice :cool: ... what does it go to?

I have a Dewalt DW618 router (fixed and plunge bases). It is a VS router, with soft start. I have the fixed base mounted in my router table, and I use the plunge for any thing that I can't do on the table.

When you raised the plywood panel, did you set the router speed low or high?
 

Attachments

  • DW618.jpg
    DW618.jpg
    41.4 KB · Views: 3
hi sean

the bigger the swing of the bit the slower you want to go . if you measure the speed of the bit in miles per hour a flush trim bit is doing 1000 miles an hour but the raised panel bit at the same setting is doing 20,000 miles an hour. because the tip of the raised panel bit is that much farther from the arbor shaft it covers more ground faster. hope i didn't confuse ya
 
Sean, what Jim said!

Just about as slow as it can go, my router is a Hitachi M12 (Not the M12V) I have an external VS controller, it only goes down to 70%, it works, but a bit slower would be better.

The plywood did now tear out that bad, but then this is BAD plywood. If you want CHEAP panel inserts, say you are doing paint grade, use MDF.

Cheers!
 
hi sean

the bigger the swing of the bit the slower you want to go . if you measure the speed of the bit in miles per hour a flush trim bit is doing 1000 miles an hour but the raised panel bit at the same setting is doing 20,000 miles an hour. because the tip of the raised panel bit is that much farther from the arbor shaft it covers more ground faster. hope i didn't confuse ya
Jim,

That does make sense, that I would want to use a slower speed for a larger diameter bit.

One question though, does the speed make a difference depending on the wood being routed? Say will pine be better on a higher speed than oak? Also, isn't there a higher posibility of burning the wood at a slower speed?
 
Sean, That door looks great. The joints are tight. Hopefully I will get a router that accepts 1/2" shank bits this summer.

Al,

Thanks for the compliment! When I picked up the rail and stile bit set, I also picked up a nylon set up jig, that has profiles on both sides. That helped a lot in getting them to match.

Are you looking at any specific type of router? I did a decent amount of research before I bought my Dewalt. If you have any questions about stuff to look for in a router let me know.:wave:
 
Jim,

That does make sense, that I would want to use a slower speed for a larger diameter bit.

One question though, does the speed make a difference depending on the wood being routed? Say will pine be better on a higher speed than oak? Also, isn't there a higher posibility of burning the wood at a slower speed?


sean, there are entire tomes written about "chip load" in regards to cutter speeds vs feed speeds vs species.........if a fellow is running cnc equipment in a "given" material, one that is of consistant density, ie; no knots or changing grain then such things as cutter and feed speed can be dialed in with some degree of accuracy with a new bit....but as the bits edges wear the equation changes.........for a hand held router used in real wood using a mass produced carbide cutter the ol` bigger bit= slower motor speed is plenty good enough;) ......the best way to tell if you`re running the right feed speed is to look at your chips...the goal is small to medium sized fluffy chips.......if you`re getting really small chips increase feed speed...tod
 
Top