First attempt at raised panels

Working on a Walnut Wine Cabinet for my sister (the Chef) to store her Wine, glasses and 'really kewl bottles' in. She provided me with some ideas she liked and we worked on a design by email. Got to love Sketch Up!

Time to put the shaper to use and make raised panels. I bought set of cutters off Ebay a while back. I scrounged through and decided on a rounded edge panel. Made a sample piece and then made the panels.



Got the side panel clamped up and hated it. I wanted a bigger relief and these cutters just wouldn't extend any more and stay in the head. Wife didn't like it much either so I knew it wasn't just me. And that my sister wouldn't be happy either.

OK, time to try save them. Played around with cutters and came up with something that looked doable. I set up the shaper and ran my sample peice through and this is what I ended up with.



Much larger relief and I think it has a unique look that doesn't really show in this photo unfortunately. Bad thing is it requires 3 passes across the shaper. Good thing is I saved the panels. My favored sawmill has a poor selection of Walnut right now. I dug through and bought everything decent he had last week. So I really didn't want to scrap these!

Looks okay, but hard to tell details from the pics. Why do you need three passes? Because you already did the other panels in the first profile, or do you feel your shaper doesn't have the power to do it in one throw? Again, it may be the picture, but I don't mind your first picture, offering a unique, simpler look.

It almost looks like you have the wrong size cutters. I learned the hard way (i.e. having bought the wrong size) that there are at least three general sizes for raised panels (as well as rails and stiles):

1. Boxes... sometimes I make lids on humidors or jewelry boxes as raised panels
2. Kitchen cabinets. Not limited to kitchens, but the cabinet size, not the jewelry box size
3. Entry or passage door size

It almost looks like you used the box size panel raiser. Not evil (in fact, I like the look) but not what you were expecting.

You could also cut the bevel with the table saw... I have done it (but many years ago). As I recall, about a 12-15 degree blade tilt, with the panel run vertically along the saw fence. Some people use a router veining bit to outline the raised panel, then cut into the router groove with the saw.

Jeff are you sure the cutters you have are raised panel cutters? From the picture they look like the profile of panel back cutters.

jeff, nothing to add about the panels, but i do want to say i like the wide rails and stiles in the side panel. i have always been a fan of wider ones. can't wait to see this project finished. the walnut looks good as well.

chris

I keep meaning to get photos and come back to the post and just never did. I looked at his a while and didn't like the way it looked. I played around and finally decided to use the same cutter and just cut the relief longer/deeper/??. What ever the technical term is.


The cutter is just a straight bit with a radius on the end. It's not a true raised panel cutter. I just went through all my slip knives and I liked this profile best. I have a RP cutter in there but I wanted it to look a little different. Now I am happy with it.

I prestained and applied a light coat of Deft on edges of the panels so there would be no raw wood once when it decides to shrink on me.



I just about done with the doors. I need to glue up a shelf of walnut and then pick up some ply for the interior on bottom shelf and wine rack. I have been back and forth on whether or not to use plywood. But the bottom isn't going to be seen much. And once it gets full of wine and her supplies. It won't matter. Plus this dark stain I doubt you can tell.

looks good to me as well. good move to prestain the raised panels. i learned the hard way with my first trial door which shrunk to reveal an unstained edge around the raised panel. so i've prestained all since then and allowed ample space for expansion as well.

good luck.