Building Raised Arched Panel Doors

Comment

Comment by Jay Boutwell on January 2, 2015 at 11:58am

Ken it would work providing that you are building square doors and want the flat sawn look.  Most of the doors that i do and are the most common are ones that cut a curve and or pattern in the door as it cuts or raises the panel.  I have in the past cut square door raised panels on a tablesaw but this is when I was wanting to make them more on the "Shaker" style where they do not make them with alot of details.  In fact many do not know but the "Shakers" often cut the raised panels and put the panels on the inside and did this only to add buld and strength to the doors.

Comment by Ken Darga on January 2, 2015 at 11:48am

Good info, Jay.

Thanks for your insight, and posting.

The 'ol "gravity" thingy---

can work for you as well as against you.

What are your thoughts about making the "slanted portion" of the insert panel, on a table saw?

Comment by Jay Boutwell on January 2, 2015 at 11:17am

Hi Steve, Thank you and happy new year to you also.  Building raised panel doors is one to the most difficult areas of cabinet building that you will encounter.  The big problem with the vertical panel rainsing bits is that you are fighting gravity and trying to move and balance a panel piece on a narrow edge where a  horizonal bit system you only have to keep the bit flat on the table and move it across the bit.  With care you can get a nice cut on a panel using the vertical bit system, however here the problem is that you can only cut a panel with square corners.  In building doors for cabinets you will at some time need to build arched panels and these can not be cut on a vertical bit very easily.  You would need to develope some type of jig that would allow you to pivot the top of the door (arch) as you pass it through the vertical bit. 

The use of horizonal bits also allow you a better assortment of profiles on the cuts as well and they are much safer to use.  The most dangerous part of doing raised panels is when you are cutting the arched part of the panel as you must free hand this through the bit. The 3 inch screeming bit will cause you some concern when you look at how your are going to introduce the wood into the bit without it grabbing and kicking back.  As with anything there is a system and when followed properly it can be done safely.  In the slide show I did not show in detail how this is done and only covered enough of the process to show how it is done.  If there is enough interest I will take the time to better show the actual cutting of a arched panel. 

 

Basically it is done using a set of patern templates, a band saw or jig saw to cut away the waste parts of the wood down to where it is withing a 1.4 to 1.8 of an inch from a line created by centering a template on the face of the pannel.  Once the majority of the waste is cut away from the panel using the band saw or jig saw yoiu use a flush trimming bit to cut the wood back flush to the template.  The templet is removed.  You begin cutting (raising) the panel on the straight end of the panel and then the two edges.  You do this using the large panel bit and the fence of the router table.  In this part of the cutting the bit is fitted with a larger bearing to limit the amount of the cut.  The fence is set at a point where the debth of the cut can be controlled by the fence but since you are going to cut a arched panel you need the large bearing to control the depth of the cut.  The reason is that now once the sides and the straight end is cut you must now remove the fence.  You now have to introduce the uncut arch into the bit while the router is spinning at about 8 to 10,000 rpms.  The panel is laid on the router top and to the left of the bit.   Slowly move the panel intowards the bit and make contace with the bit on the surface that you have already cut and now slowly keeping the bearing into firm contact with the panel rotate it around the bit and exit the bottom with care as sometimes the panel edge can crack.  AT ALL TIMES BE AWARE THAT YOUR FINGERS AND HAND STAY AWAY FROM THAT BIT AS YOU ARE CUTTING THE PANEL UPSIDE DOWN AND YOU ARE ONLY SEEING THE BACK CUTTER.  THE LARGE CUTTER OF THE BIT WILL SUDDENLY COME INTO VIEW SO YOU DO NOT WANT THE FINGERS OR HAND IN THE AREAS OF IT EXIT.   

 

Once the first cut is done change to the small bearing move the fence back into position and repeat the above process.  Besure that you cut the panel sides and straight (bottom end)  end first as you need the new sized panel side to have been cut .  Then remove the fence and repeat as above on the arched end. 

Comment by Steve on January 2, 2015 at 10:27am

Happy New Year Jay. Thanks for the very informative slide show. The horizontal panel raising bits look like monsters, will the vertical bits work just as good ? I know I would have to use a taller fence on my router table but can I get good results or are the horizontal bits better? As usual thanks for taking the time to help

Comment by Jay Boutwell on December 30, 2014 at 11:27am

Thank you Ken, When I first started building cabinets, doors were a mystery to me and I know how hard it was to find information on how to build them.  Since the cabinet door will either make or break the looks of a cabinet it is important for the cabinet maker to build them so they are  attractive and still rugged enough to last.  This is why I put this together as I have hopes that some one will find it useful enough to take a look.   Thanks again for  the nice comment and for taking a look at the post.

 

Comment by Ken Darga on December 30, 2014 at 11:02am

Jay,

EXCELLENT and informative presentation.

Very inspirational. 

Thanks for sharing.

Comment by Jay Boutwell on December 29, 2014 at 8:44pm

Thanks Jim,  This was posted before but like many burried so far back I found it using "search"  I re-posted it fo the benifit of the newer members who would never see other wise.  I hope it helps several to understand the parts and contruction of doors.. 

I have another door project in the works as I am again building house doors. Doint it similiar to the cabinet doors.  That is one of the reasons I need that big router table. 

 

There is a lot of good information stuck back in the old files, one of which I was looking for last month.  That was the building of a hands free no remote dust collector switch using a couple of simple and cheap electrical parts.  I posted it back about two years ago. I found it and copied it to my files as I occassionally have been  asked for it.  Thanks again Jim and have a good night.

Comment by james wilhelm on December 29, 2014 at 8:28pm

Jay , very nice  and informative  presentation  on the raised arched panel doors , the slide show and smile box makes it so much easier to under stand how to build the door,s  , well done and thank,s for sharing your way of making the doors !!    JIM !!