Raised Panel Doors

I personally wouldn’t make them more than 20” wide. I would also make the rails and styles at least 2.5” wide.
I think you’ll find that the doors will take more time than anything else on the job. That’s why most shops buy their doors from a door manufacturer. I recently did a kitchen for a friend and I made the doors since I wasn’t charging labor and I wanted to save him a buck. It took me about 1 hr. and 20min. per door. Good luck.

-- Emmett, from Georgia

Safety wise… I would use a power feeder for larger shaper bits… I would bet under 2” would be fine

-- "Ah, So your not really a newbie, but a I betterbie."

Emmett- curious- what took an hour and 20 minutes? fine tuning the doors? installing them (hinges and all)? or cutting the rails styles and raised panel? I would think that once you have the cutters setup, it’s a run-them-all through sort of a deal is it not?

-- ㊍ When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

25 1/2” is too wide for a single raised panel. If you put 2 panels in that width you will be OK. We don’t like to make doors over 20” wide. When we do we don’t warranty them. Too much risk, and I’m not willing to take it.

By the way, I have a raised panel door shop—we produce about a hundred a day, so in 40 years, I’ve made a few doors. We rarely get one back for warranty. Personally, I think even 20” is pushing it, but often you have no choice because of a lot of reasons.

Our stiles are 2 1/4” finished, and our rails for staight designs are 2 7/8”. I think 2” is a bit small—you don’t have a lot of glue joint.

-- http://shepherdtoolandsupply.com/

Purplev
I’m talking about from raw lumber to finished door ready to hang. I don’t have a shaper or fancy sanding machines. I did all the sanding with an ros. This job had 32 doors.
How long does it usually take you?

-- Emmett, from Georgia

Hey guys, I too have made many raised panel doors. I can’t say that I have ever made a panel that was over 20 inches wide for a door but I have made them that wide and wider for other “non-door” applications. I am just curious as to what you exact concern is with the wide panel on the door. Is it the warping of the panel or the strength of the rail to stile joint as the weight of the door hangs on it?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Thanks Emmett. I have not done any raised panel doors yet – so was curious to get some info on it.

-- ㊍ When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Solid wood…. Movement….. Find a movement calculator, you have to make room for the rails and the wood to move.
to be safe you make them narrower. Maybe come up with a pattern that will fit “most” of the door faces that can be a few with double panels..

Rich

-- Duct Tape is the Force! It has a light side and a dark side and it Binds the Universe together!

Order your doors from Kent.

There is not much pride in being able to say you made $1.42 profit on each door, even though you did it yourself. Save that for your own projects where the stakes aren’t as high, ie losing the client’s confidence.

I own a few profile sets for my panel doors, don’t think any of them are paid for yet… the big shops are set up to do a kitchen in a couple of days, just order with plenty of lead time.

Make your money marking up the cost of the doors and building the casework and details.

Jus’ my 3 cents worth (I’ve done it both ways).

-- Randy "You are judged as much by the questions you ask as the answers you give..."