# Cabinet design - raised panels



## beevis (Jul 30, 2010)

I'm inspired by this picture:









Wondering if you guys could chime in about how you think those raised panels were cut.
Also, hard to tell but it looks like there is a sticking profile as well?
Would you call this a Shaker style, or leaning more Victorian?
Whatever it is I like it.

Should I be doing 5/4" thick doors, or just 3/4"? I'd like to do 5/4". In which case how thick should the panel be? 3/4" with a 1/4" "tongue?"

I've done a few cope and stick doors but never with a solid wood panel.
Any insight here much appreciated.
Thank you.


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

In my eyes it looks like a Traditional style. We've designed and built many of that style over the years.
The doors look stick style as you say and probably raised on a router table, shaper or door machine.

We start off with 5/5 stock, plane it to 1 inch and make all of our panels 5/8 in thick.When we have the doors out of the clamps then we run them through a wide belt and flatten them. How thick we flatten the doors to in the wide belt is what kind of look we're after that the client wants and or to match the design of the kitchen.

Those being inset doors we would normally carry them down to 3/4" thick.

I'm sure other Jocks will have other ideas and give you more things to work with, And that is a pretty kitchen.


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## kizerpea (Dec 2, 2011)

1st understand the term .RAISEDPANEL this means that the panel sticks out past the front of the door. next is the 5 piece panel door witch is more comon…i,ve made both..this is a toxbox i,m working on..panel style..so the panel is flush with the style an rail…hope this helps. forgot to add..the stock here is plained down to 1" thick…an you have to buy your cutters to match the thickness of your lumber..


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## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

That panel profile can be cut several ways, shaper or router table, or even on a table saw. I do think there may be a profile on the rail/stiles, but my eyes (along with just about everything else) aren't what they used to be. It looks like there are some kind of butt hinges on the top, but the bottom cabinets appear to use the euro style (?).


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## RogerM (Oct 31, 2011)

Beevis - I did some curly maple cabinets with raised panels last spring. All of the doors and drawers were done on the tablesaw with very good results. All of these doors were standard 3/4 inch thick inset doors with 5/8" panels and 1/4" grooves. The hinges were from Nathan's Forge and are called rat tail hinges









If you will go to my lumberjocks page and click on projects and curly maple cabinets there is a good explanation of the process and why I chose it. Hope this helps you out. Feel free to contact me if you need additional information


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Just as Fred stated they can be made a number of ways.
Roger
Sheee Zam!!! that's *BEAUTIFUL*


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## renners (Apr 9, 2010)

Panel raising router bits with a spur for the back keep the edge thickness just right for your cope and stick cutters.

Who among us has experienced that sinking feeling when you've cut through and exposed a biscuit that 'shouldn't be there'?


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## Woodbum (Jan 3, 2010)

Like Jim Said, there are a lot of ways to accomplish this. Good starting point? Try Marc Sommerfeld's web site. He has some great router bit sets for rail and stile doors with raised panels and some terrific instructional DVDs for door building. http://www.sommerfeldtools.com/


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## casual1carpenter (Aug 16, 2011)

Sommerfeld tools has a bunch of videos on youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT-n4ng0PJZUCEv2RWaEpMA?feature=BF
I think that link should get you to his channel. Might provide an interesting look at cabinet making from a different prospective.


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## beevis (Jul 30, 2010)

Guys, thanks a lot.
Never heard of Sommerfield tools before. They look good.

Roger M - dang nice work there buddy.
I went to your profile didn't find any info about how you cut these, other than on the unisaw with a Forrest blade. I guess that's the trick?

Can you guys take a gander as to the angle of the bevel on the panels in the picture I posted? I see some bits with an 18" cut. Sommerfield is 22.5. 
The "shaker" sets seem to be 45 and I don't like that look.

With the router bits, is tearout a problem at all cutting across the end grain? Do they come off the shaper ready for finish, or do the cuts require lots of sanding?

I have an underpowered Bosch table saw. I just dropped $70 on a CMT blade and pretty disappointed in it. Certainly not a clean cut at all. I don't have much confidence in me or my saw's ability to cut raised panels on the table saw. Maybe a jig is required?


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## casual1carpenter (Aug 16, 2011)

beevis, "With the router bits, is tearout a problem at all cutting across the end grain? Do they come off the shaper ready for finish, or do the cuts require lots of sanding?"

depends on your bits and the wood gods I guess, but sharp bits and proper cutting order, in the video he says end grain, with the grain, end grain, with the grain-specific order. router cutting the end grain first allows the long grain cut to clean the end grain cut. The larger panel raising bit has router hp specs, and some sort of router table is a must, even if its a quick shop built one, bigger is better in this case.





Sommerfeld's Tools for Wood - Shaker Raised Panels Made Easy with Marc Sommerfeld - Part 1

In this vid he takes you through a shaker panel door build. lots of people sell raised panel sets with different configurations if you do chose the router for the raised panel. I have made a few with pine and others with QSWO with reasonably good results but perhaps, no change that, my standards and expectations are not up to some of the more accomplished woodworkers here and elsewhere. I did get some tearout in the white oak but I blame that on router speed, feed rate and my general proficiency level.
I have one of his sets and some others from MLCS plus some others who I really can't remember. In his vids he does a pretty good job of explaining the process, after all he wants you to like the system and buy tools, but still might be worth a watch. He sells DVD's on his sight but you tube is almost free, meaning bandwidth usage and there might be an advertisement you have to watch for a few seconds before the vid plays.


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