Sawdust on the Floor

Today I made all of my raised panels using a raised panel horizontal router bit designed specifically for that purpose. The bit shown at the right is one of the bits that is in my collection of bits. The other raised panel bit in my collection is the one pictured to the left. The only difference between these two bits is the profile cut by the cutter. The first obviously is straight cut , while the second is a cove. Which is better is really a choice that your design will dictate.

The distinctive thing that both of these bits offer is what is known as a back cut. Some raised panel bits will produce a profile only on the face side. Depending on how deep you make the profile cut, the outside edges of the stock may be too thick to go into the grooves cut by the cope and stick set of bits. If you use one of these basic raised panel bits, you must relieve the back of the panel so that it fits into the groove. Since this would add another set to the process, I prefer to use the bits with the back cutters. Again, this is strictly a personal choice.

Ok, so now that we have the raised panel bit selected and installed in your shaper or router table, it’s time to make the panels. First you want to make sure that all of your stock for the raised panels is cut to final dimensions and that any glue squeeze out has been removed. I also like to take the time to mark with a pencil the face side of each panel, so that the A side of the panel is cut instead of the B side.

When you cut a raised panel, you want to make the cut in several passes. If you try to take too large of a bite at once, your wood will either burn because the bit gets way too hot, or actually will get bogged down. There is also a chance that the bit may skip if you try to take too large of a bite, this results in ugly gouges in the face of the panel. If you are using a bit with the back cutters, you will want to use your fence to regulate the amount of wood removed on each pass. You don’t want to adjust the height of the bit, when using this style of bit. If your raised panel bit does not have a back cutter, then you can leave the fence set, and simply adjust the bit height.

You will also want to use hold downs to keep your stock in contact with the bit. This reduces chatter which will result in gouges in the face of the panel. If you are not familiar with the hold downs, take a look at the fence at the right. This particular unit has four hold downs, two vertical and two horizontal. You would adjust the hold downs so the metal arms are in solid contact with the wood, but not so tight that they bind the wood. I prefer to use a feather board instead of the vertical hold downs, but again that is a personal choice.

One of the concerns about cutting a raised panel is tear out. Tear occurs where end gain and straight gains meet, such as at the corners of the raised panels. The best way to eliminate this problem is to always cut the end grain first. If there is any tear out, it will be cleaned up when you make the straight grain pass.

So, the sequence is to have all of your stock ready, adjust the bit for the desired height, adjust the fence to remove a small amount of wood on the first pass. Then move all of your stock across the face of the bit, doing the end grains first then the long grain sides. Repeat for all of the panels before moving on. Readjust your fence to take a little more wood off the panels, and then repeat as many times as needed to get the profile that you want.

Once you have the raised panels made, all that should be left is a little light sanding. I prefer to the sanding of the profile by hand, particularly if I have used the cove raised panel bit. I use a rubber sanding block for the curved portion and a foam backed sanding block for the straight portions. As with all of my woodworking projects I final sand the raised panels to no more then 180 grit. I feel that any more sanding will polish the surface of the wood and prevent the finish from penetrating into the pores of the wood.

When you assemble the doors of a raised panel door, be sure not to get any glue at all on the raised panel itself. The raise panel needs to be free to float within the groove formed by the cope and stick bits. If you glue the raised panels in place, be prepared for them to crack and split when the humidity in your house changes.

One final word about raised panels. This method will only work on panels that have straight edges, it will not work for panels with curved or arched tops. When you

Raised Panel Bit with bearing

 are cutting those types of raised panels, you must use a router bit with a guide bearing. The concept here is that you will guide the wood across the bit, keeping it always in contact with the bearing. When doing this you will normally remove the fence from your shaper or router table, because they would interfere with you moving the wood past the bit.

Keep in mind that if you were to try to move the wood into the bit free hand, the wood will be forcibly thrown back at you. This can not only cause damage to your stock but may cause serious physical injury to you.

Manufacturers of shaper and quality router tables have provided what is known as starter pins that will eliminate this problem. The starter pin is simply a metal pin, normally about 1/2 ” diameter, that has one end threaded. This starter pin installed on the thrust side (direction that the bit turns) of the bit. There are pre drilled mounting holes on both sides of the bit for this purpose. You start out shaping the raised panel, by holding the wood securely against the starter pin and then moving the stock into the bit. It is imperative that you keep the wood in contact with the starter pin at all times to prevent kick back.

When you are shaping a raised panel with a curved or arched top, you will shape the entire piece with each pass. Start out with the end grain portion of the stock first, then continue completely around the entire blank. You will need to adjust the height of the bit between passes.

Because the raised panel bits with the guide bearing do not have back cutters, you will have to relieve the back of the panels with another bit.

So there you have it. We finally made the raised panels. Yeah, it’s a lot of work, but the beauty of a well crafted raised panel door is worth the effort. Even if it is only covering a circuit breaker panel or a dartboard.