Making Arched Top Raised Panel Doors

Making a raised panel door safety instructions creating raised panel doors is a fun and rewarding woodworking project.

Making arched top raised panel doors.

The front door company carries a wide selection of arched and round top wood doors. It s important to use a guard with all router bits but especially so with raised panel bits photo 8. Whether you are looking for the old world charm of a rustic door or the timeless elegance of a decorative glass door an arched door can be an important design element to a home or elevation. Arches and then make two easy to build accurate templates one for the rail and one for the panel.

As with any woodworking project however your first concern must always be safety. Bill ewing developed a quick way to cut arched doors using an adjustable jig that allows him to cut raised panel doors of almost any size. The truth is making doors with curved top rails and panels is no more difficult than making any other type of door provided you have the right equipment. Below we ll go through the steps involved in making an arched top raised panel door.

Cabinets usually need a door or two and deciding on the style of the door can be make or break the appearance of the piece. Bandsaw or jigsaw to within 1 16 of the lines on the top rail and panel using double faced tape secure the templates to each piece aligned with the outlines you drew earlier. But many intermediate woodworkers consider them out of their league. There are five major steps to creating a raised panel door.

Woodworkers with intermediate skills and some experience using a router table will have no trouble mastering the techniques in a short time. He says it s best to set design parameters first such as 1 in. How to make arched cabinet doors easily. There are lots of different choices and lots of different hardware considerations but one door style that makers come back to time and time again is the frame and panel door and particularly the raised panel door.

As you ll see with the right tools and equipment the process is actually fairly simple and straightforward. Then saw the arch and smooth the surface as you did on the top rail. We make solid wood panels 3 16 narrower than the rail length to allow room for expansion aligning the template 3 16 below the top edge of the panel keeps the raised field centered in the door.