Raised Panel Doors With Plywood

Considerations involved in fabricating raised panel cabinet doors using veneer applied to lumber core plywood.

Raised panel doors with plywood.

The thought of gluing up that many individual panels gives me a migraine. Similar technology is employed by entry door manufacturers as an engineered raised panel. If you ll paint your doors substitute medium density fiberboard mdf for the solid stock and birch veneer plywood for a glass smooth finish. Since the edge of plywood is about 50 long grain a butt joint would suffice but alignment would be easier with some other sort of joint.

Suitable joints would be a small tongue and groove a biscuit spline or dowel. We are currently researching the use of hardwood lumber core with matching veneer for our raised panel doors. After choosing your materials pick a profile for the frame and raised panel. Simply run the raised panel profile as a molding in solid wood and frame the plywood panel mitering the corners.

It will be painted white not stained. The plywood will be cabinet grade birch. The shakers are probably the best known for flat panel doors except their doors were actually raised panels turned backward. The panel raises when we apply a second plywood panel framed with molding.

Is there any reason i shouldn t make the raised panels out of plywood. All doors and the headboard and footboard of the bead will have raised panels about 11 total.