How do I plane frame and panel doors?

[Chris Atzinger]

Hi,

I am trying to actually use the planes that I have been acquiring over the last two years. I recently built some simple frame and panel doors and I wanted to use my planes to remove the saw/planer marks and bring the rail/stile joints flush.

This may be a dumb question, but how do I do this with out causing tear out around the joint? Is it simply a matter of being careful to not to go pass the joint (i.e. when I am planing the rail, and I go past the joint and onto the stile, i am now planing cross grain, which I then need to go back and plane with the grain, where inevitably cross the joint over into the rail. It's a vicious circle!)?

Perhaps I am just doing doing it in the right order?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Chris

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Chris

Plane the board that is "higher" at the intersection first until it is almost flush. Then plane around the corner of the intersection (if you can - if the grain direction permits) so that the cutting action is continuous.

You need to watch the grain - obviously you do not want to plane into grain that is susceptible to tear-out. In such case, plane the vulnerable section with the grain and around the corner, again with the grain direction (in other words, you could go either "left" or "right" at the intersection). The aim is to keep the plane moving.

I recall seeing a good video demonstration by David Charlesworth. This would be worth digging up if you need a demo.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[George Bokros]

I would sand them flush.

[Zach Dillinger]

Half the battle is done while picking your stock. Make sure that you orient the grain of your pieces in such a way so that you can plane with the grain around teh corner, i.e. don't have the grain rising to or falling away from the corner on both pieces that join. Skew the plane as you near the corner, to "take the turn" as Derek suggested. Take great pains to not plane directly across the grain as you get close to the edge, or you will blow big chunks of the wood out (spelching is an ugly word; its even uglier wood). Use a sharp, finely set plane. Have patience.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I haven't done very much frame and panel work at all, but for what little I have done, I always try and get things as close as I can before I put things together. The last one, I took it apart and made a few planing strokes before the last glue-up, so I didn't have to do it afterwards. Obviously that doesn't always work. You mention removing the saw/planer marks - I would certainly do this step before I even cut the joinery.

Zach's advise about picking stock is an important step in *any* project, and anything where you'll be using planes only doubles that concern. Taking a moment to make sure you can plane your drawer sides away from the front, planning your design so the rabbets and grooves can be plowed with the grain, etc. A little forethought makes most steps of hand tool work a lot easier.

[Dave Parkis]

I generally do a combination of what Joshua and Derek/Zach suggested. I dry fit to see how well everything fits and then plane with the pieces disassembled. If there's still a slight elevation at the joint, take very light passes with the plane skewed to help minimize tearout. Like both Zach and Josh said, orienting the grain prior to making your cuts is probably the most important. HTH.

[David Keller NC]

Chris - The simple answer is "you don't" (plane frame and panel doors). Ideally, you never want to put together a sub-assembly that still has planer/jointer/table-saw on the pieces, you should finish-plane them first. And if you are very careful to mark your mortises, grooves and tenons from only the show face of the frame and panel, then the outside should be flush when assembled, with any discrepancies on the inside of the door.

Many antiques from the age of handwork show mis-matched levels on the rails and stiles of frame and panel doors, but these mis-matches are on the inside of the cabinet. It's also not uncommon to see heavily-cambered jack plane marks on the inside face of panels, while the show face is scraped/planed smooth.

Occasionally, all of us mess up when making frame and panel constructions and confuse "which side out" on the rails and stiles. Under these circumstances, you want to plane the high surface until it's -almost- flush, then use a card scraper to level the joint. Or sand the assembly flush. Both methods work.

[Chris Griggs]

I haven't done a ton of frame and panel work but I have done what Derek describes several times with success. Not just on frame and panel doors, but on boxes and cases to too...anywhere you have grain running one way crossing into grain going that is perpendicular. If you begin to skew the plane in the direction of the upcoming turn a bit as you approach the joint going a little across the grain momentarily as you turn the corner will be less problematic. That said, in the future I'll probably take David Ks advice to make every effort not need to plane them after glueup.

[Mike Allen1010]

Lots of really good advice here that I completely agree with.

Six months ago I built a room full of frame and panel doors for some built-in cabinets and didn't want to take the time to dry fit and plane styles and rails level before assembly.

The only suggestion I would offer beyond what has already been said is when "planing around the corner" as Derek suggested, try a smaller smoother (# 3) or block plane with razor-sharp blade and finally set mouth-- I find this more planes a little easier to steer and still keeps the blade on the surface you're working even in the larger frame itself isn't perfectly coplanar.

Finally, if you still have some cross grain marks/tearout, I use a block plane blade held as a scraper, which I find easier than a regular card scraper to line up right on the joint line and scrape the individual rails/styles without overlapping.

All the best, Mike

[Richard Shaefer]

Same for me. I use my #3 to go around the corner after getting the higher board 95% of the way there. It helps to go around the corner at an angle and continue on to the mating board with a really light cut. It's kinda like one of those punk kids drifting in thier cars. Watch Toyko Drift and you'll get the idea of how to attack it.