Hi,
I'm designing a solid wood bedroom door and wanted to run it past the forum members before settling on the final design. See attached photo for details.
The main question I have is with regard to wood movement, and also whether you see any other issues with this type of design in general.
The 13 inner rail pieces will have 1" deep (1/2" wide) grooves cut on all four sides. I'll use 2 1/8" wide splines to hold it all together, two long splines for the sides (one of which will be glued into the stile. The splines that fit into the 13 inner rail pieces will be glued into one side of the rail only to allow for some movement. I don't anticipate too much horizontal movement because the wood grain runs in all the same direction. There will be movement up and down the door so I was thinking of leaving a 1/4" gap between the top spline and the stile it fits into. To allow for this movement I'd also have to make the 1/8" gap (the gap which visually separates all the pieces) a little wider between the top rail and inner rail.
The main rails and stiles will be milled to 1 1/2" in thickness and the inner rails will be 1 1/4" in thickness.
Thanks for comments, Wayne.