Door panels - to prefinish or not to prefinish

[Larry Fox]

Anyone tired of hearing about my kitchen cabinet project yet? Anyway, for thost that are not quite there yet, I have a question. I am building the doors with a solid wood panel by relieving the back to fit into the slot cut by my rail/stile set. This will all be taking place over the winter and I am wondering if I should prefinish the panel before gluing up the doors. Intuitively, I think yes but I am working in Cherry and might have to do some toning to even out any significant variance in the coloring. This is causing me to reconsider prefinishing so I can do the entire door at once to even out the color. I am not overly concerned about seasonal movement exposing an "unfinished" portion as I will likely be assembling them in my garage shop with hit-or-miss heating in the middle of the winter so - in theory - they should be at their most "contracted" when glued-up. I am wondering what the prevailing opinion is on prefinishing doors under these circumstances is.

Thanks in advance for your time . . .

Larry

[John Miliunas]

Larry, this is totally my personal preference and opinion, so take it for what it's worth. First and foremost, I pretty much despise staining most any flavor of wood, but especially Cherry!!! Those varying tonal qualities are part of what makes Cherry what it is. Plus, given time exposed to the general environment, you'll find that much of it evens itself out. For frame and panel construction, I would in most cases, prefinish whenever possible. And, you're right about the wood being in its most "compressed" state during the winter. Given that, you'll want to be sure you leave enough room in the frame for those panels to breathe once the summer months come on. Again, just MHO...

[Chris Rosenberger]

I do not prefinish the panels. There are to many things that can go wrong.
As you stated matching the color, damaging the panel after it is finished. If lumber is dried correctly it is not necessary. If it is not then the panels should prefinished.

[Charlie Plesums]

If I stain the panels, I apply stain and sanding sealer before assembly, and repair any dings when I stain and finish the rest of the door.

If the wood is cherry, I would not stain or dye... Once you have done that, you cannot repair or match the finish. Natural cherry will change colors, fast at first, then more slowly over time. If you add color, you are on a different path of change (because the underlying wood will still change colors, impacting the overall appearance). But there is no way to "match" into the new path... you cannot go to the current color, but need to go to the original color. The original color depends on both the material and how it was applied, so is virtually impossible to reproduce.

[Bob Swenson]

We seal, stain and finish our panels before assembling them with space balls.
Woods like cherry darken with exposure over time and finishing helps keep the color even. Good luck on the project.

[Steve Schoene]

You should be aware that its not the temperature that has much impact on the swelling of the panels, its mostly the relative humidity and lower temperature spaces tend to have higher relative humidity than well heated spaces.

[Ben Abate]

Larry,
I always prefinish if possible, I agree with Bob S. I work almost exclusively with Cherry. I do mostly panel work and I recommend prefinishing. It is true about the humidity. If this is for your home, I'm sure you will keep it about the same humidity most of the time. I do the same with the space balls. I don't use that brand name but, I do use a similar product. I believe that the way your are to allow for seasonal changes is an 11 percent swing in humidity no matter where you live. Understanding Wood by Dr. Bruce Hodley (sp). The book can tell you how to figure out how much movement there will be. There is another fellow I have had discussions with in Gardner Mass. His name is Ken Hanson he teaches a course in Wood Technology. He can give you the numbers. His no. is 978- 630- 9179 If you subscribe to Wood Digest he has a monthly article about some area of Wood Tech.

Ben

[John S Richards]

No matter if it is AD or KD lumber wood moves. The larger your panels the more you need to think about prefinishing the edges of the panel at least because you will have more wood movement. If you are raising panels with a router you should never make a panel wider than 18". If you are using a shaper with a deeper groove you can take your planels up to 22".

I always stain and sanding seal my panels on the edges. After I run the panels through my DS I stain the field of the panel, rails, and styles. There is nothing worse than seeing bare wood exposed on a nice raised panel door.

Good Luck,

John