How is this raised panel door made? Mitered molding?

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I never paid much attention to raised panel doors before, but I noticed that many doors have what looks like a molding inside the panel that is mitered. For example:

http://www.rockler.com/revere-tradit...l-cabinet-door

when I think about making a raised panel door (not that I have ever done it), I assume that you cut the rails and the stiles and the profile on the rails will cover the the profile of the stile. So, on this, did they simply cut a square edge and drop in mitered molding along the inside edge? In the "closeup" of the profile, it looks like it is a solid piece and then it was mitered. That seems difficult to get right.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Andrew.... typically those are made using router bits ....it's called a cope and stick joint.

Here's some examples of the bits and results: https://www.google.com/search?q=cope...w=1523&bih=706

The bit set is used to manufacture the joints, and form the inside edges of the rails and stiles. One bit is used to make the raised panel edges to fit the slot cut in the rails and stiles.

If you look expand the view on your link you can see they aren't made with a miter.

You could use mortise and tenon or even half lap joints too.

One can even just make a less decorative version using a table saw and then add molding.

I prefer using a router bit set and my router table.

[Judson Green]

as Ken said thats cope and stick.

but u might wanna google panel molding, look at the images.

i made my doors simple mortise and tenon, no profile, then applied panel molding. my molding didnt go over or on to the frame, but stayed in sided the frame.

[Steve Milito]

Here's a brief article on mitered doors.
Certainly not as simple as a cope and stick.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Interesting.... I would have sworn that the molding inside of the frame looked mitered. Certainly the primary angle is not. And that confused me.

I am thinking about trying to make a door....

[Cody Jensen]

It is just like coping done on crown molding. It appears to be mitered, but that just due to how the two pieces fit together. If you looked at them separately, they would no longer appear mitered. The stile would be continuous and the rail would have a cut to match the pattern of the molding.

[Bill Orbine]

Google up some videos "make a raised panel door". You'll get some ideas. There are several videos. There are a variety of ideas and concepts from using hand tools to factory production machines to produce a raised panel door.

[Jim Dwight]

MLCS woodworking offers bits and a pdf how-to for making cope and stick bits. Their bits are inexpensive but pretty good (i.e. you can get better but you will pay more and your project will be fine with a MLCS bit). I cope first (the end grain cut) and then stick (the molding creation). At the joint in the molding, you get a coped joint, not a miter. The joint this makes is a little mortise and tenon that isn't terribly strong but has worked fine for me to-date. Typically the groove and tenon are 3/8 x 1/4. A coping sled is useful for the cope cut but you can get by fine with a small backer board. A bottom piece of thin plywood, a clamp and a handle and you have a sled, however. This is about the fastest way to make a door and the resulting doors are attractive.

[lowell holmes]

You can also make the cope and stick doors on a shaper. I've had cope and stick shaper bits for a lot of years. You also can make entrance doors using cope and stick technology.

[Martin Wasner]

Technically you could do a jack mitre on that, but yikes. I was going to spend the rest of my life doing something other than making a door.

[Pat Barry]

It sure looks mitered to me. I would bet $ on it. You can do the profile with a router bit of course but the one they show is likely custom profile and the door was factory made so they could manage the miter cut fit easily. You can do it too, its just a lot of fussy work.

[Mark Wooden]

A clean cope will look like a mitre on most profiles. That one is cope and stick I'm 99.9% sure. There are some profiles that can't be coped- such as a beaded door frame- and have to be 'jack mitered' ; once set up it isn't as hard or slow as you might think. Biggest problem with mitred sticking is shrinkage. Over time the mitre will usually open whereas with a coped joint the shrinkage is far less noticeable.

[roger wiegand]

Lots of cabinet doors are made with square stock with a simple dado and then have an applied molding filling in the corner. Such applied molding would typically be mitered. I don't think that's what you're seeing in this picture, but in the time before shapers, routers and cope and stick bits it would have been a more common than not way to achieve this look. No reason you can't still do it. People often to it using a contrasting wood to achieve a picture frame like effect.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Going to watch some videos then try to make a door just for fun!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

If you go to the link that Andrew posted....and go to the 2nd image at that link....you will see it is not mitered. It shows the cross sectional view. http://www.rockler.com/revere-tradit...l-cabinet-door

My 3 router bit set from MLCS produces very similar rails and stiles with the trimmed edge.