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Repairing cracked panels in raised panel doors

7 years ago

Howdy, does anyone have good suggestions on how to repair cracks in raised panel doors? The doors are old and the panels have been painted in place. They're in an old farm house and have split badly.
The moulding is part of the door frame and can't be pried off. I've read that some folks route them off and rebuild them. That seems fairly error prone if you make a mistake while routing them off. None of the techniques I've read for filling cracks seems to really accommodate wood movement.

Can the door be disassembled? If so any advice (I assume I'd need some spreaders to pry the frame apart)? Any other ideas that would work?

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Comments (7)

klem1
7 years ago
Hearing you say routing would be error prone then consider disassembling the rails and stiles made me laugh. Routing the panels free isn't simple but is still the best way of removing them. Sometimes it's best to just leave them alone and think of cracks as character.
rwiegand
7 years ago
They are cracking because they have been painted in. Frame and panel construction works by allowing wood movement in the panel, if you glue the panel down (with paint in this case) the panel can't expand and contract with seasonal changes in humidity and then cracks instead. Unless you free the panel it will continue to crack with seasonal movement.

If you want to replace them probably the easiest way is to cut away the part of the frame holding the panel in, then replacing it with a molding when replacing the panel. I'd do that by making a template and using a pattern routing bit to cut away the old wood.

That said, it would be a lot of work to fix a minor defect. An alternative would be to free the panel so it can move again (thin paint scraper around the edges), glue the panel back together and use something like bondo to smooth it.

Disassembling an old door is difficult. You can cut it apart and then reassemble using loose tenons, making up the lost width of the saw kerf somehow, but you'd really have to love the door to make that effort worthwhile.

If it were my door I'd ignore it, it's part of old house charm and a reminder to always accommodate wood movement.
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PRO
Sombreuil
7 years ago
You can rout the panels free. You would set up guides to enable a straight router bit to cut away the molded edges around each panel. Set it shallow enough that it doesn't touch the panel, any paper-thin wood remaining can be removed with a knife. You will need to be able to reproduce the ogee shape. There probably is an expensive router bit somewhere to cut this profile, or be satisfied with "near enough".

Clean the split halves of caulk and paint, and cement them back together with 5 minute epoxy.

When you put the panels and the new molding back together, make sure the panel floats; no nails or glue on the panel.
lists36
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks for all the advice. I'm a fairly competent woodworker but this one has me stumped as to the best way. Routing out the moldings seems like a good option and I particularly like the idea of using a pattern bit. They work wonderfully which keeps my absolutely atrocious ability to freehand anything in check...
Mike C
7 years ago
Unless this is a security type door, you could always just replace it with a big-box store sic-panel door for around $30. Just have to route hinges and fixtures.
Mike C
7 years ago
sorry, not sic-panel, but six-panel.
PRO
Cabinet Hero Inc.
last year
Def agree with Rwiegand above, the panels must float allow for wood to expand and contract .

There should be a gap between the style and rails of the door and the panel. Unless the door was a routed door mad of MDF. Then and only then could you have a door that you could seal in the panel to the frame of door.

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