1) Panels that are half to 2/3 the thickness of the frame are par for the course. It's not a hard and fast rule, though, because you need to consider the width of the frame members as well as their thickness. Rails and stiles that are 1" thick and 1" wide would meet your criteria but wouldn't work well. I imagine this is fairly obvious, but I'm just making sure. 2) The size of the gap needed is proportionate to the width of the panel. 1/8" is probably fine for most kitchen cabinet doors. Especially wide doors and/or unstable woods could require more. Remember that you only need that gap along the edge-grain sides of the panel . Where the panel's end grain butts into the groove, no such gap is required(again, I don't know what you already know). If you want to get into the math, pick up Bruce Hoadley's Understanding Wood. By consulting various charts and formulas in that book, you can learn that the moisture content of film-finished, kiln-dried wood kept indoors in most of the U.S. varies within a range of about 8% over the year. My guess is that that presumes very dry air in the winter (no humidifier) and humid in the summer (no central air). Obviously YMMV. Anyhow, the book has charts of average tangential and radial shrinkage of various species, and this information can be used to calculate the amount of movement you need to allow for. Yellow poplar is listed at 8.2% tangential (flatsawn), 4.6% radial (quartersawn). Imagine a panel in yellow poplar, 18" wide. We'll say it's rift sawn, and use 6.4% as the shrinkage number. Over a MC change of 8%, our hypothetical panel would grow (or shrink) by about 0.33". In other words, an 18" wide poplar panel built into a door with only 1/8" gap per side in the driest part of the year could conceivably grow enough to bottom out in the slot and push the frame apart six months later. 3) I'd say 50 degrees is borderline, but workable. The basement shop can be a bigger problem in the summertime, because the coolness (in the absence of air conditioning) raises the relative humidity; summer humidity is high to begin with, so a shop environment that raises it further is problematic. In the winter, however, humidity is likely to be on the low side, so you've got some breathing room to tolerate the cooler environment. Below 50 degrees, however, many glues and finishes don't work so well. --Jon

I just have a minute because I really came in here at 6:00 a.m. to work on my blog site! eks6426, I think it just depends on what you have your heart set on for your kitchen. I have already expressed my views on kitchen hoods, but IÂm not an oracle, just a guy with an opinion. The white one you just posted, though, could easily be modified to have your 15" cabinets on either side, and if those cabinets are the most important part of that particular configuration to you, then that is a very rewarding direction in which to go. Also, looking at the picture you posted, I find it difficult to believe that the people with this hood actually use the cabinet above the stove/hood for any significant storage, because to access it they would have to move those plates. There might be some Christmas dishes behind those doors, or nothing at all! But it is a nice treatment for that particular kitchen, and it is something other than the usual, bland range hood. The glory of kitchen hoods, though, is that you can do just about anything with them, and especially this is so if you have one custom built. I have suggested using your cabinetmaker, but there are also companies that make custom hoods out of masonry, the metal I linked to in my earlier postings, and a number of artificial materials. All you need for the hood is the actual hood mechanism itself, which can be purchased separately. Now build something around it, and since youÂre designing it yourself, or commissioning someone to design it, the only thing that limits you is imagination. In your case, eks6426, since you already have the custom cabinetmaker working for you, I stand by my earlier advice. Work with him and see what happens. Truthfully, I donÂt think you can go wrong with a custom wooden hood, if you work to integrate it into the rest of the kitchen. The spectacular ones with columns work well for some kitchens, but not all of them. The one you just posted works well, too, for some kitchens. It just depends on what you want and how the rest of the kitchen is designed. But you get to decide, because itÂs your kitchen. You know what you want for your kitchen, what you have been fantasizing using for so long a time now. And if those 15" cabinets on either side are what you most often think about, then, by golly, make sure that whatever hood you eventually install has those cabinets. OK, my blogs are waiting for me. But good luck with your kitchen. I wish I had that much space in our home, but we have long since decided that weÂre not going to undergo the major renovation that would be necessary for us to have a big kitchen. WeÂll start small and stay small!

No. If you look in the instructions for any range they'll say how far anything flammable has to be. The very least above an open flame is 30". It might be more for a Bluestar, which is very powerful. Usually shelves over ranges are made out of stainless steel. Stone or tile might be okay, but probably won't pass code if there's wood underneath. If it's molded ceramic or carved stone, it might be okay. Do be aware that any shelf over your range like that is going to interfere with the draw of your hood, and will be dangerous to use due to reaching across hot, and possibly scalding pots, and potentially hot enough fire to catch your sleeve. Additionally, anything you put up there is going to be heated, so it's a poor place to keep any kind of seasonings and spices. The "look" dates back to when people didn't have countertops next to their ranges and was a place to stash pots coming off the flame, and bowls of rising dough, like the shelves in the sides of the old open hearths. That's just a caution. If you want it, there's no reason not to do it, so long as it can't combust.

Well, after looking at some options, we are likely just going to give up the space to get the Miele 36" DF Range. Probably comprise and get a 42" hood and allow an additional 6" (3" on each side) around the outside of the hood to meet the requirement. Per Miele, they offer two options for this stove starting in November. You can lower the BTU of the 5 burners to around 15,000 (6th lower power burner is also reduced) to not have the additional (6+6) requirement. Also, if you don't get a 24" depth hood, they recommend to lower the output again to something like 12,000. I think the main issue is that 5 of the 6 burners are rated to 19,600. The last burner is rated at 12,500. I think some other manufactures have different outputs across which results in a lower total BTU. Example, Wolf 36 DF has 1 - 9,200,2 - 15,000.2 - 18,000.1 - 20,000. The person I spoke to said they were concerned about the various cabinets customers are installing and want to make things safe based upon the total output of this range which is 110,000 BTU. Guess we can all agree or disagree with them. Whatever the reasons, we really like this range and will try and change the design of the cabinets to fit it in. I also agree with everyone that having a larger hood is probably a good idea anyway.