On 6 Jun 2006 22:19:14 -0700, wrote:


Whoops.... I just re-read Prometheus' post.

A six panel door?

If you want to make a six panel door by surface mounting a pattern of
trim on the door itself, fire up the miter saw and get with it. If you
are wanting true raised panels, you should know this is no beginner's
project.

Agreed, but it sure is a fun one... I don't think I could ever get a
customer to pay for it, but in my own house sometimes things are a
different story.

A nice six panel Doug fir door is about $80 - $90 bucks. Worth every
penny. Buy the door. Now is not the time to learn to use a shaper and
invest $400 - $500 in a good set of shaper blades to cut the panels,
rails and stiles.

A guy can make them with a router and dadoes instead of a full shaper-
at least I have. But it really is a lot of time and labor, especially
when they've become so cheap.

Scratch what I said about building it yourself unless you want to
surface mount your panels/trims. You could wing that one. But after
all these great posts, would you want to?

The other method I've seen used that would be fine provided the door
was to be painted is laminating a bunch of MDF together and routing
all the recessed areas out and cleaning up the corners with a chisel.
Easy, fairly fast, and simple- but very, very dusty. I don't think
I'd do it for the front door because I'd never justify the sheer
volume of dusty crap in my shop for something that I could have bought
really cheap- but if you wanted a really custom job (not just a
standard 6-panel), there might be some merit to the idea.

Ultimately it comes down to the choice of style- you can't go to a big
box store and throw a rock without hitting a six-panel door, and the
price is right. Now if you wanted someting you couldn't just buy
right off the shelf, that's a different matter entirely. Say you
wanted 12 panels with your surname carved into one of the
crossmembers, or a big sunburst pattern on it, or whatever it was you
couldn't just go buy - it might be well worth your while to get out
the router and go to work.