I have a wooden front door with four panels, and a nice window at the
top.

The door is 6-7 years old, and is painted.
Every Spring, the panels move a little, requiring me to paint in the
area where they've swelled, or contracted.

I was thinking of putting a little glue along the edges of the panels
to stop them from moving.

Looking for thoughts/helpful feedback.

thanks.

My guess is that, if you fix the panels in place, the wood will split
[instead of the paint cracking].

FXDWG wrote:
I have a wooden front door with four panels, and a nice window at the
top.

The door is 6-7 years old, and is painted.
Every Spring, the panels move a little, requiring me to paint in the
area where they've swelled, or contracted.

I was thinking of putting a little glue along the edges of the panels
to stop them from moving.

Looking for thoughts/helpful feedback.

thanks.

No. No. And again NO. Not unless you want to have the door self-destruct
that is. Solid wood panels are known to expand and contract with changes
in humidity and that is why they are not glued in in the first place.
The amount of force generated when they panels move is considerable and,
depending upon when you do the glueing, they will almost surely split
(if you glued when they were fully expanded) or destroy the surrounding
frame (if you glued when they were fully shrunk). The best solution for
this problem is to stain or paint the panels before the door is
assembled but since you are too late to do that you may have to just
live with it since even paint which hardens sufficiently will prevent
movement and effectively glue the panels. If the paint allows it,
thinning it with the appropriate solvent and then carefully applying it
to the offending portions may stain the wood sufficiently to make the
unpainted gaps less offensive.

Plywood panels do not move and can be safely glued in most cases but
they lack the classic "raised panel" look. Composite panels can supply
the look and are generally pretty stable after painting or staining. Of
course neither of these options are applicable to an already-existing
door unless you have a shop capable of disassembling and re-building the
entire door and this is far from a trivial task.

Have you considered a new door? Fiberglass and metal don't have such
problems.
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com

I was thinking of putting a little glue along the edges of the panels
to stop them from moving.

It won't work. The glue will probably just break, and if it doesn't, the
door might instead. Something has to move.

This is probably more trouble than it is worth, but wood only
expands/contracts across the grain. If you can center the panels in the
frames you can glue the center; that will allow the top and bottom to move
independently. It will significantly reduce the overall movement.

Now, it will be difficult to glue just the center, and it will not eliminate
the problem; but I think it is probably the best you can do. (other than
stripping off the paint and staining it.)