I 'm in the process of making two frame and panel doors out of cherry.
To get matching panels, I resawed them from one piece of wood. The
resulting panels look gorgeous. However, there is one problem. One of
the panels has two cracks, one 2" and the other 2 1/2." The cracks are
completely through the ½" panel and about a sheet of paper wide. Can I
fill the cracks and save the panel? If so, what do I use as filler?

Thanks for the help.
Ed

On Jul 4, 9:59 am, ectablesaw wrote:

To get matching panels, I resawed them from one piece of wood. The
resulting panels look gorgeous. However, there is one problem. One of
the panels has two cracks, one 2" and the other 2 1/2."

Since the panels are going to move, a filler is not likely to do much
good.
Your best bet may be to kerf the cracks (or split the panel), joint
the
edges and glue the piece together. That particular panel would look
nice
somewhere far from eye level on the finished door...

I'm assuming that the 'cracks' are really checking (a split along the
wood fiber line is 'checking', and a fracture that crosses the grain
and
ruptures individual wood fibers is 'cracking').

On Jul 4, 9:59 am, ectablesaw wrote:
I 'm in the process of making two frame and panel doors out of cherry.
To get matching panels, I resawed them from one piece of wood. The
resulting panels look gorgeous. However, there is one problem. One of
the panels has two cracks, one 2" and the other 2 1/2." The cracks are
completely through the ½" panel and about a sheet of paper wide. Can I
fill the cracks and save the panel? If so, what do I use as filler?

Thanks for the help.
Ed

A tinted epoxy? How dry is the wood? Have you finished the milling of
the panel, and are down to sandpaper or scraper? I just built some
doors, and one panel has small cracks maybe such as yours. Daylight
shone through. And, these were right in the path of the vertical panel
raising router bit! Scary. Since I'm running out of wood wide/thick
enough to make another panel, that one had to do. Well, I was_really_
careful with the raising bit, made a ZC insert for the fence,
featherboards, tiny bites, and it came out just fine. Once finished,
the cracks will never be seen. This wood's very dry, and I made very
sure that the panels can move for any increases in humidity. Tom

On Jul 4, 1:14 pm, tom wrote:
On Jul 4, 9:59 am, ectablesaw wrote:

I 'm in the process of making two frame and panel doors out of cherry.
To get matching panels, I resawed them from one piece of wood. The
resulting panels look gorgeous. However, there is one problem. One of
the panels has two cracks, one 2" and the other 2 1/2." The cracks are
completely through the ½" panel and about a sheet of paper wide. Can I
fill the cracks and save the panel? If so, what do I use as filler?

Thanks for the help.
Ed

A tinted epoxy? How dry is the wood? Have you finished the milling of
the panel, and are down to sandpaper or scraper? I just built some
doors, and one panel has small cracks maybe such as yours. Daylight
shone through. And, these were right in the path of the vertical panel
raising router bit! Scary. Since I'm running out of wood wide/thick
enough to make another panel, that one had to do. Well, I was_really_
careful with the raising bit, made a ZC insert for the fence,
featherboards, tiny bites, and it came out just fine. Once finished,
the cracks will never be seen. This wood's very dry, and I made very
sure that the panels can move for any increases in humidity. Tom

And if it does split further, I'll make new ones. Here's a look at the
cracks, in the "work in progress" album. http://tomeshew.spaces.live.com/
Tom

On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:59:22 -0700, ectablesaw
wrote:

I 'm in the process of making two frame and panel doors out of cherry.
To get matching panels, I resawed them from one piece of wood. The
resulting panels look gorgeous. However, there is one problem. One of
the panels has two cracks, one 2" and the other 2 1/2." The cracks are
completely through the ½" panel and about a sheet of paper wide. Can I
fill the cracks and save the panel? If so, what do I use as filler?

Black epoxy looks GREAT as a filler on cherry.

Try some on scrap and see for yourself. Don't sand the epoxy, plane
or scrape it smooth. You can tint any 2 part epoxy with a small
amount of black artists oil color or Behlen's black colorant.

On cherry and white oak, I use black epoxy almost exclusively as a
filler. It looks very natural, way better than attempting a "match",
if done correctly.

---------------------------------------------
** http://www.bburke.com/woodworking.html **
---------------------------------------------

Try some on scrap and see for yourself. Don't sand the epoxy, plane
or scrape it smooth.

What he said.

I've had pretty good luck with clear epoxy. I've also mixed in some finely
ground coffee to fill in a dark knot or bark occlusion.

-Steve



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com