Frame and panel

Frame and panel construction is a woodworking technique often used in the making of doors, wainscoting,and other decorative features for cabinets, furniture, and homes. The basic idea is to contain the panel within a sturdy frame, as opposed to say a slab drawer front which is simply a single piece of material with exposed endgrains.

One simple example of frame and panel construction is sometimes referred to as a 5 piece door. This kind of door consists of two top and bottom rails and two styles, as well as the panel. If multiple panels are used then the dividing pieces are known as mid rails and mid styles. Panels can be raised panels made from solid wood, or flat panels typicaly made from sheet stock.

With raised panel doors a variety of differant profiles can be used. Some popular profiles are the Ogee, Chamfer, and Scoop.

The styles and rails, often referred to collectively as the "door parts", may also have both an inside and outside profile(outside profiles are more common for cabinet doors), these profiles use the same terminology though they are typically smaller in scale compared to the profiles on the panels.

The inside of the parts contain a dado which is meant to hold the panel in place, the dado is typicaly made twice as deep as the panel overlap(typically a 1/4" overlap and 1/2" deep dado) and the space is cushioned by something known as a spacer ball to absorb the expansion and contraction of the material.

Door construction style falls into two categories one being mitred doors and the other being cope and stick. Cope and stick is the most common method, as it is less expensive to manufacture. Most doors that have multiple panels will use cope and stick construction.

The process behind raised panel doors begins with gluing up panels, then moves onto cutting and preparing the parts. Next the panels are cut to size and shaped. Parts and panel are then sanded before construction. The joints are glued and set into clamps, if the doors are paint grade they are sometimes nailed at the joint on the reverse side. The panel sits freely in the dado and is never glued. The door then moves onto finish sanding where it is brought to it's final thickness, and the outside profile is added.