# Raised Panel Cabinet Doors



## davecaw4 (Mar 22, 2012)

I am making new kitchen cabinets and am in the process of making the doors. The tallest of these doors is 41" overall. I am using 2 1/4" stiles and rails. The panel is a full 3/4" thick. Am I going to need a center cross member or will they be okay without?


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## bzguy (Jul 11, 2011)

Not a problem, 42" tall uppers are common.


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## Rebelwork (Jan 15, 2012)

If you use 3 hinges you do...


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## bzguy (Jul 11, 2011)

What does 3 hinges have to do with it?


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

The hinge manufacturers are trying to sell hinges so any door over 40" is suppose to have three hinges. Common sense would say it would depend on the overall size and weight of the door whether it needs three or more hinges or not.


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## bzguy (Jul 11, 2011)

3 hinges help keep a long stile from bowing sometimes but has nothing whatsoever to do with adding a center rail?


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## Rebelwork (Jan 15, 2012)

I've seen them swell in the center and not close properly. Plus you take a 36" cabinet with a 2" stiles on face leaving a 32" opening with 1/2 overlay and that is a lot of flex in my book.


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## Oneal-Woodworking (Apr 14, 2013)

bzguy said:


> 3 hinges help keep a long stile from bowing sometimes but has nothing whatsoever to do with adding a center rail?


Personally - If I have a piece of bowed / woped door material that I want to use anyway... It gets marked to be used on the hinge side of a style with three hinges. The extra hinge WILL allow that piece to work in many cases. Depends on how bad the *** is and how easily the wood flexes as to weather or not a hinge can make it useable but sometimes - It can. :smile:


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

davecaw4 said:


> I am making new kitchen cabinets and am in the process of making the doors. The tallest of these doors is 41" overall. I am using 2 1/4" stiles and rails. The panel is a full 3/4" thick. Am I going to need a center cross member or will they be okay without?


If the doors are 4r1", how tall are the cabinets?

George


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## Tim G (May 10, 2012)

I used to build cabinet doors in a custom shop. I have built many raised panel doors. You should have no problem making a door that tall without a center rail. The panel should be made slightly smaller than the inside of the groove of the frame to allow for expansion and contraction the width of the door. The panel should float in the frame. Therefore you should have no problem with the middle of the door bowing out. If you want to keep the panel from moving around in the frame you can shoot one 18gauge x5/8" pin nail angled towards the frame centered on the panel where the panel meets the frame. At the top and the bottom of the door frame. No nails should be used across the grain. The panel should be aloud to move across the grain. I would use three hinges.


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## davecaw4 (Mar 22, 2012)

Thanks for your inputs. I will stop worrying and just build the doors.


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