Raised Panel Cabinet Doors

those sling chair frames in the background were supposed to be a surprise . . . ooops :)

Anna,
Great job with the videos! I love using the Kreg jig on projects.

I would like to make one small suggestion for you videos. I would suggest that you get an inexpensive wireless microphone that will pick your voice up better.

Keep up the great work!

Ken

Thanks Anna for making a video. I went through my first project (library cart) without know to adjust the collar and the jig. Videos can really help us newbies with the simple stuff.

I agree with Ken, great videos and great project... the jig makes it easy. I do wish you had used an external microphone though, hard to hear your beautiful voice at times.

look forward to more videos

thanks for the video! it's really helpful to visual people like me. I'd like to see a few closeups as you finish each step, if possible!

I would like to suggest that you use closeups and different camera angles to show what you are doing with your hands when you are doing something like adjusting the collar on the Kreg jig. I realize that this will mean editing and multiple shots, but it will be a lot easier to see what you are doing.

You have a wonderful site. I've gotten a lot of ideas from it. Thank you.

I enjoyed the videos, I would just suggest that you do some close up shots of the pocket screw holes after you made them, and also a close up after you screwed an end piece onto the raised panel door. I was very curious, but could not see the detail very well.
Nice work what a great idea you have to do how to wood projects.

I loved the video, Ana! All the "boys" in my life have always shooed me away when they get out the power tools so I've felt completely out of my depth trying projects. Just watching you use the Kreg Jig was awesome. I've looked at them online but because I still feel so ill at ease with tools I didn't "get" how it worked so it wasn't a purchase I wanted to make. The same goes for the table saw. LOL My hubby has one out in the shop but I haven't a clue how to use it. Anything I can't make with a hand saw and miter box, I don't make. But maybe after watching you, I might get up the guts to try using hubby's sometime.

"This girly-girl"? Ana, don't sell yourself short and minimize your talent.

You are the Princess of Plywood, Sorceress of the Sawblade, the Mistress of the Miter Saw, and the Countess of Kreg!

In step 3, using a pusher stick in your lower hand and a "feather board" on the table would make it easier to cut the bevel.

The pusher stick is just that - a notched stick that keeps your hand away from the blade as you push the board with the stick. The feather board applies gentle pressure right at table level to keep the board aligned with the fence.

Also, put the fence on the side of the blade that makes it easiest for you to hold the boards. If you are right-handed, put the fence on the left of the blade and your right hand has better access to the board.

The video is great. I just bought my Kreg jig (I only got the Jr.) and I love it. Very easy to use but your video makes it easy to understand what to do and why. Keep it up! It doesn't need multiple shots and a mic to be helpful. Thanks again for all of your great plans!

No harm came to Ana when she was working here, but it was luck rather than skill or careful planning. That setup isn't a safe way to raise a panel door, and could have ended tragically.

The board needs to be supported securely. Building a jig to support it on the fence would be a good start. With an insecure support like was shown here, it is very likely that the piece can wobble in the blade, and the saw will grab the board and throw it, quite possibly after throwing your fingers into the blade. When a table saw throws a board, penetrating a wall, even a cement one, isn't that unusual.

Please learn how to use a table saw safely before trying this. Alternately, there are good methods for raising a panel with hand tools. They can be (but don't need to be) expensive.

I've seen this done so many time by men on tv like Norm Abrams and the likes. So why can't a girl use a tablesaw without a guard?

Ana, you've got such an amazing body, but wearing the apron makes me HAVE to ask.. Are we going to be hearing news about a baby carpenter? :-p

Now don't get mad if we're not!!! You don't look like it! But aprons (or... "coverings") always make me wonder... :-)).

Ana, your fast turnaround on that video is amazing. The rapid improvement in your video editing is great too. I also like that you're teaching people how to make jigs. The handle on the back is awesome.

Make the jig just a little longer and add a permanent face on the blade side of the fence. This way you'll be able to clamp your panel rather than screw it to your jig. Ads lip to push the panel along, and or add some self-sticking sandpaper to the face of the jig to keep the panel from shifting during the cut. I can only imagine what your panel looked like after screwing and unscrewing on and off of your jig four times in order to cut it on all for edges.

Love the new video, Ana! The jig is a huge improvement! :)

Just wanted to say thanks everyone for your advice. I believe in becoming better and this site has always been about simply helping people create better homes on a budget. And I appreciate those of you who take your time to make this site better. Thank you.

Ana, I am impressed with how quickly you created a new video after some of the comments were made about the safety issues. Thank you for the service you provide to so many of us with your "project how to"; and that you are able to do it free to us is a wonderful gift. I hope you are getting sponsorships from the makers of some of the tools you demonstrate with as well as paid advertising on your web site. My brother was trying to think of a good thing that would make it possible for him to do just that and he could not think of anything but you have the perfect idea. Thank you and keep it coming.

***Beadboard Insert Help***
First Ana, Thank you so much for posting this!! You mentioned when you first posted this plan that beadboard could be used. I anxiously awaited your video as that is precisely what I wanted to use. However, after watching your video, I see that the method won't work... beadboard, as you know, isn't even 1/4" thick so there's no way to Kreg jig it to the stiles and rails. So what do you suggest in order to have beadboard instead of the raised panel? Thanks in advance!!

One of the biggest failings that I find while reading documentation and tutorials relates to skipping steps. I am frequently frustrated by this in many areas such as wood working, computer documentation, etc. I really like that you do not make this error.

I am impressed and really enjoyed the videos; you even held my wife's attention and not much in woodworking does. I guess you had us at great useful plans suitable for everyday use.

Realize that I have never made a raised panel door when I ask these questions. I am well read with limited experience (but I am gaining experience).

(1) I thought that a raised panel door is usually left to to float freely because they expand and contract. If the panel is glued in place, I expected that if the panel and the rails and styles expanded and contracted at different rates that something might split. Perhaps the screw allows thing to move a bit, but, I would not expect glue to allow that.

(2) I usually see the advice repeated that the inner panel should be finished before it is installed because things will expand and shrink at different rates so that unfinished portions may be revealed when things shrink.

Thanks for your excellent site!

I have owned my Kreg Jig for a few months now, and became a member of the Kreg Jig Owners community. I learned of your site here, Ana, through the Newsletter they send out. I showed my wife the four items of yours featured in the newsletter and she picked the Garbage Can/Recycle Center for my next project. I was waiting for you to come back with the video on the raised panel before I started.
I did not get to see the safety issues, but the videos you now have up are nice and informative.
Someone mentioned above that they would like to see how you adjusted the collar on the drill bit as they are new to the Kreg pocket hole system. I would like to invite anyone who is a Kreg Jig owner or considering purchasing one in the future to come to the community. Many knowledgeable people there who are more than happy to help and answer question.
This is not an attempt to steal anyone from Ana's site. I leaned of her site there and I am sure if anyone out there is like me, once wood working gets into your blood you will be on as many sites as you can looking for projects and information.
Happy saw dust making to all.
Mike

Hi Anna- I've been looking everywhere for plans to build wood sling chairs.will you be posting the plans for the "surprise" chairs in the video???

Can this technique be used with MDF to make a larger raised panel?

I'm stuck between Step 4 "Drawing a Rectangle" and Step 5 "Pulling a Rectangle into a Board". Setting at Fractional-Units Plan View feet/inches...
Step 4. Using .75,11.5 dimenisions, I endup with a small blip at the GREEN/RED axis as '|'. Step 5 Pulling will only drag above the RED axis with a dark-gray area, after entering 36.
Am I missing some other settings? Have tried this numerous times.
Ana, you're doing great work. I am a KREGer with a Kreg Jig K3, since 2007. I am a retired elder (81 great years) and have FUN mading nite-stands and a few bookcases for my grandkids, next are coffee-tables. Would Love using Sketchup for my plannings into my 82nd year. My background was computer systems, but now I am stumped. Should I go back to punched-cards where I could see the holes in the cards??

Jim Howe

Jim, don't feel bad. I'm a programmer too, and Sketchup gives me fits. Fortunately drafting was a required component of my secondary curriculum, so I don't actually need Sketchup, but my lettering was never legible, so my drawings can still be a bit of a mystery to outsiders.

For the sketchup challenged like us, there is a nice series of videos available: http://www.shopwoodworking.com/category/s?keyword=sketchup

I haven't used the videos yet, because I haven't designed anything that I couldn't keep in my head. I have built some things where sketchup plans were helpful though, so at some point I suspect I'll need to learn.

Ana I am curious about seasonal wood movement when Kregging (to coin a phrase) a raised panel to the stiles and rails. I imagine that you have the most extreme weather variation around. Do you have problems with wood splitting, paint peeling or polyurathane cracking?

If I didn't have scraps to use for this project, how much do you think a single 20"x30" door would cost? I'm thinking about using this tutorial to help with redoing our kitchen cabinet doors. Thanks for your help!

I want to make this doors for my house remodel and was looking for a kreg jig- the big one like you have costs 100+ dollars. Would a mini one work? Its alot cheaper than the big one in you video. I want to make one first and see how I do before spending that kind of money and never using it again.... (Have not worked with wood EVER)

Which Kreg would work with this and many more projects?

Forget all the typo's... You know what I mean:)