Secrets to Making Perfect Panels
One of the biggest differences between a great custom cabinet and something you’d find at Cabinets-R-Us is a great-looking panel. So how do you end up with panels that pop? Well, there’s more to it than randomly gluing up some boards.
Craig Ruegsegger starts by choosing boards with the right grain pattern, then he spends a lot of time blending them for a balanced look. During this week’s Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar, he’ll take us through 4 or 5 steps to obtain that perfect panel.
Joel: I appreciated Craigs presentation. He is all business and gets to the point. It was very interesting to see the actual selection of the pieces he wanted to use from his board and I know he did it right. I know I have to do better.
The use of all the machines (jointer & planer in particular) and why was excellent but I wonder how many people like myself may not have one or both.
If we are very picky and choose some good select stock that is planed to a good finish and correct thickness dimensions, we can use just the table saw and make perfect panels also.
Cut the boards to length, select the grain pattern we would like just as Craig did and mark our triangle. Now however if we just make an “x” on every other board and a “o” on the remaining boards faces and run both edges thru the table saw with the “x” up and the “o” down against the table top we will have a perfect match on the glue up when we return the boards back the original triangle set-up. We don’t even have to check if the blade is a perfect 90 degrees! This would be especially nice with the Freud blade Craig was using.
Again thanks for a very informative evening and I hope to see Craig share more of his expertise.
Kevin
Comment by Kevin Ketelsen — February 24, 2007 @ 9:37 pm
You’re right Kevin, you can make some very nice panels with S3S or S4S boards. If you’re building panels for doors, I’d stay away from using 4/4 or 5/4 stock though as it’s way too thick. The Woodsmith Store sells 1/2″-thick hardwoods in most species. Of course, a 13/16″ or 1-1/6″ thick table top would look great and that Freud Glue-Line rip blade really does a great job, especially when you’re just ripping away a small amount off one edge.
Thanks for the tip on gluing up panels for those of us who don’t have a jointer or thickness planer.
-Joel
Comment by Joel Hess — February 25, 2007 @ 4:36 pm