Door construction

[mgilley]

Hello all,
I need to make a couple of doors with carving on the panels. A large panel in the top and bottom. If I make the stiles and rails 1 3/4 or 1 5/8 thick, would the panels be ok at 3/4 inches thick be ok. They will be interior doors.
Burning up in south Texas.
Thanks,
Mike

[dlcw]

3/4" panels would be fine. Just make sure you set them in dados in the rails and stiles. Very similar to making cabinet doors. Use space balls or some other rubber type of insert to keep the panels from rattling around. The big difference is the strength of the construction needed to keep the doors from racking once mounted. I use the Domino and multiple 5" long tenons to reinforce the rail and stile coping. There are industry standards for rail and stile width and panel sizes to keep them looking nice and accommodating hinges and door knobs. If you are going to stain, I'd stain the panels before you assemble the door so that as the panel shrinks and expands you don't get lines showing.