Solid Doors from Scratch with CNC.

[Jane Ndungu]

Hello Vectric family,
Am kindly looking for help on how to make solid doors with my CNC machine. Normally i just engrave the panel. Now i am thinking of joining the timber and making the raised panel and everything with the cnc.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards
Jane

[garylmast]

I know this don't answer your question, but I was over to a speciality lumber yard a few days ago to get a door to replace an old one and I saw this door. Maybe one day I might duplicate it. I thought it was cool. Gary

[ger21]

Are you talking about cabinet doors, or entry doors?
Either way, a CNC is not the best (or easiest) way to make stiles and rails.

[Rcnewcomb]

make solid doors with my CNC machine

How are you making the doors now?

A CNC works well for carving on the panel but if you are making traditional 5 panel doors (rails, stiles, panel) then the CNC may not be the best tool. A programmable shaper might be a better choice for processing the edges of the door pieces.

[dealguy11]

A CNC works well for making a 1-piece door from a material such as MDF (medium density fiberboard) where there is no wood grain and you are painting the door. I make at least a hundred doors that way each week.

If you are talking about wood doors, then I don't think a CNC would be the appropriate tool. I agree with the prior comments that a shaper would be the right tool to put the profiles on the rails, stiles and panels. It would be challenging to get the alignment right on the CNC to do the edges of the wood panels correctly, and a shaper would make those profiles much faster.

[Jane Ndungu]

Thank you all for the great responses.
Am talking about entry doors hard wood.
Gary that door is waoo, lovely lovely thats the kind of door am talking about.
Kindly let me know what a shaper is.
At the moment i have been hiring some guys to cut the stiles,rails and panels for me join them and then i engrave.
Now i was thinking i could do the doors with the help of my CNC machine.

Kind regards
Jane

[gscott40]

A shaper is a router table on steroids. It is usually 3 HP, has 3/4 " shaft and of course uses larger cutters. The cutters are often found in the same catalog as router cutters are found. In fact most shapers have a smaller shaft you can use for router blades.
A shaper is more rugged than a router and will withstand the daily use making raised panels, rails, styles etc. Cabinet shops often have several set for a specific job and left that way.

[ger21]

It is usually 3 HP, has 3/4 " shaft and of course uses larger cutters.

That's a small one. Industrial shapers usually have a 1-1/4" arbor, which is desirable for the larger cutters that entry doors require.

[Jane Ndungu]

Thank you Vectric family for the wonderful ideas.
All appreciated greatly.

Regards
Jane

[Rcnewcomb]

If you are making thousands of doors....

[Phil]

Making panel doors is not difficult but it is also not simple. There are any number of good videos on youtube demonstrating how to do it. If you plan to make these doors this is a good place to start.

Phil

[Jane Ndungu]

good evening Vectric family,
Great idea Phil,thank you all for the wonderful ideas. I think i will just have to try and make a door from scratch.

Kind regards
Jane

[Jane Ndungu]

I know this don't answer your question, but I was over to a speciality lumber yard a few days ago to get a door to replace an old one and I saw this door. Maybe one day I might duplicate it. I thought it was cool. Gary

Hi Gary,
could you have an idea of where to get this Horse picture.
it doesn't look like 3D engraving since it seems it has no height.

Regards
Jane.

[garylmast]

Hi Jane,

This was a door at a lumber yard that I thought I might duplicate or something similar sometime in the future, so I took a picture. I'm not sure where they got the clipart. However saying that, Vectic has numerous clipart of horses and other animals that comes with their software, and in their Design&Make section. Also, if I remember right, in some of their tutorials are supplied with clipart. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but it is in fact a 3D carving where the smaller horse protrudes over the center rail. I would have to go back and look at it, but the rails and panels maybe be carved out of a solid piece. If I was doing it, I might choose to treat as an inlay over the center rail.

Gary

[scottart]

Jane.

As a Novice Door builder who loves to work with 3 D Modeling and my CNC I have build more than a few solid doors, and have discovered the big problems that are inherent to solid doors. It may be worth saying what is going unsaid here.

Solid doors bend, warp, and move after you create them. That is at the very essence of why modern door makers create Panel doors. That is why you are getting all the comments on using other tools to create the panels, styles, ect that are the components of a 5 panel door.

the art work is probably the easy part, as would be carving the center panel with your CNC. Creating the panel door components takes some true craft skills. So while i still build solid doors, i limit those to Barn door style sliders, closet doors, or some interior doors where a little bending and twisting can be less critical... ... until such time as when i have the practice and hard skills to build panels doors.