Lumber dimensioning - which do you do?

[Gary in Virginia]

I plan to make cabinet doors out of some 4/4 lumber that I have . The panel doors will be 3/4" when finished. My question is: to what dimension should I plane and join the boards initially? Should I plane the lumber to the finished 3/4" and then glue up the panels? In the past I have left a little extra, i.e. 7/8", glued up the panels, and then planed them down to the finished 3/4" dimension. This made a real smooth joint where the pieces were glued together. But I wonder if I am wasting time planing twice?

What do you do?

[Stephen M]

Face joint edge joint glue plane edge joint (if I no longer have an exterior jointed edge) rip

If panels are > planer capacity, I make I plane and join the boards initially? Should I plane the lumber to the

[George]

I make the frames as thick as they will go. Normally that's around 7/8 after straightening and planing. Panels can be, and often are less than

3/4. Since they're glue-ups, it's a great place for the boards with wane removed to be matched, or for under thickness dog boards.

I use hand planes after the glue-ups, but with Bessey clamps and a good jointer, there's seldom much to do.

[bridger]

it kind of depends on what equipment you have. if your thickness planer or sander is wide enough to take the whole panel, do the glueup as thick as you can. this gives you bigger faces being glued, which is more forgiving of alignment errors and easier to clamp up straight. if the panel won't fit through your machine, do subassemblies that will, get the thickness as close as you are comfortable with and finish by hand.

[Gary in Virginia]

Good idea! Don't bother planing until after glue up. That'll save a step.

Thanks, Gary

[Duane Bozarth]

Yes...for large panels I normally only knock off just enough of the roughsawn surface to select stock and do the glue up w/ incompletely finished stock. I don't even think of final thicknessing at that point.