orepass

Until 6 months ago I would have never considered making raised panels with a smoothing plane. Actually, I would not have a plane sharp enough to make raised panels. The bottom panel is a piece of 1/4″ plywood. It will never be seen and the chest is quite heavy without the additional weight of a panel.

Making raised panels is much quicker by hand unless you are making a large number. It took me 15 minutes for each panel for a total of 30 minutes. I don’t think I could find my router bits in that time. The most frustrating part of this process has been trying to flatten the panels. We have been through multiple weather changes since I first cut the panels and I have planed them flat twice and one of the has a vicious cup already.

Once flattened I mark out the desired thickness of the panel edges using a marking gage and then pencil in guide lines for the  raised panel on the top. Placing the panel in my vise I plane back and forth at my desired angle careful to maintain a 45 degree cutting angle on the end grains. I repeat this for all of the sides on each panel. Next I flip the panels over and repeat the process until the panels fit neatly into the grooves. Glue up next.