Caulk on painted shaker cabinet doors?

I'm considering making some shaker style cabinet doors and draw fronts for our kitchen. We're getting the whole kitchen redone and are very keen to use solid timber. Not a fan edge mdf, vinyl wrapped, edge banded chipboard or anything of that nature. But of course solid timber costs a lot, so considering doing it myself.

What I'm thinking is that we'll go with American Oak for the rails and stiles and perhaps an Oak veneer plywood for the panels. Then we'll paint and finish with some sort of lacquer (will talk about that in a different thread). Hopefully in a way that the paint still shows the grain.

The issue I'm concerned about with solid timber doors is getting moisture in between the frame and the panel, and the wife wants something easy to clean where dirt can't get in between. So I'm tempted to run some paintable caulk along where the frame meets the panel. I know the idea is that the panel floats freely, but surely with a plywood panel there won't be any noticeable expansion/contraction. And on that note, if I'm going to use caulk then I'm thinking I might actually glue the panel in, or at the very least pop a few brads in around the edges to hold it secure.

Any thoughts?

You should be fine with plywood and mdf but solid timber panels should float

I do these a lot from 12mm MRMDF and 6mm MDF...quick and easy and to date have been lasting really well.

I make the panel for the door 10mm oversize from the 12mm and then make the strips of 6mm that are 5mm over size.
When doing the "rails" I use a 45 degree bit with bearing on the ends.

Glue and pin the 6mm onto the 12mm around the edges,
Fill the brad holes,
Trim the door to size on the panel saw,
Round over the edges with a tiny 3mm roundover bit,
Line the inside with liner laminate,
Trim the laminate,
Drill the hinge holes for doors or use my jig for the drawer mounting tiny holes.
Mask up the inside (laminated side)
Spray two coats of oil based undercoat rub down in between
Spray 2 or maybe 3 coats of oil based top coat..

I do glass fronteds much the same, making a frame from the 12mm and biscuits and make the 6mm strips 5mm wider to give the rebate. then use a whole piece of laminate and trim out the inside.

I make the endpanels the same way but use a bugger strip of the 6mm at the bottom to bring it up to the kickboard height...

FWIW I think using timber if you're painting is a bit of a waste...but I do get the grain showing, although painting with a brush...

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Slightly off topic, but that two (2) door oven in the 1st picture looks great! Can you get them in Australia?

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Originally Posted by cava

Slightly off topic, but that two (2) door oven in the 1st picture looks great! Can you get them in Australia?

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thats an original 1920s cast iron stove named "The West" on the front. so far as we can tell it was made here in Perth. I pulled it out and had it reskinned inside and outside in Stainless here in Perth WA at huge expense before reinstalling. Also had to have new flue made in the wierd size it was including a 45 degree dogleg to have it run up the centre of the metal shroud