Raised panel finishing sequence

[Mitch Harper]

I have just completed my first set of raised panel doors. Before assembly, I stained and polycrylic finished the panel. Then I stained the stiles and rails. After that, I glued them up letting the panel free float inside. I squeezed in some wax paper between the panel face and the front side of the stick joints, and applied the polycrylic finish to the stiles and rails. I was trying to keep the polycrylic from gluing the panel to the frame. It was a real pain to remove the wax paper, since it became glued to the frame, instead.

My question, when finishing raised panels, should I polycrylic the panel and frame at the same time and not be concerned about them sticking together?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Kev Y.]

Personally I would not worry, after all in several years time when you come to freshen up the finish if the doors, are you going to pull them apart again? :confused: , I think not.

[silentC]

I would have stained the panel and the frame separately and then put the lot together and applied the finish last. Your only concern is that if the panel shrinks, you don't want to see raw timber showing.