How to repair cracked panels in wooden doors

Q: There are seven church doors in my house.
When we buy a house, the door is OK.
Now, one or two of the three largest panels have cracks.
The most serious crack is about a quarter. inch wide.
Will the repair of these doors cause problems?
How do I fix or fill these cracks?
Waterfall churcha: It\'s almost certain that the cracks are caused by the finish on the door, maybe a patch that happened before you bought the house, because the door looked good at the time.
Although leisure audiences may see more
Panel doors like you, see The Railroadand-
Panel building as a pure decoration, this traditional way of building
Wooden doors are a clever solution to one of the annoying properties of natural wood: even after thorough drying, included in the kiln, wood fibers still expand and shrink --forever —
When the relative humidity of the air changes.
The fibers change only a minute in length, but they expand or shrink significantly in width.
If a door is a solid board, or on the edge of multiple boards --
Bonded together, a wide variation of the wood fiber will make the door shrink enough to expose gaps on the edge of the side in dry weather and expand enough to stick together in wet weather.
However, by constructing a frame in which the wooden blocks are mainly aligned to take advantage of the longitudinal stability of the fibers, the dimensions of the door are basically kept the same --round.
Panels are designed to float in the grooves of the frame, allowing them to shrink or expand without changing the overall size of the door.
However, if too many finishes are piled up along the edge of the panel, the problem arises, thus preventing them from entering and leaving where they meet with the frame.
When dry air forces the panel to shrink but the panel cannot slide, the wood will crack.
When a house has new occupants, this may happen without knowing the consequences, keep air dry by using more air conditioning or by running a stove that does not have a humidifier used by previous occupants.
What should I do now?
Forgot to fill the cracks with some sort of wood filler.
The panel will still expand and shrink, so it is unlikely that the filler will remain in place. The only long-
The term solution is to restore the ability of the panel to float, and then stick the broken pieces together.
Sometimes the door panel is mounted in the groove and there is a molded piece on one side of each edge, just like a photo frame.
If you find out, you can gently pry open the molding loose, remove the panel, stick it together, then reinstall it after scraping anything in the groove.
Mineral spirits and ultra-fine steel wool marked 0000 are conducive to final cleaning.
Be sure to number the molded pieces so you can reinstall them in the same place.
More likely, the panel is stuffed into a groove cut into the edge of the frame piece.
There is no way to remove these panels without breaking them.
Instead, focus on letting them slide back and forth in the groove.
Because the last layer of finish can cause problems, and because your door has a clear finish, score from the use of a razor blade on the cracked panel mounted to the finish in the frame.
If this is not enough, you may need to peel off the finish to release the panel.
Paint doors almost always need to be peeled off. (
In theory, you only need to peel the finish if the cracked panel meets the frame piece, but you may find it easier to remove all the finishes and start over. )
Use heat once the broken panel slides-
The glue gun connects the block of wood to the edges on both sides of each panel.
If there is a crack, clean up the space with sandpaper.
Transport the wood glue into the crack and set a clip on the block to close the crack.
Clean up the excess glue before the glue dries, but place the clip in place for 24 hours.
Then remove the wooden block with a chisel;
The hot glue is crispy, so it should be easy to clean up.
Touch or patch the door as needed.
Be careful not to have the finish pool along the edge of the panel.
You have seen the damage you can do!