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I have a panel cabinet door that is warped which I wish to flatten but am not sure how to do it. The particulars: the door is 13″ wide by 79 by 3/4 thick. The stiles and rails are all 3″ wide. there are 3 rails, top, bottom and middle with 2 – 1/4″ panels. The door has been stripped so it is down to bare wood. The door is warped so that there is a diagonal twist to it. In other words, when hung and closed, the upper corner of the unhinged side sticks out from the cabinet frame about 3/4 inches. I laid the door on a flat level surface and weighted it down for a month but to no avail. Any suggestions?
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I've had reasonable success using steam then a web clamp around a large object to pull the two high corners down.
WARNING - I have also completely ruined a couple of doors using this method - it's by no means fool-proof.
*Not much is likely to work. You might try putting it into purgatory to take it out of winding (twist) but it's unlikely to work in the long term, i.e., twist it beyond where it's gone by an inch or so for a few days. One trick that's sometimes a partial solution is to put the door into purgatory, cut into the shoulder of the tenoned rails with a tenon saw and close the saw cut up with some epoxy to hold it. It's still not likely to be a good solution because your problem is a cast, or two cast stiles, or a solid timber panel that's gone into winding. Sometimes you can do the purgatory trick and slit the panel on the back with a router or buzz saw, pull it all flat, then fit wee slivers into the panel slits after straightening the door. You might also consider shifting top, middle and bottom hinges a bit to try and even out the discrepancies. None of these tricks offers any guarantee of success, and it's tricky to suggest a good solution without seeing the door. Sometimes a combination of the ideas I've put forward work well enough, but a new door might be the best bet in the end. Sliante.
*Since this door is likely toast anyway, you could try to get the joints apart gently and see whether it's a bad panel or frame member causing the distortion. I've only been able to take cup, but not wind, out with SD's method, and it ruins the looks of the back of the panel. If the panel is truly the only problem, maybe you can replace it fairly easily, depending on profile, and be able to save machining new frame parts.
*In a similar situation, I weakly glued a 1/2" block to the door corner which contacted first, so the other corner was now out bt 1-1/4". I then used two 25lb magnetic catches to hold it shut. It took a year, but most of the twist disappeared and after I removed the block one catch would hold it flush.
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I have a panel cabinet door that is warped which I wish to flatten but am not sure how to do it. The particulars: the door is 13" wide by 79 by 3/4 thick. The stiles and rails are all 3" wide. there are 3 rails, top, bottom and middle with 2 - 1/4" panels. The door has been stripped so it is down to bare wood. The door is warped so that there is a diagonal twist to it. In other words, when hung and closed, the upper corner of the unhinged side sticks out from the cabinet frame about 3/4 inches. I laid the door on a flat level surface and weighted it down for a month but to no avail. Any suggestions?