Shop Tips
Workshop Tip: Packing foam stabilizes panels
Strips of foam in the grooves keeps a frame centered in its panel.
To keep floating, solid-wood door panels centered in their frames, and prevent them from rattling and clicking during the dry season, cut strips from foam packing sheets and push them into the panel grooves on both sides of the frame. The result is a quiet, centered panel that still has plenty of room to expand across the grain. This works in box lids too—or any floating panel for that matter.
—RUSSELL SHELLY, Haddon Heights, N.J.
Illustrations by Dan Thornton
From Fine Woodworking issue #285
Comments
I use silicone mastic. Flexible enough to let the panel move and easy to apply. Take care to avoid getting silicone on show faces.
"Why do they have hunched shoulders and sloping foreheads? Ask 'em a question [they shrug their shoulders], then give them the answer." [They slap their foreheads with the palm of their hand.] This is one of those "Why didn't I think of that" solutions that make perfect sense. Especially since somebody already make little foam rubber spheres for the same purpose, so why not expand [no pun intended] on that idea?
I use the little 'space balls' rubber spheres, sold just for this purpose. Two on each side does the trick, and installation is faster than the time it took to write this.
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Raised-Cabinet-Spacers-Groove/dp/B074Q51D9C
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