I’m about to make some some raised panel doors and I am gonna try a new product this time called “panel barrels”. They are either 3/16″ or 1/4″ round rubber, non-staing barrels that go in the grooves of rails & stiles of raised panel doors to basically center the raised panel in the frame. I have not ordered my barrels yet as I’m unsure about which size I should order. My grooves are 1/4″ wide by 3/8″ deep. I could use 3/16″ panel barrels and that’ll give me another 3/16″ for the raised panel to be inside each groove. On the the other they won’t be snug in the grooves because they are only 3/16″ while the grooves are 1/4″. So I wondered about using the larger size panel barrels, 1/4″. The only thing with them is that when assembling the doors I would have to compress them 1/16″ on all four sides. If not then the edges of the raised panels would be 1/8″ inside the grooves. I really don’t think 1/8″ is enough.

Here’s my question – Is it okay to compress these rubber barrels 1/16″ on each side? It ain’t a big number by no means but I’m thinking about long term. Will the doors’ frames come apart in the joints because of the compression, over time?

Paul