Ways to produce shaker doors

Producing Shaker doors that are clean and neat are the goal. If you take a 3D Laminate shaker door and cut it open you may be surprised to find a plant in center panel. Read below to learn more.
PRODUCING A SHAKER DOOR:

To produce a shaker door and then membrane or vacuum press the door companies first router out the center reveal. One common issue is that in doing so the fibers of the door open up. It can be very difficult to then get a sander in and to accomplish the desired finish. On top of that , when a PUD adhesive is applie, the PUD adhesive is about 58% water which further opens the pours of the MDF open and will show through the 3D Laminate after pressing.
The ideal solution is to take a 1/8" HDF  board cut to the size of the center panel and to drop it into the center of the shaker. This is the most common way companies create good looking shaker doors in the component industry. The HDF (High Density Fiberboard) can be left unsanded with the factory finish. It is important however to glue the center panel in because failure to do so will make it sound like the beat of a drum when closing the cabinet door. The center of the door can be glued in by the PUD adhesive used in the membrane pressing process.

PAINTED DOORS:

For painted doors, the key to get a good finish is to paint the door and then sand it to a 250 to 300 grit and then paint again. This will smooth out the surface before doing a finishing coat.
PLANT ON SHAKER:

For plant on Shaker, you can take 1/2" mdf and run a 1/4" to 1/4" mdf through a shaper and then miter cut and piece the parts on the door using a PUR adhesive. This reduces the milling time out of the shaker and creates a lower processed cost Shaker. It will have a reveal line on the perimeter of the door however this is a small price to pay for saved CNC milling time.
CONCLUSION:

If you follow the steps above you can get a better looking shaker door. For additional information please feel free to contact me for further information or further research.