I’m in the process of making a front entrance door for a client. I’m using quarter sawed white oak, 1-3/4 thick with one lite – 12 x 12 about 60 inches up from the bottom. It is a solid door (no panels) with 4 v cuts running up and down.
My question to all is, will the door be free of warp or is there something I need to do to make sure it will not warp. I have 6 planks that I plan to double biscuit the edges together.
Thank you for your help, Ken K
Replies
Ken,
If you build it the way you have described it will definitely warp ........ white oak is weather resistant and relatively stable but it will still warp. You would be better resawing the oak to about a quarter inch thick and using an exterior plywood core with two layers of ply set at right angles two each other (like two layers of half or five eights ) then use the white oak as a veneer. I built a door like this about two years ago and had good success this way. I used walnut for mine over a core of one inch ply. As for clamping I used a bunch of cement block for weight. Worked like a charm.
Good luck
It may not warp but will definitely expand and contract about 1/2" in width from season to season if it's a 36" wide door. There is a reason people have been building frame and panel doors for the last 3000 years, and it has to do with expansion, not fashion.
I agree with Rob that expansion not warp is the main issue. Warp or lack of it depends on your skill in joining and clamping. Assuming your stock is square, next is to alternate growth rings or cathedrals and alternate clamps up and under as you go.
The first post also addressed expansion because a ply core will not expand.
Frame and panel is better than a solid door, especially a front door, where weather changes from one face to the other are constant.
I agree with the other posts about both the expansion and possible warpage problems. This would probably be a passably stable door for interior use, especially if you added battens, but this style of construction will cause problems for an exterior door even if it was built out of quarter sawn.
The reason for this is that an exterior door's outside face will, at times throughout the year, be significantly hotter or colder and therefore wetter or drier than the interior face, under these conditions even quarter sawn will cup. This will true no matter what finish you apply and can be made worse, not better, by a glass storm door if the door is in a sunny location.
The door could, as recommended, be built either as a frame and panel or to keep the wide board look, a glue up over a stable core.
A third possible construction would be to to build the door as a T&G with sturdy battens, but with the individual boards no more than three inches or so wide.
A fourth possibility would be to build the panel as a narrow boarded T&G with three or four hidden horizontal battens, probably made from steel or aluminum bars hidden in through mortises in the vertical boards. This style of construction is used in German cabinetwork but it would probably work for an exterior door.
John W.
Edited 9/20/2004 3:50 pm ET by JohnW
There's an excellent book I have used on this subject several times-
Doormaking-a do it yourself guide by John Birchard.Worth buying and covers your question with several options.
White oak is great outside. You probably have enough material to build a proper door
with panels designed for expansion. I made a similar size door with stiles and rails using
loose tenon joints and a large panel. When you get ready to assemble, use plastic resin glue.
Long open time and waterproof.
Good luck,
silver
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