Replies

1. 
   Northboundtrain | Mar 12, 2006 10:57pm | #1

   How wide are the rails going to be?

1. 
   Stephenson | Mar 13, 2006 03:50am | #3

   The top rail will be 5.5" the middle rail will be 4.5" and the bottom rail will be 10". It will resemble an arts and crafts style door. There will be two 5.5" styles for each door and a 4.5" style down the center that comes to the bottom of a window in the upper third of the door. There will be two 7/8" pannels in the bottom two thirds of each door.

   John

1. 
   Northboundtrain | Mar 13, 2006 04:15pm | #4

   The bottom rail is the only one you might consider using a double tennon on.  Glue only one of the tennons and cut the mortise slightly longer on the other one to allow for movement.  A few years ago, I built a couple of interior doors using flat sawn douglas fir (more expansion/contraction) and traditional M&T joinery.  I think I just did one tennon on the bottom rails, and they have seemed to hold up fine.  But these were interior doors in Colorado where seasonal movement is pretty negligable.  Depending on your climate, and especially for an exterior door, I would consider the double tennon for the bottom rail -- more work, but it couldn't hurt.

2. 
   mikegagne | Mar 12, 2006 11:31pm | #2

   Stephenson, if I read you right, the CVG has its annual rings showing on its wider surface which is the least expanding orientation for the material. The coefficient of expansion on dried material is calculable using moisture content reading and width of board. At any rate it is low for this material and likely you are safe with expansion issues.
   The double tenon provides strength and surface contact without weakening the mortise by having a large hole with little material left. There are many ways to skin this cat and the fact that you are thinking about it should allow you to find one that will work for your application.

   One approach would be to look at the doors you are replacing and determine how/why they failed if they did. aloha, mike

3. 
   acornw | Mar 13, 2006 11:26pm | #5

   I have never gotten a sound - scientific - reason to make double tenons - that is, to divide a wide rail tenon into two by removing an area.  The closest to a good reason is to keep the stile/mortise from splitting in thickness. We typically use cope joints that prevent the mortise from opening as the joint is clamped tight. If I read your twin tenon correct, you are doubling the normal glue surface for this type of joint, and that will make a superior joint.  I do try to adhere to the "remove one third of the thickness for the mortise" theory, more or less.

   As for the no glue on half of the wide rail joint, I'd glue it all. I have done so about 5 days a week for 30 years, and have never seen the joint open unless the rail/stile sits in water. Even then, it never came near failure, just opened a 32nd and swelled a bit.

   Dave S

   http://www.acornwoodworks.com  prototype website

1. 
   Stephenson | Mar 14, 2006 02:24am | #6

   acornw, thanks for the help. Now can you tell me why some of my lumber is cheking? I assume its because of moisture content, but just like most begginers I don't fully comprehind what is going on. I have a total of 14 boards jointed and thikness planed. They are in varrying widths and lengths. I brought 4 boards into the house to have a warm place to glue up and after letting them sit over night the ends began to check. The remainder of the boards (that have not left my attached wood shop) are left un-checked. Should I expect this to happen to all the boards once they have fully dried? Will this be an on going problem?

   By the way nice web site.

   Thanks, John.