I plan to replace hollow core interior doors with oak shaker-style doors that I will build myself. If I use solid oak, each door will probably weigh more than I want. So I’m considering fabricating some rails and stiles from a solid, lighter weight core covered with oak veneer. What would you recommend for a stable and lightweight core material? Besides buying new from a door supplier, can you think of any other options for my project?
Thanks, Mark
Replies
The weight savings in veneering another wood is minimal for a shaker style door and not worth the effort and potential pitfalls of what you are suggesting.
Why are you worried about the weight anyway? Solid oak doors have been around as long as men and women have been building houses. Just be sure to have 3 hinges and you will be fine.
Not worried. But in a past project I installed 5 cherry shaker doors with mdf cores. They were pretty unwieldy for me to hang on my own. I did use 3 hinges, though.
I'm not sure what made them so unwieldy, although MDF probably weighs more than oak psi, but you may want to examine your techniques and procedures to see if there are better ways to hang them solo. Even without investing in some of the specialized tools pros have there are things you can do to make the job easier. Was there a particular step in the process that you struggled with? Or was it just handling the doors themselves? I confess being 6' 3" and 230lbs and pretty fit most of my life does give me a slightly slanted perspective on some things.
The doors just required a lot more care than that required for a hollow core door that I can almost put up with one hand. Per your suggestion, there probably are better ways to hang these doors solo. You have 2 inches and 40 pounds on me but I suspect I'm a bit older than you and not as fit as you. to answer your question, the step in the process that I have struggled with the most is the final alignment of the hinges before inserting the hinge pins.
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A door constructed out of solid oak boards with a veneered rail & stile overlay will have too much seasonal wood movement to be functional. Otherwise, the weight a standard, well-constructed frame & panel interior door should not be an issue.
Thanks for weighing in here (pun intended). I was planning to use half inch oak plywood for the panel (and not individual oak boards) so that seasonal movement of the panel would not be an issue. Based on your input and input from esch5995, it sounds like I shouldn't be worried about the weight of the oak and just use solid, dry, and straight oak for the rails and stiles.
Be aware that most plywood commonly available only has one good side with a lower quality veneer on the opposite side. This can result in one side not finishing as nicely. You may want to consider laminating 2 pieces of ¼" back to back to insure similar face veneer appearance.
The rail and stiles are what constitute the framework to make the door durable, it holds the latch, handle and hinges and has deep tenon and mortices joinery, it’s the last thing I would replace with a lightweight alternative. I guess you could, and I have, make the core out of western red cedar and cap it with oak but that is a lot of work. The center panel however could be made light and stiff by laminating a 1/8 oak plywood on either side of a foam core.
If you are thinking about something similar to this, I can give you some specifics. 36” doors weigh about 70lbs. The rails and stiles are solid oak, panels are 1/2” plywood with bookmarked veneers. I hung about half of the doors with the help of my wife and then to avoid divorce I would used wedges to get the hinges to line up with the mortises and screwed the door to the frame. I found pre installing the hinges on the door and screwing the hinges to the frame was easier than separating the hinges and lining the pins up. I did use Emtek hinges and had no issues.
Beautiful door Jake, love it!
Air Shims (little inflatable bladders) are great to facilitate one person door installation. You can actually adjust them with your foot (at least adjust them up). Available at big-box stores near you. If you have only one door, they're probably not worth risking divorce, but with many, heavy, doors, are well worth it.
Thanks to all who responded. Now to go through the stacks at the local lumber yard to find those perfect pieces.
There is a product called stave core that is used for commercial doors, now often replaced by composite products, that is made from softwood shorts. It boasts the highest strength to weight ratio of the door core products. You can find it in sheets and could cut stiles and rails from that and laminate veneer to it to make a somewhat lighter door. But you'd need to edge it for any exposed edges,and I agree with other posts that for the effort of doing all that you might as well just use solid oak for your rails and stiles. In mass production it would pencil out better to use the lamination approach, but in a small shop with a few doors, solid wood is simpler, and the extra wood cost is outweighed by the simplicity of construction.