Replies

1. 
   _mj_ | Jun 29, 2020 08:27pm | #1

   Flat and square is a good start, and can be accomplished with hand tools. The big barrier to the success of your door in the mid-to-long-term is the avoidance of glue in favor of mechanical fasteners.

   Wood expands and contracts pretty much continuously and hits peaks in the summer humidity and winter dryness. Your nails and screws will not.

   As wood shrinks around a nail or screw it compresses, and as it expands the next season the hole around the nail or screw is looser as a result. A nail will fail to the point that you'll be able to extract ut with your fingers eventually. You can tighten a screw a few times, but eventually that will fail as well.

   At the least the door will begin to sag under its own weight immediately as all of the weight is concentrated on a single point of each fastener beginning the compression loosening process as soon as you hang the door. Diagonal battens can help, but without glue I fear the door as designed is doomed to fail.

   If you are set on no glue, look into drawbored mortise & tennon construction using wooden pins rather than metal fasteners.

   As Scooby Doo would say... "Rud ruck!"

2. 
   mdorsam | Jun 29, 2020 09:16pm | #2

   No glue or adhesives can be achieved using pegged tenons. To do this successfully; that is, for the long haul, you would need to increase the M&T length, and pull the joint tight using a 'tapered tenon' technique.
   Also, lengthening the tenon, places more of the hanging weight on the tenon's shoulder, rather than hanging beyond the tenon's length (on a 5" board, if the tenon is 2", then 3" hanging beyond the tenon length - over time, this weight serves to stress the joint).

3. 
   revbob | Jul 10, 2020 08:19am | #3

   Great time to learn what hand tools were made for. A decent hand plane will fix your issue.