I am waiting for some shaper bits to arrive so I got to thinking (very bad). Attached are a couple pics of an interior door I am working on. I was planning on two intermediate rails, but after laying out the stock to the rough dimensions, I am not certain the proportions are right. I am trying to follow the craftsman style, and would like to hear some opinions as to the more tradional door for that style. The panels are to be free floating 1/2″ cherry T&G with V style edges. The rails are to be MT and I am going to use dowels to fix them together in addition to the glue. The dowels are to stop short of the exterior surface and be covered with square pegs. Any wood suggestions for the square pegs?
I noticed the small gap in the one pic, this does get cut off.
Thks everyone.
Replies
Brad,
If you are going to m-t the stiles and rails why would you dowel them as well. Using a mortising machine is no more time consuming than drilling with a drill press for dowels. even using a router and floating tenons is stronger than using dowels even if you make your own out of 3/4" dowel rods.
My mission style doors have the 1/3- 2/3 ratio that you do for your rails, but mine have another vertical stile dividing the long bottom panel in half. Mission style also has square edges on the stiles and rails conducive to your stave construction. Simple yet elegant. A good web site to look at door styles is http://www.door.cc.
Terry
The dowels go through the tenon from the face of the stiles and are primarily decorative. It is important that the doors do not end up looking just like a prem-door just made of wood. Character, and a little bit of detail. I did see that website from an earlier post. I have also looked at artisans site, and I found a woodworker in California that is making some really nice pieces using several wood types in each door. In my view two many different woods end up gaudy. Thanks for your comments.
I missed the boat on that one completely. I didn't realize you were using the dowels to pin the tenons. That has a very nice look in some applications. The square pins really look sharp in a mission style.
Terry
hey, no worries probably a poor explanation on my part. I dont always get the lingo correct. Thks for your comments, shaper bit should be in today so its off to the races. Too much thinking can be a bad thing sometimes. Pick up and go at some point.
Hijack.
terry, That place has some very reasonable prices. Have you seen Homestead's products before?
brad, I was looking in the second picture, do those boards contain a laminate core?
Yes, I used a glulam core and made up veneer using cherry stock.
Hi Brad,Could this construction be used for an exterior door? I wondering specifically if there would be issues with the thick veneer delaminating from the core?The core you used is regular construction glulam, right? How did you glue the veneer on? Clamps, vacuum bag, piles of brick?Cool project!Thanks,
Todd
Look at Artisan Doors website, Rouge and many more. They make some amazing doors and many build exactly this for interior and exterior. Artisan claims to use this thicker veneer for durability and to allow them to do carvings in the surface. If exterior, as with any solid wood door, I would be careful to consider the doors exposure to weather and your climatic conditions. Many others can give you advice in that regard, as I am by no means an expert.
It is a standard glulam, but there are very strict grading rules and moisture requirements to build certified glulam stock. I know the manufacturer I bought from actually machine stress rates each piece. I bought test stock, approved but not complete finished so it was very cheap. Some use timberstrand or MDF. It is a very tedious process to prep the stock due to the number of glue-ups. Edging first, then veneers. Add to that the stock prep time, and you will be amazed how much time you will spend just preparing to build the doors. By the time I had figured all this out, I was too far into this project. Five more to go.
I built two clamp frames using 1 1/2"x6" glulams x 8' long with a 5/8" thick arborite top. The pieces are sandwiched between the two clamp frames and I use Bessy Clamps along with many others to apply the pressure. It is a little tedious because when you first start applying pressure the veneer wants to shift so what I do is make sure to cut my veneer wider than the piece so it can be cleaned up after it cures. Bricks or sand bags will not work because for one it takes far too many and secondly, you will not end up with enough pressure. Most glue ratings are based upon a glue bonding pressure of 100 to 200psi (thats about 3000 to 6000lbs for one 4.5"x7' stile).
my two cents
Hi Brad,Thanks for the tips. I've been thinking about putting a door together for a while now - this looks like a good way to do it. Plus, I just got a nice new bandsaw and a 1" blade that's begging to cut some veneer :)Todd
If you have not cut veneer stock yet, be sure to read the articles in FWW. It will save you ruining excess pieces. I didnt read them close enough and did ruin a few pieces getting started.
I run a 6 man shop building custom windows and doors. We typically use a laminated core just as you plan to do, for stability and to allow for book-matched stiles. Also we have rarely found our cherry supplies to be of consistently high enough quality to go for solid stiles and rails, or even simple face-laminated stiles (surfaced 4/4, glued face-to-face).
We will use LVL cores for door taller than 84" for stability, but they probably dont perform that much better than the wood core that you are showing in the photos. By the way, we have found the Titebond 3 to be fabulous and very much up to the task for exterior doors. Of course, we dont think that any really nice door should be installed in exposed locations.
I have some Homestead doors in my cottage up north. Mission three panel and the quality is excellent.
Terry
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