2 Species Door..Presto Chango

[Leo Graywacz]

I am currently working on a Sapele' bar, which is phase II. Phase I was the Maple theater. In the bar area there is a wall that connects to the theater. It has a pass through hole in it that needs a sliding door. Small door, cabinet door size.

I have made other doors that had different species glued back to back and they never seem to fair well. The different expansion rates between the joint of the wood causes the door to eventually change shape and get a bend in it, warp it.

So this time I chose to make a stave core door. The core being MDF.


Started off by taking a Maple board and a Sapele' board and gluing them together edge to edge. Then ripped them so there was 3/8" of each by 15/16" wide.

http://fototime.com/6E363CB0233E59C/orig.jpg

Then I took multi strip and sandwiched it between two MDF edges and glued them together.

http://fototime.com/F3DD98ACC37CE76/orig.jpg

http://fototime.com/BA1FA89A7FA1F5F/orig.jpg

After they dried I cut them in half leaving 5/16" of solid wood and the rest MDF.

http://fototime.com/AC06AE9F99A0465/orig.jpg

That forms the inside edge of the door, the outside is just going to be Maple, so I cut the MDF so when the glue up is cut to size I will have 1/4" of both Maple and the Maple/Sapele' solid on each 2 3/8" slab.

http://fototime.com/BD60AC30AE73C7E/orig.jpg

That is what I got done on this today. Tomorrow I will make some 1/8" veneers out of the Maple and Sapele' and glue them on the front and back completing the stave core.

OK, I unclamped the pcs and ran them through the widebelt to get them around 11/16" thick. Then I cut them apart.

http://fototime.com/54C9DA68BB911BB/orig.jpg

http://fototime.com/0755AEE5C2D6368/orig.jpg

The I took some solid stock, some nice looking pcs, and cut my veneers from them. I just set the fence at 1/8" and ran the 2 9/16" stock vertically up against my fence, Jointed the face and did it again. This gave me two pcs of veneer, one for each face of the stiles and rails.

http://fototime.com/938FA68CAB632EC/orig.jpg

http://fototime.com/2B5FE3042B2C370/orig.jpg

Then I needed to glue the veneers onto the stave cores. This will bring my total thickness of the staves to 15/16", which is thicker than I want for the final product.

http://fototime.com/33C47D83DF1111A/orig.jpg

[Leo Graywacz]

Here they are being pressed and glued. I am using my shapers for flat surfaces. I will likely leave them clamped until Monday. That way it will be a full cure and all the water from the glue will have migrated out. This should prevent any movements from the water based glue. If I had some Unibond 800 in the shop I would have used that instead.



http://fototime.com/974CA55658A72A5/orig.jpg

Started back up on the two species door. Today I took the sandwich stiles and rails out of the clamps and milled them to size.

http://fototime.com/376D252579989E8/orig.jpg


I glued up a board that I would use for the Sapele' panel and I picked out a pc of a 1/4" Maple MDF sheet. Went over to my buddies shop and ran the 1/4" MDF through the widebelt to get rid of one of the veneers and bring it down to 3/16". By the time I got through all the glue I was down to .1840", so just under 3/16". I ran the Sapele' through the sander to flatten it out and prepare it for gluing to the MDF.

To mate the two panels I am using West System Epoxy. I don't have a good way to press the panels together to use PVA glue and the epoxy doesn't require pressure.

MDF and Sapele'
http://fototime.com/2E46892778B1B6C/orig.jpg

http://fototime.com/10653E8F246D07E/orig.jpg

Ready to be glued together
http://fototime.com/94D4C0AA96CAEDD/orig.jpg

My gluing strategy was simple. A flat surface, my shaper table, a pc of MDF and some weight. I put some waxed paper between the MDF and the glue up and a plastic bag over the shaper top to keep things clean.

http://fototime.com/E5532EB860C0E46/orig.jpg

http://fototime.com/4C4FBBE1024B7C7/orig.jpg

While I was waiting for the epoxy to cure I started working on the stiles and rails. Normally I would make a tongue and groove setup for a door, but because this has an MDF core the MDF tongue would be to weak to make a good tongue. So instead I used 3/8" x 3" spiral dowels. I drilled the dowel holes with my antique Stanley No.59 doweling jig.

Then I needed a groove, so I setup my dado in the TS for .250" and ran my rails all the way through and did stop dadoes for the stiles.

http://fototime.com/820A35C9580AB4D/orig.jpg

http://fototime.com/E5C0A9C01226B2F/orig.jpg

http://fototime.com/BDC88BF6CD7E8D4/orig.jpg

After the panel cures it will go through the sander to get it to about 1/4" and fit snugly into the slot and then the door will be glued up.

I got the panel out of the "press" and planed it down to just under 5/16". I ran it through Ron's widebelt sander to get it down to .240" and then coated it with sealer on both sides. After sanding the sealer I glued up the stiles, rails and dowels and inserted the panel and clamped it up.

After a few hours I took it out and sanded the glue off. Tomorrow I will send it through the sander to get the thickness from 15/16" to 7/8". Maybe even 13/16" which is my standard door thickness.

Here is a very short video of the door.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JebLi3a7Vu4