How big of a tenon should I use for an interior door?

[keith micinski]

I am planning on making a couple of doors for my closet and want to make them with a frosted glass or plexiglass inset panel.I am going to makes the rails and styles an inch and a half thick, I planned on using a 3/4 inch thick tenon is that thick enough?

[Bob Wingard]

I made some big, honkin' Cypress doors for my shop and made them 1 3/4" thick with 1/2" loose tenons.

[Nick Canzona]

I think 3/4 is too thick. I would use 1/2. Depending on the rail & stile width, I would also incorporate a haunch (1/2 x 3/8) to eliminate twisting at the corners. Also, with the joint right at the corners in softwood, I would clamp the stile at each corner while I banged in the tenon, for some "insurance" against splitting the stile. BTW, recently I've been using 1/2" x 3" dowels--three per corner--without the haunch, and that works too. Modern glues are great!

[David Kumm]

Typically I make tenons 1/3 the thickness of the wood or 5/8 for 1 3/4. 1/2 is fine. I use 2.5-3" loose tenons about 2.5" into each side. Two tenons when the center rails are 7" or wider. I glue with slow set West epoxy and leave the mortises a little long. The epoxy should be thickened for strength and will fill the excess mortise structurally. The doors will outlive you. Dave

[Larry Edgerton]

Typically I make tenons 1/3 the thickness of the wood or 5/8 for 1 3/4. 1/2 is fine. I use 2.5-3" loose tenons about 2.5" into each side. Two tenons when the center rails are 7" or wider. I glue with slow set West epoxy and leave the mortises a little long. The epoxy should be thickened for strength and will fill the excess mortise structurally. The doors will outlive you. Dave

I agree with everything here with one exception. I use West as well, and I do thicken, but first there should be a lite coat unthickened. Epoxy is a mechanical bond, in other words it needs to reach into the wood and grab on, so West recommends a wet coat followed by a thickened coat.

I have been building doors as Dave discribes above for over twenty years and have not had a single failure.

Larry

[keith micinski]

Thanks. The 1/2 chisel that came with my used bench top mortises is pretty well shot so I was going to avoid using it but I have been wanting to buy the sharpening cone and give it a shot anyway so now is a perfect time.

[Jeff Duncan]

Yup, 1/2" or even 5/8" will be plenty for a tenon. I also recommend going with either 1-3/8" or 1-3/4" as they are standard sizes. Not sure if you'll run into problems with your lock sets if they are odd sized?

As for glue I just use good old titebond1, I just find epoxy to be a messy PITA and doesn't really add anything except extra work. For an exterior door I might use it, but for a closet I wouldn't bother.....just my opinion. If the yellow glue isn't good enough to hold your door together....there's something else wrong.

Lastly you should NOT have to bang the tenons in. A nice tight slip fit is good and when you add the glue will allow you to slide the tenons in with at most a very light tap of a deadblow hammer.

These are 2-1/4" doors I used a 3/4" x 3"+ tenons on with good ole' yellow glue.

http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/JDWoodworking/IMG_2123.jpg

good luck,
JeffD

[Bruce Kohl]

I generally use 1/2" thick tenons with a 3/8" to 1/2" haunch in 2" deep mortises for both 1 3/4" and 1 3/8" thick doors. With narrow stiles I've decreased the mortise depth to 1 1/2". I think a 5/8" tenon on a 1 1/2" door would certainly work, but with any thinner stile it would leave the sides of the mortise a little thin. I'd stick with 1/2" tenons for these doors.

[keith micinski]

These doors are going to have thinner styles because its a pretty small opening so I will probably make them 1/2 inch by 2 inch deep mortise. I guess I didn't think about the lock sets because I was going to try and make some sort of a french door system so I didn't have to put a center piece in to make more opening space.

[Jeff Duncan]

If your talking about hanging them as a pair then you can simply use dummy knobs and ball catches....that's what was used on the doors in the pic. As for the thickness I'm not sure I see how that helps your closet size? The difference between 1-1/2" thick and 1-3/4" is pretty minimal for clearance issues? At the end of the day it's your own house so you can of course make them any size you want;)

Alternatively if your talking about making them narrower that's not a problem either. I make a modern version that utilizes 3" wide and 1-3/4" thick stiles. They work great except for when it comes to fitting hardware. Narrow stiles can be tricky, but in your case you can use dummy knobs so not an issue. I don't have a pic of those handy, but they also utilize 1/4" frosted acrylic panels.

good luck,
JeffD

[keith micinski]

I meant the width of the stiles being a limiting factor as opposed to the width of the stock which I really didn't think about. I want it to be a true French door because the space is so small around the opening and the opening is only 40 inches. I had sliders in there and it was a hassle because most of the closet was always blocked. I thought about making it one door but making it look like two doors but my bed is in the way and the door wouldn't be able to fully open then. I may just have to go with some sort of a bifold setup but wanted to try something a little trickier since these doors are just for me.