Stave Core Door Stiles. Anyone ever made them in small shop? Ideas.

[Peter Quinn]

I need to make an exterior door for my recent garage/barn build, a 3'0X80 entry door. I have a few 10/4 cypress boards that came from my grandfather's work bench, not quite enough to make it from solids, maybe enough to skin some stave cores. I also have access to a lot of stickers and odd drops of mahogany and/or white oak. I've made lumber core shelves this way, maybe 36" long, just butted shorts, kept gluing up sections, vacuum bag, sawn skins, etc.. But door stiles need to be thicker and longer. I see commercial pine staves available, I know this makes more economic sense, but this is not a project about sense on that level. I like the rustic beauty of the cypress for this project, I'd look to look out and see that door and know its my grandfathers work bench top looking back at me!

So, anybody ever worked out a scheme for end gluing finger jointed or scarfed shorts into longer boards? I'm looking for a smart solution that is reasonably accurate to clamp this type of assembly. I know the industrial guys have special clamping machines with RF cure and such, I need a low volume low tech solution for the most BA stave core ever. Any ideas or experiences?

[Mel Fulks]

Peter,I remember from previous thread you didn't think much of using mdf cores,surprisingly they are very rigid even though the mdf itself is floppy. I've used the ready to dress pine stuff, but only on big jobs where time was a major factor.The place I worked the longest used 4 quarter western red cedar for the cores,a knotty grade. We ran the boards thru planer without facing them and left them as thick as they would clean up. Pine is ,of course,good too.By using flat sawn material you get vertical grain in the finished stile. We glued up the cores with one piece of the "show wood" on both edges. Then carefully faced and planed cores very straight. The faces were planed 1/4 or 5/16,when glued to the cores and we made the assembly at least 1/8th thicker than the finished stile to have enuf wood to fine tune straightness.A number of stiles can be glued at a time with paper between . I think the most important thing is to use a glue not mixed or thinned with water.If plastic resin glue is used it should be the two part type .If something like Titebond is used it should not be thinned with water for easier brushing,the water makes for a less straight stile. Gorilla type glue can be used too,but no water there either unless the wood is extremely dry. Glue with water elongates the wood and when it dries out one face often shrinking more than the other,pulling the stile bowed no matter how straight it was while being glued.It is a time consuming and messy process and I wouldn't make it worse by trying to use up short pieces. One thing that is a help is to get out faces and cores long enuf to shoot a nail into each end to keep them from sliding while gluing.Trimming those ends off ,of course ,before final machining. Hope this is of some help.

[david brum]

Hi Peter

Are you thinking of frame and panel doors? I made some stave core doors a few years ago. Mine were French (divided light) interior doors, but the construction was based on my home exterior door. I got on a ladder and looked at the top of the door to see how it was constructed. I made my cores from spruce staves, picked out of the 2 x 4 lumber pile at HD. This might just be a local thing, but Spruce is often intermixed with Doug Fir in the piles. It's much lighter and straighter than the other stuff. I basically laminated several staves with VG fir on either end. The cores were then jointed and planed. After they sat in the shop for a few weeks to make sure they were stable, I veneered a shop cut VG fir skin on both sides. Pretty easy but it did take some time.

I later thought about gluing up finger jointed chunks to make the staves. It seems like it would help eliminate potential warping. I can't see why you'd need anything besides a long, straight pipe clamp and lots of glue. I tried a few experiment joints after I bought a set of finger joint 40mm HHS insert cutters for my Euro block. The joints are plenty strong enough, especially if you're offsetting them when you glue up the stave sandwiches.

Of course, I'm also doing amateur work, where time is definitely not money. One thing that surprised me was how much wood gets used up on a door. Each mullion is a big piece of wood with most of its bulk removed. It reminded me of an old 1940s cartoon where a huge tree is brought into a sawmill and lathed down to a tooth pick.

[Peter Quinn]

Much appreciated Mel. This is exterior, some exposure, so MDf is out, timberstrand is a consideration, but I hear mixed reviews of it for exterior door core. No experience with it myself. The shorts are for stability, all the industrial shops with finger joint lines use them and claim its better than solid stickers for staves, I suspect it may be a way to make use of scrap as much as anything but not based on actual knowledge. Long stickers sure would be easier. Ultimately im concerned with with stability and duribility foremost. mahogany stave core or white oak stave core better than pine? I've heard pL mentioned as a choice adhesive, interesting. Plastic resin a/b like unibond is out due to temperature in shop. Water based glues do scare me for this. Maybe a heater is in order?

[Mel Fulks]

Not trying to change your mind , Im smarter than that!! But the first thing I saw about mdf cores was in an ad for a big mfg.,and exterior mdf is available. As for using the shorts ,think about the grain orientation, it does not produce a stile with vertical grain. I would use tite bond two ,because you can use it in temp as low as 55 degrees. Can't remember about the polyurethane.

[Jeff Duncan]

Don't have much help but I've found the staves to be pretty expensive to outsource! Have you though about bypassing the stave and using solid wood instead? A lot less time intensive and if done correctly with appropriate wood should last several lifetimes.

good luck,
JeffD

[John TenEyck]

I've made stave core doors with 1/8" face veneers. I butt jointed the shorter internal stave sections, with full length staves for the edges that would show. Those things were incredibly stiff after glue-up. A year and a half later they look as good as the day I installed them. I used Weldwood Plastic Resin glue and had no trouble with anything warping. I did not want to risk Titebond type glues, especially for the M&T joints because they are subject to creep. I'm going to build a new front door soon, and I'm seriously considering LVL for the staves, which is similar to Timberstrand. Much easier than prepping all those stave pieces.

John

[Peter Quinn]

Hi Peter

Are you thinking of frame and panel doors? I made some stave core doors a few years ago. Mine were French (divided light) interior doors, but the construction was based on my home exterior door. I got on a ladder and looked at the top of the door to see how it was constructed. I made my cores from spruce staves, picked out of the 2 x 4 lumber pile at HD. This might just be a local thing, but Spruce is often intermixed with Doug Fir in the piles. It's much lighter and straighter than the other stuff. I basically laminated several staves with VG fir on either end. The cores were then jointed and planed. After they sat in the shop for a few weeks to make sure they were stable, I veneered a shop cut VG fir skin on both sides. Pretty easy but it did take some time.

I later thought about gluing up finger jointed chunks to make the staves. It seems like it would help eliminate potential warping. I can't see why you'd need anything besides a long, straight pipe clamp and lots of glue. I tried a few experiment joints after I bought a set of finger joint 40mm HHS insert cutters for my Euro block. The joints are plenty strong enough, especially if you're offsetting them when you glue up the stave sandwiches.

Of course, I'm also doing amateur work, where time is definitely not money. One thing that surprised me was how much wood gets used up on a door. Each mullion is a big piece of wood with most of its bulk removed. It reminded me of an old 1940s cartoon where a huge tree is brought into a sawmill and lathed down to a tooth pick.


Yes David, Frame and panel doors with divided lites up top. Probably two vertical panels below the lock rail, four lites above it. Sort of craftsman style but not rigidly so. I'm planning to use loose tenons, cope and stick. The euro block idea is interesting, I have the shallow finger joint profile for that, I have access to a deeper more structural sized cutter from work, it sits unused for years because no need and people hate setting it up! Was for curved work that now gets farmed out. I'm prepared to age the staves to work out any moisture if I go tite bond for glue. This is for me, not for money, so all options are open. I have to also make several wall brackets from the cypress to support a pediment/overhang, or at least I'd like to use the same material. So if the door were done in solid stock, not enough material for panels too. If I skin staves I think I can get solid panels and wall brackets from what I have. Perhaps after the holidays I'll just set up the finger joint on the euro block and start gluing to see how it goes as a test.

Mel, I like medex, but if I glue my grandfathers cypress to MDF I may not sleep at night.:rolleyes: I've made windows using local pine, flat sawn from a local mill. Its #2 common, but you can cut perfect clear grade for double hungs out of it around the knots. The 8/4 is sawn closer to 10/4 and you can rotate the stock to always have vertical grain relative to the surface but still make necessary parts. I'm thinking I can do the same with african mahogany drops for staves. Question I'm asking is if I try this should I be gluing up one 80+ inch band at a time, then glue up for width, or should I just attack the whole mess at once in a glue fury with some cauls to press the width and maybe some wedges and a frame to tighten the length? Or long pipes perhaps. Then I'll have an expression just like David's avatar!

[Peter Quinn]

Don't have much help but I've found the staves to be pretty expensive to outsource! Have you though about bypassing the stave and using solid wood instead? A lot less time intensive and if done correctly with appropriate wood should last several lifetimes.

good luck,
JeffD


I should call for a quote before I proceed to put a number on the options. I'd gladly use solid, but part of my goal is to make a door and two brackets to support the pediment over it out of a small pile of 10/4X 11" cypress t&g boards from my grandfathers work bench. A sort of emotional journey in wood. And I don't have enough material to do solid, I need to stretch it thin. They were the floor of the mill he worked in, I grew up literally in its shadow, it closed well before I was born and he removed these boards when it did. They had a pile of planks for replacing worn spots, mill closed, he took them home, made a bench, bench was left out in rain for some period before I inherited it. I have dried what could be salvaged and plan to give it a new purpose, more of a staring role.

[Carl Beckett]

Not sure if it what you want to do, but there was a nice writeup here a while back using laminated beam material for the core of an exterior (I believe was oak). He cut segments from the laminate, then rotated it and sandwich an glue it all together. Came out beautiful

[Sam Layton]

Peter,

LVL beams/lumber makes good stave core. They are not expensive, and they are stable. Just buy the size you need. They are wax coated so you need to plane off the wax, and plane to size. Then laminate your veneer.

Sam

[Mel Fulks]

Unless you ship them your wood,looks like you have to make them. The only glued up core material that I've seen comes in wide pieces that have been abrasive planed to remove the glue. You have to rip them ,glue on the 'show wood' edges,then face,plane, and glue on the skins. Since you already have the faces you want to use, I can't see how they can help you. About 10 or 12 years ago we ordered some completely ready to use red oak stiles and they were about 80$ each plus shipping. They were usable ,but not as straight as the ones I make .By carefully matching them and making sure the worst stiles were the hinge stiles it all worked out. I consider buying the ready to use stiles just an emergency rush choice.

[Joe Calhoon]

Peter,
Your question about gluing finger joint staves - We have a small finger joint press used for curve segments. It presses the finger jointed material tight for about a minute then releases. You stack the piece carefully and do another. I am thinking for low tech and a one time application any way you could clamp the pieces should work. The Germans make a hand clamp for this but is pricy. Even knocking them together with a hammer after gluing might work.. Normally for door stiles the pieces are finger jointed before gluing into the stave so the joints are offset. Even with the press it is not economical for us to finger joint staves for doors. I do believe the finger jointed pieces add to stability though and a good use of cutoffs. We normally make our own and only outsource when busy. We can make a better product in - house just because we use more care and look the cores over close before running through the moulder, hand facing if necessary.
The best quality exterior door staves are same species as face or a rot resistant species with similar movement with quartered or rift grain. For 8’ and taller doors I like to use plain sawn white oak ripped and turned to become quartered or rift after gluing into the stave. For very thick doors we use the Euro method of three layer lamination with thick faces so there is no lamination in the sticking to the weather side.


I don't care for them but a lot of shops have had success with man made cores like LVL or Timberstrand. In this case you should use a thin skin - 1/8” or so because the core does not have much movement.


For low tech pressing of the skins you need a flat surface to press against. We had plywood torsion boxes that we still use in the gluing rack. It is possible to use these with bar clamps. Vacuum bagging works but is marginal in my experience.

[lowell holmes]

Let me show my ignorance. What are staves in a door?
I thought staves were parts of wooden buckets and barrels.

Are you talking about narrow boards glued up to make a wide panel?

I've seen commercally made doors where the stiles and rails are made of a solid wood core, wrapped with a thick veneer to look like a solid stile or rail.
It seems to me it might be more stable than solid stiles and rails if doon correctly.

[Andrew Hughes]

Sam has a good point about the lvl beams.I would expect the glue lines in the beams would leave nicks in your machines blades.I don't see the need to glue pieces wood together to build one door.The doors I have made for customers have always been vertical grain dougfir.Or Wrc for outside entry gates.I just copied what was around me on restoration jobs I have been on.Last one was a house built in 1920.All the doors were very fine grain Df.And still good enough to refinish.My house was built in 1950 same thing vg fir.I am not saying you should use Df for your door maybe it's something used for the west coast.
I sourced my door wood by calling around and talking to the lumber yards. I finally found someone who understood what I needed.Good luck with your door build

[Peter Quinn]

Peter,

LVL beams/lumber makes good stave core. They are not expensive, and they are stable. Just buy the size you need. They are wax coated so you need to plane off the wax, and plane to size. Then laminate your veneer.

Sam

Do I have to rip and reglue the LVL's? I have a pile of them left due to an ordering snafu, they are very strong but very much not flat over their length. I seem to recall a gentleman ripping them, edge gluing the rips to make the core width, then skinning them. I can get timberstrand, which is very flat as is. Joe Makes a good point about skin thickness, I had envisioned 3/16" skins at minimum, that might be too thick tp glue to a man made core? I see some people have reservations about using timberstrand for exterior doors though I've yet to get a reason. Perhaps it swells when wet? Supposed to be water resistant though to act as rim joist, but thats rough framing tolerances.

[Peter Quinn]

Peter,
Your question about gluing finger joint staves - We have a small finger joint press used for curve segments. It presses the finger jointed material tight for about a minute then releases. You stack the piece carefully and do another. I am thinking for low tech and a one time application any way you could clamp the pieces should work. The Germans make a hand clamp for this but is pricy. Even knocking them together with a hammer after gluing might work.. Normally for door stiles the pieces are finger jointed before gluing into the stave so the joints are offset. Even with the press it is not economical for us to finger joint staves for doors. I do believe the finger jointed pieces add to stability though and a good use of cutoffs. We normally make our own and only outsource when busy. We can make a better product in - house just because we use more care and look the cores over close before running through the moulder, hand facing if necessary.
The best quality exterior door staves are same species as face or a rot resistant species with similar movement with quartered or rift grain. For 8’ and taller doors I like to use plain sawn white oak ripped and turned to become quartered or rift after gluing into the stave. For very thick doors we use the Euro method of three layer lamination with thick faces so there is no lamination in the sticking to the weather side.


I don't care for them but a lot of shops have had success with man made cores like LVL or Timberstrand. In this case you should use a thin skin - 1/8” or so because the core does not have much movement.


For low tech pressing of the skins you need a flat surface to press against. We had plywood torsion boxes that we still use in the gluing rack. It is possible to use these with bar clamps. Vacuum bagging works but is marginal in my experience.


Joe, do you have a preferred glue for the finger joints? I saw a guy on wood web using hot melt hi pur PL, 30 second, just holding it there. You mentioned you make your own stave cores, are those with full length staves or butt joints? Do you have a preferred glue for this process? I work for a guy that makes a lot of WO flooring, I have pretty good access to flat sawn WO rippings, that might be a serious option for this project. How thick can the skins be on a core like that?

[John TenEyck]

There are several folks, including at least one pro, on another forum who swear by LVL beams for use in stave core doors.

John

[Mel Fulks]

I don't think I'd try to glue in two directions at one time. The idea of finger jointing scraps is a good idea and a practical one .I don't think it could accurately be described as superior to the rip and re glue method as it had been used for decades before I was told to do it,with no failures. The beam thing is interesting ,too. But is that stuff KD dry down to low percentage or left with more moisture like most structural lumber. Along that same line ,if all the door material is KD ,I
disagree that there could any significant movement issues between cores and skins. I note one post where some structural lumber was used successfully, glad it worked. I would not do it, no amount of acclimating is going limit movement like
KD does.

[Joe Calhoon]

248688248689

Peter,
We pretty much use TB3 for everything on exterior doors and windows just because it is easy to use in a small shop. That said, it is not the ideal glue for the staves because it is flexible and has some creep. We have not had any problems using it in Colorado. We tried some catalyzed 2 part type 1 glues early on but had problems with shelf life and temperature in our shop. Unibond 800 is a good rigid glue if you are worried about flexing.
Jowat has some PVA glues for the door and window industry that are very good but not available in the US yet. I do not see a problem using PUR for the finger joint. I do think the advantage of a PVA here is the instant swelling keeping the joint together. Our shop built staves are solid full length. If I had production FJ machinery I would do that but it is not economically possible with the small press.


As I said I do not care for Timberstrand or LVL but a lot of shops are successful with that product. I am just a solid wood guy... We built interior doors for about a year using Timberstrand. We had a little trouble with maple and VG fir veneers cracking on this material. Maple is expansive and VG fir is usually a little wet. In dry Colorado that can be a problem in the winter heating season. These products work but you will be safer with a thin face skin. We had similar experience using LVL cores.


Using solid wood cores I like to check the core material and the face veneer using the Woodweb shrinkage calculator to see how similar the movement is with a change in RH. It is also important that the skins have the same MC. If one side is wetter that will cause a stile to bow.


With the right old growth material we sometimes use solid wood for stiles. 8’ tall doors are always laminated though. Engineered stiles are not new. Our 100 + year old courthouse has these.


Attached are some photos of different core constructions we use and a couple interesting man made cores from Germany.

[Sam Layton]

Peter,

No you do not have to rip and reglue the LVL beams. In approximately 2009 Mike Grotzke built a front door using LVL beams for the stave core. He posted the build, but I could not find it.

He purchased the size LVL beam he needed. He then planed it to the correct thickness, allowing approximately a 1/8" veneer on each side. He then cut two strips of white oak approximately 3/4" x 1 1/2" x the length of the door. He glued the strips on each edge of the door, and then veneered his 1/8" oak veneer on each side. I think his rails were solid oak, I can not rember. If you pm him he can point you to his build.

The 3/4" strips hold the hinges, etc. His door turned out great.

Sam

[Peter Quinn]

Peter,

No you do not have to rip and reglue the LVL beams. In approximately 2009 Mike Grotzke built a front door using LVL beams for the stave core. He posted the build, but I could not find it.

He purchased the size LVL beam he needed. He then planed it to the correct thickness, allowing approximately a 1/8" veneer on each side. He then cut two strips of white oak approximately 3/4" x 1 1/2" x the length of the door. He glued the strips on each edge of the door, and then veneered his 1/8" oak veneer on each side. I think his rails were solid oak, I can not rember. If you pm him he can point you to his build.

The 3/4" strips hold the hinges, etc. His door turned out great.

Sam


Thanks Sam, found it. The build was posted over at WW Zone and linked here. He did as I suspected, ground the wax off the LVL's faces, ripped them to thickness of the door core, edge glued so the laminations are oriented perpendicular to the face skins. I remembered reading that years ago, nice build there. You can check it out by going here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?128385-Entrance-Door, a link to the build is about half way down the page.

I'm giving some thought to following that example for this project. Time being the main consideration. I can get all the QSWO for skins and edge band I need for nothing or close to it, may already have enough, I have the LVL's, hmmm. Though I could also make stave cores with full length stickers in nearly the same time, this would get some of those LVL's out of my way! Other than glass and labor, there is no materials cost consideration either way. I may hold back the cypress for another project. Its been sitting for 50 years, whats another couple? I'll start assembling materials after the new year and let this discussion settle in, see what feels right. I think I'd really like to make two doors, one stave, one with LVL's, just to explore both processes, but the current mission only requires one. Should be fun. I have a pile of hinge samples, ball bearing IIR, all different finishes, that I'm planning to use on this. Something from a vendor at work they were getting rid of. Its gonna look like that car in the Johnny Cash song...."One piece at a time, didn't cost me a dime......":D

Happy holidays and thanks for all the advise guys.

[Peter Quinn]

So now I'm wondering, regardless of the exact core of the stiles, do people typically use solids for the rails or engineered rail material too? I'm not seeing a clear explanation of this. I'll be using loose tenons for joinery with cope and stick, can you stick the ends of an LVL core rail, and will it take floating tenons? Any issues using engineered stiles and solid rails? There is enough labor involved that I'd rather not make the same door twice in a single year!

[Mel Fulks]

Most just use solid wood for the rails and muntins,since the core deal is mainly to asure straight stiles. In your case,using sentimental wood ,you might have to core all to have enuf. I would not try to cope those beams,even if it works,might be some stuff in there hard on tooling. I can remember when mdf had pieces of metal in it . I would apply the moulding.

[Steve Juhasz]

This is how i make my entry doors. The cores are pine, mixed full length and butted, glued with titebond II, milled to 1/4" less than finished thickness (1 1/8" for interior, and 1 1/2" for exterior, giving standard finished thickness) and then use 3/16 veneers and same species outer staves for proper grain and color orientation. Then sand to proper finished thickness all parts of door, then mill, cope, mortise and tenon, etc. Sand to 220 or so based on species and finish. The end result looks 100% solid, but I strongly believe this lamination is superior due to improved dimensional stability over solid stiles and rails. This pic shows a slice off the end of a stile of a v.g. fir entry door I recently made.
http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad271/hairysp0tter/IMG_6288_zps21bb34a6.jpg

[Peter Quinn]

Well, still a lot of details to work out on my door mission, but the core will be African mahogany finger joint staves. I was talking with an associate about the larger garage project I've under taken, progress and such, and mentioned I was beginning to gather material for a door, considering stave core. He offered me a generous pile of quarter sawn 8/4 drops, 15-16' lengths, several doors worth by my calculations! He was as happy to get them out of his shop as I was to get them. I set up a finger joint cutter on a shaper tonight, maybe I'll start making parts tomorrow. I'm thinking cores first, let them age a bit like fine cheese. I can now see the benefit of a water based glue on the finger joints, I banged a few test pieces together and it was a struggle to separate them without any glue at all. I'm going to try to work out a clamping fixture that will help keep the staves going straight as I clamp the finger jointed shorts. Probably glue one, pressure, release, glue another, etc till I reach final length, 15 minutes clamping should suffice? Probably going to use titebond III for the finger joints.

[Peter Quinn]

Well, the door build has begun, or the core build has begun anyway. After much careful consideration and a close examination of all the thoughts presented previously in this thread and elsewhere, I staggered to some conclusions. Decided to go finger jointed stave core on this build for sure when the mahogany came my way. It was thick enough that I could control grain orientation, so I sliced it and diced it to roughly 1" X22" pieces, then set up a 1/2" finger jointer on the shaper, flattened everything sort of quick and fast and shaped it. At the last minute I devised a clamp fixture that involved an old router table infeed, an 8" tortion box affair with melamine top. A little wax, I made some 80" 6/4 cauls with a 10 degree back bevel run twice to put a point at the center of the cauls. This kept the individual FJ staves in a straight line but kept the glue squeeze from getting smushed every where. I clamped the long cauls to the table top, which was around 12" wide, then pulled the finger joints in with a long pipe clamp which was held to the table at each end with wooden screw jack clamps. It looked pretty much like a Rube Goldberg contest entry, but it worked like a charm, took minutes to assemble and disassemble, it went so fast I didn't even take a picture. I glued up a few staves each night after dinner, was done in a couple of days. Low stress, wouldn't want to do that on a commercial basis though. On Joe's suggestion I went with titebond III for the FJ glue up. I pulled clamps after 45 minutes, probably could have gone faster. After a night to cure, I proped up several staves and stood on them, I'm about 175lbs, no breaking. Stronger than they need to be really. I randomized the FJ location by closing my eyes (figuratively) and chopping one end off of one piece of each 4 piece glue up and putting it at the other end. THis proved to stagger the FJ's quite nicely.

Once they were all clamped to length, I passed them all through the planer to take a few thousands off each side because the swelling at the fingers and minor misalignments from the shaping process would interfere with the long grain glue ups. I added in 3/4" of rift WO on each edge (the door will be QSWO skins). I decided to use titebond PUR for the long grain and skin glue ups. It has the combination of long open time, low operating temp, water proof and rigid glue line. So I ordered enough to fabricate the stiles and rails (I hope!), glued up the first round tonight. Its sure not easy to spread the PUR in a 65 degree shop. I ran a kerosene heater all morning to get the temp up a little. I think if I warm the glue it thins, but it also kicks faster, so I decrease the spread time but decrease the open time too. Not sure I win there.

I read an article by the the guy that started vacu-press, seems to suggest that pur is fine in the vacuum bag, but you have to add moisture because the vacuum removes the air, so none there to take. The idea is to glue the skins, just run a barely damp sponge over the core, put it together quickly and shove it in the bag. Gotta have something to keep the PUR off the urethane bag, wax paper, I'll be using breather mesh, no top caul. I'm not thrilled to be adding moisture to the cores, but it will be minimal and equal both sides, a lot less water than you get form a PVA glue up, so I'm rolling the dice. Should be an interesting experiment.

Here's a few pics of the PUR foaming away. I'll take a few more when I get to the skins, then they are gonna hang out for a few months and mellow while I finish a few other things.

[mreza Salav]

Peter, any updates on this? I'm considering building a door and have read this thread with quite interest. Would love to see some more pics.

[Peter Quinn]

Hi Mreza, only update is the staves have remained dead stable all winter, and the actual build will begin in the next several weeks. I made the blanks when things were slow this winter, I've been working to push out a side job that is waaayyyyy behind schedule, it leaves next wkend, door is the first business after that. This door is part of a garage/barn demo/rebuild, I shelled the building late last fall, phase two starts soon. Windows arrived today, most I bought, one french casement I'll make, siding has arrived from Canada (WR Cedar STK), getting excited to move forward with finishes, I'm sick of staring at Tyvek! I'll be working feverishly on this all summer but will try to put together a few picks of the door build. Its a simple door, a few few lites, V-groove panels, sort of craftsman barn looking thing.


PS...see those jorgenson I-beams in the pics above? Overkill for that glue up but a door makers best friend. Nothing else squeezes quite as hard. I have enough to make precisely one door at a time!