Arts & Crafts Style Door

[Mike Cutler]

I've been working on a library door project sor awhile, and I thought I'd share a few pic's and see what everyone thinks.
The door is made of Brazillian Cherry, It is 29 1/2", by 81". The stained glass insert panel came from an ebay purchase 3 or 4 years ago. It came from Canada, where apparently it was part of a restaraunt diner. The door handle came off of eBay also. It is from England, and it was a must have for this door.
All the joinery is M&T that has been epoxy glued and pegged. The bottom and top required a rather elaborate 3 piece M&T joint due to the inset of the glass and upper and lower rails(?).
The glass is removable and is held in place by wooden strips and brass screws on the backside. I'm not too sure of the effect, but LOML says that it makes it look more period authentic. As long as the customer (LOML) is happy, I'm happy.
I was trying to catch an Arts& Crafts, Limbert style appearance for the door, hopefully I made it, if not, it is still a very pretty door.
This is the second door I've made with a stained glass panel. I learned alot from the first and incorporated the lessons into this one. I've also learned alot from the posts by Mark Singer, and Bob Smalser, especially on stock selection and joinery techniques. The material for the stiles has to be dead straight. There is no way to pull a door into square. The M&T cannot be forced, everything has to fit up square, when dry, and your bench has to be dead flat, thanks for that tip Mark.
The epoxy glue up was a first also, and a lot of the feedback that I recieved here was critical to the success of the glue up. Thanks to everyone that provided me feedback on epoxy techniques. I used 'em all at one time or the other.
I still have to hang the door, but it's just too hot in the shop right now. Another day.

[Don Baer]

Mike that door is simply stunning great design, fit and finish.

[Jay Fields]

Mike -
That is one fantastic door. Very inspiring.
Great choice of wood and hardware.
Thanks for posting.
JF

[John Miliunas]

There is absolutely, positively no way on God's good green Earth that I can possibly let LOML see that door!!! I know her tastes and your wonderful creation has her name written all over it!:D Mike, that is simply beautimus! Looks super!:) :cool:

[Jay Knepper]

Now that is a proper door. Great job, Mike!

[Richard Wolf]

Great job on the door, beautiful work.

Richard

[Dan Oliphant]

That is a most outstanding A&C style entry door. I like the pinning detail you used, and the glass is a real WOW piece. Oh ya, the hardware is perfict for this door. By the way, the wood selection and finish could not be improved upon.
Did I mess anything?

[Per Swenson]

I agree,

Absolutely Beautiful.

Per

[Sam Blasco]

Pretty cool. Can't wait to see how you surround it cause you have set the bar high. Excellent work.

[Todd Davidson]

The way you brought it all together is absolutely stunning Mike. Bravo!

[Peter Pedisich]

Great Door! That is inspiring.

Pete P.

[Jim Becker]

Wow, that looks awesome!!

[Mike Cutler]

Thanks for the kind words folks. It's been an interesting project, and Sam, you are right, I'm still a little concerned about the casing work.
The casing is going to attempt to keep the overall theme. Sort of "Falling Water" but with softer edges and lines, done in Brazillian Cherry also. All the woodworking is done, but due to the heat and humidity, I've been sanding at nite, and applying finish a 5am, it's been kinda slow going.
The door is actually the final piece for the library project. It was meant to compliment the bookshelves that I've already built, and the choice of brazillian cherry will hopefully make for a "warm" atmosphere inside the room.Time will tell though

[Bob Marino]

Mike,

Stunning and beautiful - very inspiring.

Bob

[Mark Singer]

Mike,

Well done! True to the style and well executed!

[Mike Vermeil]

Awsome! Now you got me wanting to replace my sad, fake, steel door.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Stunning work, Mike. Not much I can add that others haven't already mentioned, but your "customer" should be very pleased with your work.

- Vaughn

[Dan Forman]

I don't think anyone has said "magnificent" yet, so...Magnificent!!! Everything about it is engaging.

Dan

[Dennis McDonaugh]

That's one great looking door. Beautiful work!

[Nathan Hoffman]

The door is actually the final piece for the library project. It was meant to compliment the bookshelves that I've already built

Inspiring door! So when do we see the inside of the room?

[Jason Tuinstra]

Mike, in a word, stunning!

[Dev Emch]

Mike...
Very nice job!

Tell us more about your "Three part" M&T joints. Got any partial photos?

Also tell us more about what you learned from the first door esp. as it relates to using stained glass panels.

There is a lot of good stuff in a door project like this from which we can all learn.

[Mike Cutler]

Inspiring door! So when do we see the inside of the room?

Well the inside of the room is in the "Remuddling" phase, as Tyler would say. I posted some pic's of the projects previously, but in my mind the project is finished when it is now in use.
Don't get me wrong. I like to see pic's of a finished project in the shop also, but personally I like to see the project when it has become a functioning part of someones life. The table that Jason Tuinstra just finished is beautiful, and the pictures were great, but I'd like to see it with the sunday morning paper and breakfast still on the table. To me that is when a project is truly finished. I'm a wierdo tho'. So I'll post some pics of the room as it is right now.

Dev. What did I learn on the first door?
The first door is made of poplar. Imho, not the best material choice for a door. It is very soft compared to brazillian cherry, or oak or maple. I didn't really consider grain orientation as much as I should have and ended up fighting movement for quite awhile, until the poplar reached "stasis". and I could confidently expect little or no further movement.

My joint construction also was not the best for the long term. Essentially I cut a tongue and groove joint, 1" deep, and 3/4" wide, along the entire length of the stiles and fit the top and bottom sections into this tongue and groove, and then glued everything together. This has left me with a condition where the total strength of the door is a measure of the glue strength. There is no mechanical strength to the joints. This is a serious enough flaw that I will remake that door. The stained glass insert in it is beautiful, and definitely cannot be replaced, but the wood component can.

The second door is physically much stronger. It doesn't need the glue(epoxy) component at all to retain it's shape. It was moved from the garage to the house many times while "dry fit up" only, without incident.

The M&T joints that connect the top and bottom sections to the stiles go much deeper than convention. The total length of the haunch and tenon is 4" and the width of the stiles at that joint is 5". The tenon is split into two sections on the top piece and three sections on the bottom. Each tenon section is 3" wide, and a haunch section is equally spaced between the tenon sections.
As you look at the upper and lower sections, you will see that the stile is actually two pieces glued together. The piece inside is actually mortised into the stile, proper, with a haunched mortise, and it is essentially a "hollow" divided tenon.It is mortised to a depth of 1", and the width of this "hollow" tenon is 3/4". The top and bottom panel sections are actually mortised into this piece and the longer tenons go thru this "hollow" tenon and into the stile.The tenons on the top and bottom piece are 1/2" thick and solid. This gave me a haunched, shouldered tenon joint interior to stile.
I realize that this sounds really odd, but I could not come up with another way to accoplish the inseting of the glass panel, and the recessing of the top and bottom sections, and still be able to keep the integerity of the strength of the joint. I could have done a long grain glueup of the stile pieces, but I did not want to rely on glue strength.
I thought about taking pictures of this joint laid out and dry, but thought it might be a little concieted to post something like that, maybe I should have taken them, oh well..
This joint is what prompted me to look for help on epoxy. I needed the ability to extend the working time as long as possible, to be able to glueup these joints and "square" up the door, before clamping, and setting the cauls.
Bob Smalser's post on "joint repairability" was very well timed. He answered a number of questions that I had on epoxy glue ups. A subsequent post was, as I stated earlier, critical to the success of this glue up. I was having some real issues with the epoxy for a few days.
The tenons are pinned in two places. first in the "hollow" tenon section, and second in the "meat" of the stile. The pins are 3/8" mopane pins, and sit about a 1/16th proud of the surface on both sides of the door. The staggering of the pins is as much part of the design as they are additional strength. With the pins staggered they form a triangle, this inhibits all the pieces acting together as a reflex parallelogram, and being able to move at the same rate(?).
Lastly, I left room for expansion/contraction in the rabbet ledge that the Glass panel fits into, and I designed both doors so that the stained glass panel could be removed, and repaired if needed in the future, without having to send out the whole door.

Nathan. Here are the pics of bookshelves, dusty, cluttered, and piled up with the evidence of usage.
:rolleyes:

[Chris Padilla]

You, Sir, do some might fine ww'ing...keep posting your stuff so we can all learn...and drool! :)

[Brian Hale]

I'm speachless......

Brian :)

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

I'm late posting...so what everybody else said. :)

I Love those shelves....

[John Hart]

There is absolutely, positively no way on God's good green Earth that I can possibly let LOML see that door!!....

I'm in the same boat. I don't know how I missed this post. Mike...That is gorgeous. A set of those (smaller) would look awesome on my bookcases.:)