Door construction

[Bob Lasley]

I am getting ready to start building an entry door for a client. The client is making a stained glass panel to go in the door. The door frame will be M&T joinery, but I am torn as to which way to hold the glass in. One way is to add mouldings to each side of the door after the frame is built. Another is to assemble the frame, rout a rabbet all the way around the inside, squaring corners with chisel and then rout decrotative edge on the outer side of the inside. This would be like having the outer moulding milled into the frame. Then matching moulding added to inside after glass is put in.

I have also thought of some more difficult ways to achieve this, but have pretty much dismissed those. The kicker is the wood I am using is some of Mike Mastins' curly QS White Oak, read not cheap, may tear out easy, can't afford mistakes..........

I am of course doing my testing on some scrap cypress.

Your thoughts please,
Bob

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Bob, I'd make sure you see the finished window before you make the door. On the other issue, I vote for adding moulding after the door is finished. It'll be a lot quicker and easier. The QS white oak will hide any fastners you need to use to attach the moulding.

[Ted Shrader]

Bob -

Another vote for adding moulding on the inside to hold the glass panel in.

Will the stained glass be sandwiched between two pieces of glass - or at least one piece on the outside? Adds a bit more strength to the stained glass panel.

Ted

[Bob Lasley]

Ted,

The stained glass is going to be sandwiched, at least the last I heard it was.

Bob

[Bobby Hatfield]

Bob, unless you have the shapers and cutters for entry doors to cut the cope and pattern, I would go for the applied moulding. Will the M&T be loose tenons ? They are so much easier type of joinery on entry doors.

[Bob Lasley]

Hey Bobby,

No, I don't have a shaper or the cutters. I thought about buying the router bit for coping doors, but decided against it as I was concerned about the strenghth of the joint vs. the weight of the glass. However, now that you mention it, I see you could still do the cope and stick and use loose tenons to strengthen the joint. I am leaning more and more with building the frame and using applied moulding on both sides as most suggest.

Thanks,
Bob

PS: How's retirement going?

[Bobby Hatfield]

Bob, don't know too much about retirement yet, working on a bid for 96 ft of upper cabinets for storage (commercial job), that I really don't know if I can handle by myself or not. I may just turn it down.

[Dr. Zack Jennings]

I would apply the mouldings only on the inside. Of course, if the mouldings are decorative enough, both sides would be OK. It is important that the panels be removable for repair or cleaning someday. Moisture may cause some spotting over time.<p>
I did a lot of stained glass in the 1980's. The photo is my front door. It was a standard door. I replaced each of the 9 panes with stained glass using the copper foil technique that Tiffany used in his lamp shades. The other technique uses Lead Channels called cames. The result is a thicker lead line and less fine detail. <p>
My door has no protection, but the small size of the panes gives the glass more support.<p>
Besides the obvious damage from vandals or flying objects, atmospheric preassure plays havoc with larger panels such as church windows................

[Dr. Zack Jennings]

This is the photo of a Lamp Shade I made with the copper foil technique. It's a Tiffany design called Arrow Root. I don't know how many hours I spent, but I doubt that this is a money making hobby. I think there are 600 pieces of glass in this shade.

[Chris Knight]

Zack,

I love your window and lampshade. They are really elegant pieces.

How easy is it to work to an exact dimension? I was interested to see the comment above about waiting for the glass before building the door which suggests it may be difficult.

Chris

[Dr. Zack Jennings]

Building Stained Glass panels to an exact deminsion is not difficult. The thickness of the panel varies a lot depending on the type of border the artist intends to use. That may depend on glass selection. Some glass is thicker than other glass. The panel is made on a paper pattern, called "the Cartoon". I start with 2 wooden stops placed at right angles and build my way out of the corner. When you get to the other side, you can add more stops. To hold pieces of glass along the way, the most common practice is to use horse shoe nails. <p>
Building Stained Glass panels is challenging and rewarding but very labor intensive.