I get paid to play with tools now. First job- arched mahogany doors x 56

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I took an early retirement from my job, and on a whim called up a guy who has a high-end custom Millwork shop to see if he needed help. Well, I am now doing what I love full-time and I could not be happier. This shop has some amazing equipment, and finally I have the tools and space to actually make stuff. My first job has been making 28 arched doors with matching screen doors and arched jambs, all out of mahogany. It all starts with rough sawn 8/4 mahogany in 16’ lengths, and I resaw, plane, and shape it to make all the parts. I am very proud to say that the first set of doors fit perfectly.

To those watching my boat build- it has been on hold due to many things happening, but now that I have access to all these tools, things are about to get real.

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For or those that have followed my posts over the years, you know I have a very small shop at home, and this has been a real dream come true to play with these machines all day. I’m really proud of the doors, and they fit exactly perfect as per plans with 1/8” gap all around and all measurements finished out exactly to plans, which was a bit of work with an arched door. Working with mahogany, that’s a real challenge because it has so much stored tension. I have had it literally audibly pop and split when it was being sawn. I make all pieces 1/4” oversized, sticker it for a few days, then finish to final dimension.

14 sets of doors, each set containing two entry and two screen doors. I put some boatbuilding skills to use steam bending and laminating the arches.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Here is a glue up of an arch for a window for the same project.
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I built a router table to do the inside curve on these parts but later built a similar fence for the shaper once I got the correct profiles for it.
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Closeup of the screen doors showing the perfect fit. I was so happy. I admit I was nervous when they went together because there are so many variables that could go wrong, but it all fit.
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I built a left and right hinge jig to simplify getting the hinge mortises exact on left and right doors. They are not through mortised, so there is a need to stop the cut before the inside edge, which meant left and right side had to have a jig. Hard to explain- but it worked.


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[Frederick Skelly]

Malcolm,
Glad you're back and glad to hear you are thoroughly enjoying yourself!
The windows great! Some day I'm gonna learn to do curved work and steam bending.

Will you still have time for building custom boards for customers, or is that on hold too?

Fred

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Malcolm,
Glad you're back and glad to hear you are thoroughly enjoying yourself!
The windows great! Some day I'm gonna learn to do curved work and steam bending.

Will you still have time for building custom boards for customers, or is that on hold too?

Fred

I may crank a few wood surfboards out for friends and family, but it isn’t a moneymaker.

[Bruce Volden]

Malcom,
I too am glad you're back to posting! I am wondering if your friend needs another "worker".
Let him know I am available for 3 months every year (Jan., Feb., Mar,). I need no pay, just room and board!
You lucky feller!

Bruce

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Malcom,
I too am glad you're back to posting! I am wondering if your friend needs another "worker".
Let him know I am available for 3 months every year (Jan., Feb., Mar,). I need no pay, just room and board!
You lucky feller!

Bruce

Ya gotta ride the storms out in summer to get accepted around here. (Haha). Here is a taunt- after retiring, I took some time to sail. It was just awful. I hated every minute of it.
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By by the way, here is the coolest bandsaw ever- made specifically for resawing. Look at the size of that blade! I put my hand there for reference. I am an extra large glove size. It scared me to put my hand by that blade even not running. It looks like it could jump out and bite you. I imagine it growling.
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I’m getting paid peanuts, but I am really having fun. Sure beats desk work.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Glad to see you posting again and enjoying life Malcom!

[Clark Hussey]

It’s great to get paid to play.

[John TenEyck]

You are completely justified to be proud of your work. Just beautiful. I bet you'll be looking forward to something else after all 28 doors are done.

[Mel Fulks]

Congratulations! I've always liked doing architectural millwork. Sounds like a good fit for you.

[Derek Cohen]

Malcolm, I am so pleased to hear how well you are responding to therapy. Do you have room for another patient? My wife will happily pay my airfare :D

Regards from Perth

Derek

p.s. the OT looks very cool.

[Kevin Jenness]

Nice work.

What species of mahogany are you working with that is so ornery?

[Frank Drackman]

Your craftsmanship is outstanding. It looks like the shop owner & you were a great fit.

[Mark Gibney]

That's very nice work. Doors are so tricky, they pull on the hinges and the gaps can be unpredictable.

How did you account for this?

And congratulations on your new life.

[Jim Becker]

Congratulations on both the retirement (I've really been enjoying mine!) and the opportunity to have a "second career" doing something you love with nice tools and the space to use them!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Thanks to all for the kind words. They are much appreciated.



Nice work.

What species of mahogany are you working with that is so ornery?

This is South American wood that looks to me like Sapele. It is to us like poplar is to you guys- readily available and relatively cheap compared to shopping in from the US. It has very tricky grain and a lot of tension, but after it settles down it’s solid stuff.


Malcolm, I am so pleased to hear how well you are responding to therapy. Do you have room for another patient? My wife will happily pay my airfare :D

Regards from Perth

Derek

p.s. the OT looks very cool.

It is a mix of physical therapy lifting and pushing heavy wood, and mental therapy enjoying seeing a beam opened up and seeing the grain for the first time. There is also aromatherapy- smelling sweet mahogany. :-)


That's very nice work. Doors are so tricky, they pull on the hinges and the gaps can be unpredictable.

How did you account for this?

And congratulations on your new life.

I accounted through prayer and holding my mouth just right. :-) Seriously, though, with mahogany it is a challenge. A close look and you will see that the arch is insert into the shorter stile about 3/4” as opposed to gluing flush to the stile, ie it rests in a little ledge for strength. It was a pain to make that stopped cut, which I did on the table saw and finished on the bandsaw, but it was a critical element to help keep it all right. Not seen is there are tenons in all the joints in addition to the rail and stile profiles. The grain in the arch is also critical. Boards were chosen carefully for the arches. I mounted the top hinge to land right at the start of the arch, as high as possible, which was 50 5/16” up from bottom. By the way, architects are evil and design things in 16ths making me use a lot of fractional math. (Only kidding, architects, but I sure wish at least one thing on these doors was a whole number!)

[Rod Sheridan]

Looks like you're having a great time Malcolm, that's what retirement is for, and you're learning at the same time, it doesn't get any better than that.

Thanks for the posting, the work looks great.

I also have my retirement job although I don't retire for another 18 months, long enough to complete the project I'm on now............Regards, Rod.

[Zac wingert]

I wanna hear more about that bandsaw and the other types of tools
you get to use.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I wanna hear more about that bandsaw and the other types of tools
you get to use.

That thing is a beast. It has massive solid iron wheels that have so much inertia that they spin for 5 minutes after you turn it off. The blade is 234” long. There is also a 12” table saw with a 10’ sliding table. It makes it easy to joint a board or cut a sheet of ply. Yon punch in the width and the fence automatically moves to that dimension. The problem is that there is no manual override, and it seems to be a bit buggy. I prefer to just set the fence myself.

[Christopher Charles]

Hi Malcolm,

Congrats on the early retirement and great work on the doors. I laughed out loud when I first read your post, imagining that bandsaw in your shop. And nothing else! Keep up the good "work"!

Best,
Chris

[Zac wingert]

That thing is a beast. It has massive solid iron wheels that have so much inertia that they spin for 5 minutes after you turn it off. The blade is 234” long. There is also a 12” table saw with a 10’ sliding table. It makes it easy to joint a board or cut a sheet of ply. Yon punch in the width and the fence automatically moves to that dimension. The problem is that there is no manual override, and it seems to be a bit buggy. I prefer to just set the fence myself.

Maybe they sell it at Home Depot. I’ll put on the HD credit card I got 10% off coupon. Haha

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I thought cutting the stiles to the arch would be difficult, but a simple jig with one deck screw as a pivot point made it simple on this beast of a bandsaw. I was a bit worried because if the arch moved any at all during glue-up then the curve would be off when making this cut. So far I’ve made 22 of the 28 doors and only one had about 1/32” ledge after the cut which I simply planed off with a block plane. The rest were a perfect arch.
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[Mel Fulks]

Malcolm, there are two ways of securing those circle heads. The other is just accurately planed butt joints with two
splines. For thick doors I prefer the latter.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Malcolm, there are two ways of securing those circle heads. The other is just accurately planed butt joints with two
splines. For thick doors I prefer the latter.

These are cope and stick with an added mortise and tenon- like a domino. I was just worried about whether or not the arches would remain true after glue up. I glued them and then cut the stiles off with the jig, aligning the arches to the jig for the cut.

[Phil Mueller]

Been out of town and just catching up. Big congrats Malcolm. That’s what retirement should be all about...doing stuff you love to do. Getting paid is a bonus. Your work on the arched doors is something to be really proud of. Be careful, with work that good, you may end up very busy in your retirement. And you’re a lucky man to have the opportunity to sail in such beautiful water. Enjoy!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Here is a jig I made to cut the curved trim for the screen doors. Since the arch does not meet at 90 degrees at the top, it has to be cut at 48 at top and 45 at bottom. The jig springs the trim a little bit at the bottom so that one pass on the table saw will make it 45 at bottom and 48 at top. I won’t lie- I was proud of this solution. There had to be a left and right jig since the 48 miter is on opposing sides on left versus right. Nothing is easy with arched doors.
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