How to make exterior doors?

[Tom Andersen]

Guys,

I would like to make exterior doors for our house. It's an old house, so the doors should be of panel type but insulated well (cold winter here in Sweden). I haven't been able to locate any good books or other instructions on door fabrication. Does anybody have proposals for books on the subject or drawings of exterior doors?

Thanks
Tom

[Peter Pedisich]

Tom,

Building Doors & Gates by Alan Bridgewater is a good book (it's from the UK). I recently built a board and batten door for a barn from that book.

Pete

[Bruce Page]

Tom, I don’t know if it’s available in your neck of the world but the October issue of Woodworkers Journal has a good article on Door making.

[John Downey]

There was a good article in FWW many years ago, they reprinted it in the book about traditional projects I think. Great info about wedged and pinned through tennons and the advantages of a strong glueless joint. Insulated is a bit tricky, as the door has to get so thick to get any kind of R value. Could you do a double door arraignment with airspace between?

John

[tod evans]

tom, i`m in the process of building some doors right now. here`s some pics of how i approach it. the rails-n-styles are a glued up core with 1/4" skins applied to the face. instead of through tennons i use stub tennons and allthread. the bottom and center rails each get two pieces of allthread and on these doors the top is arched so i`ll use 6" lags instead for the top. the panels are each separate with a piece of housewrap between them. hope this helps? .02 tod

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[Richard Wolf]

I don't know tod, thats seems to have a "Birth of a Door" thread written all over it.

Richard

[Steve Clardy]

I don't know tod, thats seems to have a "Birth of a Door" thread written all over it.

Richard


Yes it does.;)

So when will the article be available tod:confused: ;) :D

[tod evans]

I don't know tod, thats seems to have a "Birth of a Door" thread written all over it.

Richard

richard-n-steve, the way i build doors isn`t kosher by anybodies stanards....the traditionalists won`t approve and neither would the production guys...but they will stay together longer than i`ll be around....i suppose if folks are interested i could do a "how to" kinda deal? tod

[Steve Clardy]

Yep. Bring er on bud:)

[Don Baer]

What Steve said.

[tod evans]

Yep. Bring er on bud:)


gee thanks...:(

[Jim Dunn]

i suppose if folks are interested i could do a "how to" kinda deal? tod

Please do Tod!! I've got doors for my shop on the top of the list now that I'm "back in the saddle again" so to speak:p

[Steve Clardy]

gee thanks...:(

I'll give ya some time here, say, done by 8:00:eek: :D

[Jim Becker]

Tod, do the "birth of a door" thread...and to keep the "others" happy, just indicate where you do things a little differently!!

------
Tom, Sweden is a pretty kewel (and cool) place. A child-hood friend of mine (he was an exchange student at the time) runs a fairly large ice cream operation there with his family. (SIA Glass)

[Frank Snyder]

Tom,

For the exterior doors that I've made, I used 2 - 5/4's solid planks and face glued them together in a press with their grains opposed and then plane them down to 1-3/4" thickness. This creates a stable, psuedo-engineered stile or rail with which to create your door. You may still have the expansion across the grain to consider, which is less of an issue with a stave-core door like Tod appears to be building, so just take that into account when you size your door to the jamb (leave at least an 1/8" or more clearance depending on humidity, etc...).

As far as the species, I like Mahogany if the door is to be natural or stained, or I'll use clear Eastern White Pine or Hemlock if the door is to be painted. I made a solid Birch door for myself, and Birch is a species which likes to move, and after 3 years, I've had zero issues with it. I attribute this to the 2-ply lamination I used.

I use traditional mortise and tenon joinery. You'll also want to cut a 4 degree bevel on the lock stile so the door doesn't bind in the jamb when opening and closing. I've used 3/4" hardwood plywood for the panels, and for more R-value, I've sandwiched 1/2" polyisocyurnate insulation between 2 - 1/4" panels. But this takes away from the solid feel of the door in my opinion

Assembly of the door, I find to be the most stressful since you have to get everything in place, squared and true (make sure your clamps don't cause the door to bow) in a matter of minutes before the glue starts to tack up. You might want to try and extended working time glue to give you more of a window to get this done. Also, I'd use a Type II exterior rated wood glue.

I also make all of my jambs and include an 3/16" kerf in the stop so that you can use replaceable vinyl weatherstripping. I use aluminum adjustable thresholds as well, and mount them to the bottom of the jambs.

Doors are tricky since you have very little room for mistakes, and if you built it incorrectly, the door will let you know in due time.

I hope this helps!

[Loren Hedahl]

[quote=tod evans]tom, i`m in the process of building some doors right now. here`s some pics of how i approach it. the rails-n-styles are a glued up core with 1/4" skins applied to the face. instead of through tennons i use stub tennons and allthread. the bottom and center rails each get two pieces of allthread and on these doors the top is arched so i`ll use 6" lags instead for the top. the panels are each separate with a piece of housewrap between them. hope this helps? .02 tod



Apparently by using glued up core rails you can:

1. Make the core longer than the faces of the rail. The extended cores become the tenons.

2. Make the core shorter in the stiles to provide for a mortice.

3. Provide a gap between pieces of core for the allthread. This eliminates the need to drill a long hole through end grain.

4. End up with a non-warpable composite for the door framing.

Have I got the picture correct?

[Al Willits]

I'd appreciate a bit of info on door making, considering the lower panel in my garage door has seen better days and I'm afraid the Minn winters have been hard on it.

Insulated and not, both would be helpful, thanks.

Al

[Charles McCracken]

Al,

Quite possibly the simplest way to make a decorative door with traditional long tenons is with our new 99-267 router bit set. If you do a Google search for Freud 99-267 you will find a Freud dealer near the top of the list who has a simplified version of the instructions available to download (or you can email or PM me and I will happily send you a copy) and the set comes with a DVD video of the construction process and a large poster with complete instructions.

[Tom Jones III]

What about making the top and bottom rails 1.75" thick, then making 3/4" thick styles and raised panels using a traditional raised panel bit set, making one set of styles and panels for inside and another set for outside. Mount the styles and panels on the top, middle and bottom rails with insulation between?

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

the way i build doors isn`t kosher by anybodies stanards.

Well that would depend on who anybody is.
I saw your bolt up and said "Oh Gee that's pretty damn smart."



...the traditionalists won`t approve
They don't have to live on the other side of your doors.


neither would the production guys..
That's only because they are under the clock.


but they will stay together longer than i`ll be around.
Well HelloOOOoooo that is a vary good reason to take a different path.


if folks are interested i could do a "how to" kinda deal? tod

I'm all eyeballs. Have at it.

BTW Is that a Format saw?

[Tom Andersen]

What about making the top and bottom rails 1.75" thick, then making 3/4" thick styles and raised panels using a traditional raised panel bit set, making one set of styles and panels for inside and another set for outside. Mount the styles and panels on the top, middle and bottom rails with insulation between?

Which insulation material does one use and how do you glue the panels and stiles together with the insulation material?

I believe that the pros also add one or two thin sheets of aluminum to create a water vapour barrier and to stiffen the doors. I suppose that it would go on the sides of the insulation. Maybe one could buy sandwhich insulation that already has the aluminum sheets glued to the insulation?

We could use a manufacturing drawing of a professional rail-stile-panel door. Does anybody have one that he would be willing to show?

[Tom Jones III]

Home Depot here sells foam insulation panels roughly 5/8" thick, some have a moisture barrier on them. Here in Texas they don't sell the panels with a very high R value, but I'll bet you can find some with pretty good R values.

I was envisioning simply trapping the insulation between the panels. In short, simply make a raised panel door (like a cabinet door) except the rails are too thick. Then turn the door over and make a new raised panel cabinet door using the part of the rail that was too thick. Before setting the second panel in place, drop in the foam insulation.

Does anyone know what the R value is of 1.75" thick hardwood?

[Frank Chaffee]

Tom A, Tom J, et al…
Woods, hard or soft, do not have high R-values compared to modern insulating materials. Googling “r value wood” yields several tables.

When used in great thicknesses, say eight to twenty-four inches, wood serves as a thermal mass which looses heat slowly in cold climes and therefore moderates interior dwelling temps.

A door that comes to my mind here is the entrance door in the log cabin I lived in thru a winter in the early seventies. The cabin (100 or so miles north of Missoula Montana), had been build for the Forest Service as a trailhead horse and mule depot.

The door was constructed of four layers of 1x stock, the outer two being vertically laid and the inner two at opposing diagonals. The wooden carved latch was designed to resist bear intrusions, and had done so for many years. That the door opened and closed smoothly and sealed well at the sill, which was an extension of the flagstone interior floor, amazes me to this day, and I must say that of all the architectural wonders of the world I have visited on four continents, this simple outpost, built by the hands of learned and experienced craftspeople, intrigues me the most.

Frank

PS: I have Finnish heritage.

[Al Willits]

Thanks Charles, I'll add those bits to my basic set list.
The DVD if like others will help a newbie like understand what the direction say.

Al

[Geoff Barry]

. . . I still want to see Tod's tutorial -- I thought you only had until 8pm to post it?;)

No, seriously, anytime any of you skilled types want to post a tutorial about any type of woodworking, count me in. As a self-taught newbie, anytime I can get someone to tell me how and why they do things the way they do, I learn something. I've enjoyed Dev and Lou's discourses on old iron and shop tours, and Marty's thread has high entertainment value, the "shock and awe" factor, and enouh food for thought to last me a long time. (Although I don't think my wife appreciates me looking longly at our 50x70 backyard and muttering, "it would just fit!").

So, in short, bring 'em on!

[Tom Andersen]

. . . I still want to see Tod's tutorial -- I thought you only had until 8pm to post it?;)

No, seriously, anytime any of you skilled types want to post a tutorial about any type of woodworking, count me in. As a self-taught newbie, anytime I can get someone to tell me how and why they do things the way they do, I learn something. I've enjoyed Dev and Lou's discourses on old iron and shop tours, and Marty's thread has high entertainment value, the "shock and awe" factor, and enouh food for thought to last me a long time. (Although I don't think my wife appreciates me looking longly at our 50x70 backyard and muttering, "it would just fit!").

So, in short, bring 'em on!

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