Interior doors

[William OConnell]

A customer asked me to make there interior doors for there house after doing a huge addition to there house. Since its a rare thing for people to actually make doors anymore my local woodworkers club asked me to do a tutorial on it so I basically video taped the process. Im no videographer so my apologies in advance. By the way you can see Dinos smart table after MANY uses (Hi Dino).
Hope this doesnt bore you to death
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5422058107065451907&hl=en

[Peter Quinn]

Nice video sir! Any pics of the finished product, or did I miss them?

Curious about the timber strand. Where do you source it? Mimimum orders required? Do you order precut rail/style blanks, or process the material your self? I worked in a very traditional custom door shop the past two years, strictly solid hardwood. I took a class with Mario Rodriguez and on lunch break he described some cathedral arch doors he was finishing up, using timberstrand, custom cut quartered oak veneer, etc.

Went back to work and asked about timberstrand, had they ever used it, they looked at me like I had grown a third eye! Said customers wanted REAL wood doors (real expensive?, real unstable?, really hard to grain match?)

Do you have problems selling timberstrand core doors to clients? Any of your thoughts appreciated.

[James Wellman]

Watching the video and grooving to the little river band.

James

[Brad Shipton]

Peter:
First off, I am not a pro, but have done a great deal of research into this topic. The stave core stile/rail is very common. Many different core materials to choose from. In addition to timberstrand, some use MDF, glulams or pine. Timberstrand is nice and straight, but not the cheapest option and is a little heavier. Take a look on the woodweb and you will find many discussions of this exact topic amoungst people building hundreds of doors at a time. Cost wise I do not see this method saves a lot once you add in the time and labor factor to produce the staves. Most that promote this technique sell it on the basis of better material utilization and stability.

Brad

[William OConnell]

Nice video sir! Any pics of the finished product, or did I miss them?

Curious about the timber strand. Where do you source it? Mimimum orders required? Do you order precut rail/style blanks, or process the material your self? I worked in a very traditional custom door shop the past two years, strictly solid hardwood. I took a class with Mario Rodriguez and on lunch break he described some cathedral arch doors he was finishing up, using timberstrand, custom cut quartered oak veneer, etc.

Went back to work and asked about timberstrand, had they ever used it, they looked at me like I had grown a third eye! Said customers wanted REAL wood doors (real expensive?, real unstable?, really hard to grain match?)

Do you have problems selling timberstrand core doors to clients? Any of your thoughts appreciated.

Timberstrand is actually used more in house framing to band engineered I joists. I used it simply because the 5 part rail and stile system lends itself to stability wich is very important in interior door construction. I have no problem selling these doors to customers as a quality product ecause they are. I also inform them about the engineering that went into them and why. I actually talk to the customer on the video if you noticed. I met mario a few times at the Long island woodworkers club meetings wich is the club that I basically was making the video for. Most people think you get a big slab of wood and make the doors and that makes it a better door but there mistaken. Theres just so much movement in wood that a piece the size of these doors some of wich are 3'0" can really move alot and eventually not open and close correctly.

[Peter Quinn]

Stability is my goal and thats what I was thinking. At my last job I regularly made 3'0, 3'8", occasionally 4'X8' slabs. The lead mechanic made (3) 4'7"X9' arched pairs 3" thick mahogony for a carraige house with no sofit. All solid wood. I cant help thinking some of these door are going to warp and fail.

Do you make up the 5 part styles/rails then process as usual? Do you order Timberstrand blanks made to your specs? Mario mentioned and some woodweb post have mentioned companies that supply doormakers and sell prepared blanks of different thickness ripped to width ready to edge and veneer, but no specific vendors. I'm starting my own small business here in CT hoping to sell a few doors and incorperate this type of option.

[William OConnell]

Stability is my goal and thats what I was thinking. At my last job I regularly made 3'0, 3'8", occasionally 4'X8' slabs. The lead mechanic made (3) 4'7"X9' arched pairs 3" thick mahogony for a carraige house with no sofit. All solid wood. I cant help thinking some of these door are going to warp and fail.

Do you make up the 5 part styles/rails then process as usual? Do you order Timberstrand blanks made to your specs? Mario mentioned and some woodweb post have mentioned companies that supply doormakers and sell prepared blanks of different thickness ripped to width ready to edge and veneer, but no specific vendors. I'm starting my own small business here in CT hoping to sell a few doors and incorperate this type of option.

Hi peter
No I buy the LSL 18' by 11 1/2" it comes 1 1/4" from a lumber yard. I like it this way because I quickly dimension all of it right away and stack it. It cost me 2.65 a ft. It also gives me freedom to make the rails/stiles any size I want. If I want 1 3/4" doors I use a 5/16" veneer for 1 3/8" doors I use 3/16" veneer. There are some companies in Jersey wich is kind of close to us that sells parts but Im more of a make everything right on down to the veneer myself. I buy my lumber s2s straight line ripped one side from PA. Its worth it to me to buy 1000 BF at a time because the discounts from them compared to my local supplier is 45%. Some people use staves or MDF but I shy away from the pine stave for price and stability reasons and MDF for stability reasons. The 16 doors Im making in the video are going to be oak radius doors styled after a Jeldwin "Sante Fe" door.
Be well
PS I can see CT from across the Long Island sound

[Peter Quinn]

You'll need a good set of binoculars to see me up in the Berkshire foothills! Though at my last job we did make 45 doors for a guy in Northshore LI.

Thanks for the help! I'm going to try a test door with quartered oak veneer. Does the LVL take dowels well? (5 1/2" maple, not 1 1/2" radiata pine!)

[Frank Snyder]

William - Thank you for posting your door making process. I have a few questions I hope you might be willing to answer for me...

What kind of joinery will you be using for your doors? Would the Timberstrand LSL be strong enough for mortise & tenon? Or were you planning on loose tenons or dowels?

Does Weyerhaeuser spray their Timberstrand LSL's with any kind of wax or protective coating to give it an exposure rating which might interfere with veneer adhesion?

What type of adhesive are you using for the veneering process?

I was also trying to identify what kind of vacuum pump and bag system you have there. Any details?

I've made several interior and exterior doors, all solid and some solid 2-ply laminations. About half of them experience seasonal warpage, especially during the winter. I plan on remaking the warped doors using the method you've described for the exact reasons you mention. I'm now in the process of shopping around for a capable vacuum pump and bag system.

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge.

Frank

[William OConnell]

William - Thank you for posting your door making process. I have a few questions I hope you might be willing to answer for me...

What kind of joinery will you be using for your doors? Would the Timberstrand LSL be strong enough for mortise & tenon? Or were you planning on loose tenons or dowels?

Does Weyerhaeuser spray their Timberstrand LSL's with any kind of wax or protective coating to give it an exposure rating which might interfere with veneer adhesion?

What type of adhesive are you using for the veneering process?

I was also trying to identify what kind of vacuum pump and bag system you have there. Any details?

I've made several interior and exterior doors, all solid and some solid 2-ply laminations. About half of them experience seasonal warpage, especially during the winter. I plan on remaking the warped doors using the method you've described for the exact reasons you mention. I'm now in the process of shopping around for a capable vacuum pump and bag system.

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge.

Frank

Hi Frank
I use Freuds set. Great piece of tooling amana makes something similar. Once taken apart it creates tenons on the rails. Then I mortise the stiles. Frankly I wouldnt us dowels for door construction Ive seen to many joint failures. The LSL is not coated and I simply use tight bond 3 for gluing the veneer skins.
The vacuum press is shop made. what you cant see in the video is that the base is a huge torsion box. Dead flat and on nice casters. Ive gotten into the bad habit of using it as an assembly table for cabinets and stuff.
Once you get into the groove of making doors like this it gets easier. There very stable and it cuts warpage to almost nill
Be Well

[John Reimers]

Are there videos showing the rest of the process? It was just getting good. That's a great idea using the LSL's instead of the pine staves. Might make it cost effective enough to change some doors in my house.

John