Entry door wood: glue joints spreading?!

[David Kumm]

Mreza, I think the door looks like it is holding up well. If it bows a little, the joints have to open up on the bowed side or something will give. Yours is so slight, only you will notice. I always double up tenons so none are wider than 2.5" but I would have thought the stave core would work with wider and not have the tendency to bow. 16 years ago I broke every rule of woodworking and made a door with 3/4" rift oak on one side and walnut on the other ( long story, little choice given the time). Every summer it bows towards the oak side but the joints hold. were it exposed to the outside I would have expected to hear an explosion when it burst. The finish will be what catches the eye and that will always be the hard part to deal with. you should consider that door a success. Dave

[Joe Calhoon]

Joe, you always have to sneak one of those Martins in the pic to tease me. I feel so inadequate!

Larry, those water blue machines are all over my shop. Hard to get a picture without one showing.

The way you build doors is common in Europe and I do believe safer. They have a large choice of panel products specifically for this that are not available here. And even the smallest shops always have a hot press. There is a Austrian guy in Vail who is very successful and in business many years. He builds all his doors that way, interior and exterior. We have done a few but my shop is geared for frames and tend to always go that direction.

I prefer plank doors to the weather, just a lot less chance for failure than frame and panel.
We use a ladder core and fill with foam. In Europe this would be done with insulated sheet goods.
B.jpg
Joe's door.jpg
Entry door.jpg
This last picture is from my cousins shop in Italy showing one of those special cores.
Germano's entry door.jpg

[David Kumm]

Larry, go over to canadian woodworking and see the T23 Joe is rehabbing. How is your shaper working? I'd like to see pictures of your doors too. Dave

[Brad Shipton]

This thread is a great read for those of us with little experience building exterior doors. Thanks for sharing.

[Larry Edgerton]

Larry, go over to canadian woodworking and see the T23 Joe is rehabbing. How is your shaper working? I'd like to see pictures of your doors too. Dave

I Just finished this.....



I worked 12 80+ hr weeks to get it in before summer rush, so I am taking a few days to catch up on all the things that one is supposed to do in the spring, and then I am going to start on a pair for my own house. I will take some pictures along the way. I kind of came upon this method after building some cabinets for a helicopter with a carbon fiber honeycomb core. They were light and strong. I just used the same idea but with cheap materials. Mine are going to be lighter yet to push that envelope as it is my own house. I'll be using 5mm baltic birch skins.

I am having some problems with the shaper. It keeps blowing the 1 amp fast burn fuses in the control panel. It is strange as it always does it overnight, never in the middle of the day. Fuses are $10 each! I have a sneaking suspicion that it is my converter, but I need to bring in an expert. None of the other machines seem to be effected, with the exception of the bandsaw. Once in a while the bandsaw will let the mag starter go like there is a break in power. Actually, now that I think about it I did trip the breaker on the planer a while back. Probably getting a surge.

I missed a deal on a Phase Perfect 30hp a bit ago. Had a lot of money wrapped up in that booth and didn't want to spend the $2500. Hindsight, wish I had.

[Larry Edgerton]

Joe, some day I may just show up at your shop, look around, take a deep breath, close my eyes, and imagine all of that cool stuff in my shop. So if you see an old silver haired guy that looks like he's asleep standing up in the middle of your shop, pay no mind, its just me.

[Mel Fulks]

A fine celebrity hang out! Now it just needs an old telephone plug and a King chair. I would start a rumor about "that was Sinatra's table".

[Andrew Joiner]

Very cool Larry. Is the booth in a nautical theme restaurant?

[mreza Salav]

Thanks Dave, it is re-assuring to read these.

Larry, that's beautiful.

[Larry Edgerton]

Very cool Larry. Is the booth in a nautical theme restaurant?

Yes, its in Staffords Pier in Harbor Springs Mi. I actually don't care for it. Its loosely based on a copy of a booth on the Disney Boat. I came up with a better design but it was nixed in favor of my first design that was based off of a picture. Its larger than it looks, table is 8'2", booth is 14'3" OD plus the bar on the back side. I tried to talk them out of gloss for obvious reasons, the room is all glass and the glare is terrible. Designers!

It was a rush job, there are things I would have liked to have done different but as always, short on time and money.



Here's the back. It now has a bar let into the back in slots in the structure. I had to get it installed before opening so added it later. It looks like a great big cereal bowl to me, not so bad now that the bar is installed, but still. I wanted to do a concave curve like the bow of a Chris Craft out of wood without the white.



I made and finished this table in 8 days including welding up the base. Was extremely tired, don't like some of the colors. I did not have any extra wood and was more concentrated on not making a mistake. Wood is Makore, Tigerwood sun in the center, and the circles that represent planets are maple. I didn't like nine, so there are only six planets now.

[Bradley Gray]

Nice work, Larry. Looks huge! How did you get it delivered? Modular?

[Jeff Duncan]

Listen to Joe, he's been doing this for a long time. It doesn't matter how well you built the door, you have a short grain to long grain joint. One is expanding and contracting, the other is not, it's as simple as that. The wider the S&R's are and the more exposure to the elements the worse it will be. I agree that it's not a big deal in terms of weakening the door, but will also say that with that finish on the door and the exposure it has, you will be maintaining it pretty regularly for the rest of it's life.

good luck,
JeffD