Should I pin or drawbore tenons in an exterior door?

[Roger Marty]

I'm building an exterior door out of solid white oak. The door is 32" wide with tenons 2" long.


I plan on gluing with Titebond III.


Door will face West, but has a storm door in front of it. Midwest weather (cold, hot, snow, rain).


Should I bother pinning the tenons with dowels? I'm a bit intimidated by drawboring and not sure I want to bother with that.

[Dave Richards]

I would probably pin them at least but I would run the dowels from the inside and not all the way through. I'd consider making the dowels short enough that plugs could be inserted over them so there'd be no end grain on the face of the door.

[lowell holmes]

I pinned the pinned the tenons on a fir door I built many years ago. It is a raised panel door. The panels have two layers, inside and outside.
I did that so they would not split, and they haven't. I inserted clear plastic sheet between the panels to eliminate moisture penetration.
The door is 10 or 12 years old.

[Wayne Lomman]

Pins will be OK but you will regret using titebond lll. Use resorcinol or epoxy. TB lll is not good for exterior work despite the marketing. Cheers

[Tom M King]

If the joints will fit nicely to start with, and you're going to use glue, I see no need at all to drawbore. The pegs will have long since taken a permanent set to their curve by the time the glue fails. I take apart 200 year old woodwork all the time to make repairs. With no glue, the real beauty of pegged tenons is ease of disassembly in the future.

[Brian Holcombe]

Drawboring makes for a very strong jont that can be disassembled if need be. If you decide to use it, make the pins by riving them.

[Roger Marty]

Pins will be OK but you will regret using titebond lll. Use resorcinol or epoxy. TB lll is not good for exterior work despite the marketing. Cheers

Really? How come? This door should not have exposure to rain/snow because of a glass storm door in front of it.

My local wood supplier hates Titebond wood glues, but even he said "Titebond III will work fine with 2" tenons". I read elsewhere that a U.S. Forest Products study showed that Epoxy and Oak doesn't do well over time.

So right now I'm leaning TBIII, and then once it has dried, drill 1/4" holes into the tenons and drive some oak dowels in there.

[Robert Engel]

Although I tend to agree somewhat with Wayne about the actual "waterproof" aspect of TBIII, you will probably be fine with it in your application. I may be wrong, but I consider epoxy, polyurethane and construction adhesive actuall waterproof glues.

Pinning adds an immense amount of strength to M/T joints so you can't go wrong ever doing it IMO.

Personal preference, but one way to address the look of the pins is to cover with a square plug (use a contrasting wood if desired for example, walnut plugs in an oak door look quite nice - matter of taste). Make the square hole with a punch like this or mortising bit.

Draw boring is a timber frame technique adapted to ww'ing joints with no glue, such as breadboard ends. No real advantage here.

[David Kumm]

I'm an epoxy guy. I add some fine sanding dust to thicken and give the stuff a little tooth, make the mortise a tad long and put a groove in the tenon so the glue has someplace to go. there is hydraulic pressure at work if everything fits too tight. A rough surface on either the mortise or tenon is a good thing if not overdone and sloppy. Dave

[Brian Holcombe]

Although I tend to agree somewhat with Wayne about the actual "waterproof" aspect of TBIII, you will probably be fine with it in your application. I may be wrong, but I consider epoxy, polyurethane and construction adhesive actuall waterproof glues.

Pinning adds an immense amount of strength to M/T joints so you can't go wrong ever doing it IMO.

Personal preference, but one way to address the look of the pins is to cover with a square plug (use a contrasting wood if desired for example, walnut plugs in an oak door look quite nice - matter of taste). Make the square hole with a punch like this or mortising bit.

Draw boring is a timber frame technique adapted to ww'ing joints with no glue, such as breadboard ends. No real advantage here.

You can draw bore with a square peg also.

[Derek Cohen]

You could drawbore and forgo the glue. This will be a strong joint that will resist weather and temperature changes.

As Brian mentioned, rived pegs will remain strong for longer than the house remains there.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tom M King]

Since the tenons are just 2" long, I'd glue it and peg it. Too easy to ruin short tenons with drawboring. If they were through tenons, or close, I'd consider not gluing, but am afraid longevity won't be so good for an entry door with unglued 2" tenons.

[Brian Holcombe]

Ah, I glossed over that. I agree, those are short and do not offer enough relish.

[Roger Marty]

Ah, I glossed over that. I agree, those are short and do not offer enough relish.

Wow, you guys must make doors with 6" wide stiles and 4" tenons or something?!

[Tom M King]

Since my work matches old work, it's almost always through tenons at whatever width the stiles are. This is from a picture I already had stored here (been shown seveal times before). The bottom tenons in these shutters are double (other peg doesn't show because of shadow). No glue was used, and since I knew that the wood was drier when I built them, than they ever would be again, I didn't bother with drawboring. Some years later, not a single one has sagged, and they are all still easy to operate. They're a little over 20 x 90 inches.