My New Front Door

[John TenEyck]

I saw a door in Germany a couple of years ago that I liked. More importantly, my wife liked it, too, and we both thought one like it would look good on our house.



With that as the model I designed one to fit the 36 x 80" opening in my house, I'll spare you the build process and just say that I used stave core construction with Sapele veneer outside and maple on the inside. The tempered patterned glass are separate panes that sit against silicone foam and are held by the applied moldings, inside and out. The wood panels are solid, 5/8" thick, again Sapele on the outside and maple on the inside. These photos will give you an idea how it was done.





My friend came today to help install it. It all went pretty smoothly because we had test fit it before I finished it; highly recommended when not changing the frame.







John

[Von Bickley]

Great looking door.... You did a great job.

[matt romanowski]

Looks fantastic!

[William Fretwell]

John, you did a fabulous job, a unique look for those parts.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Very nice door. Where did you order glass with frames for it?
Ed.

[Jim Becker]

That really looks outstanding, John!!!

[David Utterback]

Gotta love it. It is beautiful.

[Bill Carey]

Beautiful door John. Really nice work.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

John, great craftsmanship, unique and certainly it fits with the character of your home. Nicely done Sir!

[John TenEyck]

Very nice door. Where did you order glass with frames for it?
Ed.

Thanks. The glass is from One Day Glass: https://www.onedayglass.com/ They are individual panes, not sealed glass units. One Day Glass can make sealed glass units, too, but I elected to do it the way I showed. I wrapped the stub tenons that the glass rest on with aluminum tape which does make it look like a sealed glass unit. The glass sits on the silicone foam and then the outside panes get a bead of silicone caulk around the outside edges before the molded frames are set in place.





One Day Glass is in WA state; I live in NY. It shipped all the way across the country and arrived in perfect condition. Just fantastic packaging. If you look at their website you'll see they have a pretty broad range of capability. I selected a patterned glass, shown under 'Types of Glass - Glass Tints', called "Seedy Reamy".

John

[Christopher Herzog]

The door is outstanding! We are not blessed with that type of lumber in the corrupt state of Chicago, I mean Illinois. Can you speak to the workability of the wood?

[Andrew Hughes]

Awesome work John. Very cool design.

[Christopher Charles]

Great looking door that compliments your house. And a great memory of your trip

Best,
Chris

[George Bokros]

Looks fantastic. Great execution as with everything you do.

[John TenEyck]

The door is outstanding! We are not blessed with that type of lumber in the corrupt state of Chicago, I mean Illinois. Can you speak to the workability of the wood?

Sapele? I'm sure you can buy it somewhere in Chicago and/or Illinois. Buffalo is a backwater compared to Chicago, so I gotta believe it's available. I buy it from a local millwork company. It's surprising affordable, too, considering it comes all the way from Africa. I pay about $5/BF for nearly any thickness and or width. 8/4 x 16" x 12' is pretty common, and I'm talking QS stuff. Think about the size of the tree that must come from. I mostly buy 8/4 which allows me to slice veneer off both faces and still have 1-1/4" thick stock to use for the stave cores.

Sapele normally is very well behaved and works pretty easily with both power and hand tools. But every once in awhile I get a board that twists or bows every time you cut it and it's really not much good for anything beyond expensive firewood. Fortunately, once I learned to never buy a board that has any twist, cup, bow, etc in it I haven't had any more real problems. Sapele has a pleasant spice smell; some folks are allergic to the dust but I don't seem to be. Tooling dulls a little faster than with most of the domestic hardwoods I typically use; oak, maple, walnut. Oh yeah, Sapele splinters hurt almost as bad as ones from Ipe'.

John