My New Front Door

[Jon Nuckles]

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?

Lots of places in the Chicago area carry sapele. For buying retail, check out one of the Owl Hardwoods locations.

[johnny means]

I love the asymmetry and directionality. It's not too often i see bold door choices that work well.

[Mel Fulks]

It's beautifully done and I like it. Gonna take several more days to love it. I've lost the fight to restrain myself from
commenting on the hedge, and I'm useing the fact that you like modern design ,to justify a critique. I would get rid of it.
It's not modern and it would take a long time to fill in.

[C Scott McDonald]

Beautiful door! What glue did you use for the veneer? Is it regular thin veneer or something you resawed? I thought about something similar with an exotic veneer of some sort. The different veneer on the inside is a great idea that I will steal.

[John TenEyck]

Beautiful door! What glue did you use for the veneer? Is it regular thin veneer or something you resawed? I thought about something similar with an exotic veneer of some sort. The different veneer on the inside is a great idea that I will steal.

Thanks very much. It's shop sawn veneer. And veneer is a bit misleading as it's 3/16" thick. You wouldn't want to use typical sliced commercial veneer for an exterior door; it can't take much physical abuse nor could you sand it much when it needed to be refinished. I might try commercial veneer if I could get it at 1/16" and apply it over a cross banded backer layer.

It's glued to the stave cores with Weldwood Plastic Resin glue in the vacuum bag. I use PRG for most all my veneer work and can't remember any failures. Epoxy would be another fine choice. Polyurethane glues might be a good choice, too. I would not use something like TB III on an exterior door, however, if it will get any direct sun exposure as it's strength at 150F is nil.

John

[Frederick Skelly]

Great looking door, both from the outside and the inside!

[jim sauterer]

Wow nice job john looks great.

[Mark Rainey]

Great way to have your fine woodworking skills on display for all your neighbors!

[michael langman]

Really nice door John. Interesting to look at. I think it goes well with the house and brick.
As usual your workmanship is exceptional.

[lowell holmes]

For information about sapele

https://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=m...&p=sapele+wood

I made a back door out of white oak and put a reinforced glass pane in it.

[Ron Citerone]

That is a door to be proud of. Very well done. A unique look for sure!

[Phil Mueller]

Coming in late here, John, but the door looks great. Nice job!

[Mark Hennebury]

Fine looking door, great job!

[John TenEyck]

Thanks all for the kind words. Much appreciated.

So have you ever thought of how to deal with the finish on the inside and outside when the color is not the same? I wondered about that for a long time and only within the past year or so did it become obvious after seeing a few doors done "correctly". The approach I think looks best is for the color on the outside to wrap around the hinge edge, while the color on the inside wraps around the lockset edge.




John

[michael langman]

Thanks for posting the edge colors John.
What you said looks good, and makes sense in the scheme of things.