Office Door out of the clamps *w/pics*

[Alan in Little Washington]

I finished cutting and fitting the mortises and tenons and glued up the door for my shop office. It is another heavy oak door made from wood harvested on my lot (plus two boards I actually paid money for :-( :-D. ) I have decided I need to save my money to buy a shoulder or rabbeting plane if I'm going to be making any more of these big doors with large tenons.

I used a benchtop mortiser and discovered the reason my last door had some M&T problems- I have a cross slide vise on the mortiser and just noticed that the jaw faces weren't parallel vertically to the mortising bit. Luckily I noticed while cutting the first of 10 deep and wide mortises. I shimmed the vise as best I could and also made sure I reversed the stiles in the vise before cutting the opposite side of the mortise (I used a 1/2 chisel and two passes to cut the 3/4" mortises). This way the mortises might be tapered but not both angled the same way like with my last door. Ya'll following this?

The stiles and rails are solid 1 3/8" thick and the panels are 3/4" thick. I still need to make the window grids, do some sanding, mortise the hinges, stain and finish it, and buy and install the glass. The design is my own and supposed to be in the A &C/Mission style. Anyway here are two shots of the door.

 

[novice99]

VERRRY NICE! :eusa_clap:eusa_clap

Thanks for the tip about the vice, I have been baffled about why my M&T joints keep angling out of plane.

I appreciate all the WIP pics of your fine work.

 

[cpowell]

Alan, I follow your logic on the mortise angle. This issue is particularly problematic with long rails, such as a door or dresser or bed frame. For the record, it is just statistically impossible to get any machine set to EXACTLY 90 degrees (or any other angle for that matter).

Flipping the board for the opposite side of the mortise minimizes the potential error and also guarantees the mortise is centered on the stock if so desired.

Good tip! :icon_thum

BTW, very nice looking door, Alan.

Chuck

 

[Travis Porter]

Those pesky nuances always get me as well. A degree here or there adds up quick.

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

Thanks guys.

I have not been happy with the cross slide vise I added to my mortiser, so I am planning a major redo. I originally set mine up a bit differently. I switched the in-out crank to the front of the vise along with the jaw clamping crank as most people have done, but I also removed the complete L-R crank and lead screw assembly. I thought it would be too slow- I wanted to be able to move it much more quickly left and right- plus didn't need the L - R precision. Now, however, the unit doesn't slide left to right easily enough! I tried making a new dovetailed base unit with UHMW poly, but that didn't allow the cast iron upper part to slide easily enough either. I guess I'm going to have to find a cheap linear bearing rig for the base.

Of course, I still need to come up with a more permanent fix for the non vertical jaws (or entire vise?) issue also.

Just another tool tinkering project to add to my long list. :-D:-D:-D:-D

 

[sapwood]

Nice work Alan! Now you have a beautiful door and a new tinkering project :mrgreen:

Roger