I’ve shared with some of you that my wife and I are building a new house. As part of this I will have a detached workshop. My goal is to do many of the tasks myself where it makes sense. This led me to build the doors for my workshop. I already had most of the materials. It’s a way to save a few hundred dollars.
There are two doors. They are traditional six-panel doors. Each is 36” wide by 96” tall and 1-3/4” thick. The main door will have the two center panels as glass rather than wood. For the wood I chose reclaimed chestnut. I have a supply of this that I saved from a house I took down as a teenager. My best guess is the lumber was milled around 100-150 years ago. It’s also wormy to add a bit of character.
I’ve made a few doors over the years. The first and most important goal is that they be absolutely flat when finished. For panel doors this means all parts, especially the stiles, must be straight and free of any bow, twist or warp. I could have made these from solid chestnut, but you’ll find most large doors have stiles that are laminated. Lamination of several layers yields a straight and true core. You can then veneer a skin over this core using the best wood. I used Titebond III for all the joints since it is waterproof and these are exterior doors.
The core of my stiles is made from heart pine that I salvaged from an old house that once stood where we are building. I milled this down to about 3/4” thick and laminated the planks. While gluing I clamp to my assembly table. This table is made to be flat and true just for applications like this. I check the work at every stage for any bow or warp and arrange them so that the stresses are countered as they are glued. The results of the first glue-up are sawn, planed, jointed, and then stacked to increase the layers.
After the core of pine is built up, the end layers of chestnut are added. Lastly, a 1/8” thick skin of chestnut is added to each stile. This means you only see chestnut. The end result is stiles that are straight and true, ready to be mortised for the rails.
Most of the mortising work was done at the drill press to remove the bulk of the waste. I tuned the fence to make sure it was perpendicular with the table and clamped the work while drilling.
A wide flat paring chisel and a scrap board planed to the right thickness makes it easy to remove the remaining waste. It helps to have a block the thickness of a tenon to test the fit as you go along. These are deep mortises and extend to within an inch of the other side in order to accept 4” tenons. I could have squared the ends of each mortise, but it’s less work to round the tenons instead.
The last steps on the stiles are to cut a dado the length of each on the panel side and then add moulded edges. I chose a basic ovolo with a filet. The groove is the same width as the tenons and is for the raised panels or glass panes. The ovolo is removed where the rails intersect. More on this part later.
The rails and mullions are all glued up from 7/8” stock. The mullions attach to the rails with a comparatively short tenon, only about 1-1/2”. Anywhere a rail meets a stile, or mullion meets rail, I coped the moulding to give a mitered look. By coping the end which has the tenon you account for any movement of the wood. Where a mitered joint might open up over time a coped joint will maintain the desired fit. This is the process I followed.
The first step was to make a guide that fits over the part with a true 45 degree angle. This is clamped in position and a paring chisel is used to miter each moulding on the tenon ends. This angle provides the perfect curve to follow when coping.
How you remove the waste is a matter of preference. I found it easiest to first undercut in part and use a straight chisel up to the curve. From there I used a 5/16” incannel gouge to remove the remainder up to the curve.
Removing the waste on the mortise side is much coarser. After using a backsaw to cut through the ovolo I used a chisel to remove the moulded section down to the fillet. A paring chisel is all that’s necessary. When the mortise and tenon ends are joined you have a perfect fit that will stay together.
This is a good project to build coping skills. All together in both doors there are almost a hundred coped joints. Before doing any work on the panels I marked and fit each joint, then assembled the entire frame. I don’t like surprises once the glue starts flowing.
I’ll repeat the dry assembly one more time after the panels are complete. Note the little dots of blue painters tape. This is my way of remembering how they go together. The outside is marked with tape and the tape is always top and right side. I find this visual aid a quick way to position the part once I start gluing.
My goal is for the panels to remain stable. These are 1-5/8” thick and would certainly expand and contract if solid, so I composed them in layers. The center layer is 1/2” marine grade baltic birch plywood for extra stability. On each side of this I glued a 7/16” layer of chestnut. Finally, a 1/8” skin of hand picked chestnut boards were added. These were all part of the same flitch so that I could book match the grain on each pair of panels. Overall, this gives the door a more balanced look. These were glued inside a vacuum bag to maintain flatness.
I did the final assembly in the garage. There just isn’t room in my shop for this sort of build. To maintain flatness I placed a sheet of melamine over 2x4’s on sawhorses and made sure these were level. It took my son and I about 20-25 minutes to glue, assemble and clamp each door. Any longer and the glue begins to tack.
I chose ProLuxe Door & Window Wood Finish for the doors. I haven’t used this product before, but it gets high marks. These are exterior doors and need as much UV protection as possible. This product seemed like a good compromise, offering good protection without hiding the wood under a heavy stain. I’m using the dark oak color. Each side gets three coats, lightly sanding in between.
As always, thanks for looking. I’ll post some more pictures once I get them installed.
There are two doors. They are traditional six-panel doors. Each is 36” wide by 96” tall and 1-3/4” thick. The main door will have the two center panels as glass rather than wood. For the wood I chose reclaimed chestnut. I have a supply of this that I saved from a house I took down as a teenager. My best guess is the lumber was milled around 100-150 years ago. It’s also wormy to add a bit of character.
I’ve made a few doors over the years. The first and most important goal is that they be absolutely flat when finished. For panel doors this means all parts, especially the stiles, must be straight and free of any bow, twist or warp. I could have made these from solid chestnut, but you’ll find most large doors have stiles that are laminated. Lamination of several layers yields a straight and true core. You can then veneer a skin over this core using the best wood. I used Titebond III for all the joints since it is waterproof and these are exterior doors.
The core of my stiles is made from heart pine that I salvaged from an old house that once stood where we are building. I milled this down to about 3/4” thick and laminated the planks. While gluing I clamp to my assembly table. This table is made to be flat and true just for applications like this. I check the work at every stage for any bow or warp and arrange them so that the stresses are countered as they are glued. The results of the first glue-up are sawn, planed, jointed, and then stacked to increase the layers.
After the core of pine is built up, the end layers of chestnut are added. Lastly, a 1/8” thick skin of chestnut is added to each stile. This means you only see chestnut. The end result is stiles that are straight and true, ready to be mortised for the rails.
Most of the mortising work was done at the drill press to remove the bulk of the waste. I tuned the fence to make sure it was perpendicular with the table and clamped the work while drilling.
A wide flat paring chisel and a scrap board planed to the right thickness makes it easy to remove the remaining waste. It helps to have a block the thickness of a tenon to test the fit as you go along. These are deep mortises and extend to within an inch of the other side in order to accept 4” tenons. I could have squared the ends of each mortise, but it’s less work to round the tenons instead.
The last steps on the stiles are to cut a dado the length of each on the panel side and then add moulded edges. I chose a basic ovolo with a filet. The groove is the same width as the tenons and is for the raised panels or glass panes. The ovolo is removed where the rails intersect. More on this part later.
The rails and mullions are all glued up from 7/8” stock. The mullions attach to the rails with a comparatively short tenon, only about 1-1/2”. Anywhere a rail meets a stile, or mullion meets rail, I coped the moulding to give a mitered look. By coping the end which has the tenon you account for any movement of the wood. Where a mitered joint might open up over time a coped joint will maintain the desired fit. This is the process I followed.
The first step was to make a guide that fits over the part with a true 45 degree angle. This is clamped in position and a paring chisel is used to miter each moulding on the tenon ends. This angle provides the perfect curve to follow when coping.
How you remove the waste is a matter of preference. I found it easiest to first undercut in part and use a straight chisel up to the curve. From there I used a 5/16” incannel gouge to remove the remainder up to the curve.
Removing the waste on the mortise side is much coarser. After using a backsaw to cut through the ovolo I used a chisel to remove the moulded section down to the fillet. A paring chisel is all that’s necessary. When the mortise and tenon ends are joined you have a perfect fit that will stay together.
This is a good project to build coping skills. All together in both doors there are almost a hundred coped joints. Before doing any work on the panels I marked and fit each joint, then assembled the entire frame. I don’t like surprises once the glue starts flowing.
I’ll repeat the dry assembly one more time after the panels are complete. Note the little dots of blue painters tape. This is my way of remembering how they go together. The outside is marked with tape and the tape is always top and right side. I find this visual aid a quick way to position the part once I start gluing.
My goal is for the panels to remain stable. These are 1-5/8” thick and would certainly expand and contract if solid, so I composed them in layers. The center layer is 1/2” marine grade baltic birch plywood for extra stability. On each side of this I glued a 7/16” layer of chestnut. Finally, a 1/8” skin of hand picked chestnut boards were added. These were all part of the same flitch so that I could book match the grain on each pair of panels. Overall, this gives the door a more balanced look. These were glued inside a vacuum bag to maintain flatness.
I did the final assembly in the garage. There just isn’t room in my shop for this sort of build. To maintain flatness I placed a sheet of melamine over 2x4’s on sawhorses and made sure these were level. It took my son and I about 20-25 minutes to glue, assemble and clamp each door. Any longer and the glue begins to tack.
I chose ProLuxe Door & Window Wood Finish for the doors. I haven’t used this product before, but it gets high marks. These are exterior doors and need as much UV protection as possible. This product seemed like a good compromise, offering good protection without hiding the wood under a heavy stain. I’m using the dark oak color. Each side gets three coats, lightly sanding in between.
As always, thanks for looking. I’ll post some more pictures once I get them installed.
