another round of longleaf pine doors

[Neal Clayton]

started building the rest of the doors to match my few remaining originals upstairs yesterday.

standard 1 3/8 thickness, with a 1" thick panel. not sure what the exact reasons were, but half height to 3/4 height panels seemed to be pretty popular around here from ~1905 to 1910. maybe due to the good old pine starting to dwindle and prices going up on large/thick stock. either way getting 12" wide clear old growth boards now isn't cheap, that's for sure.

i started with the idea of just using flat panels, but with this species of lumber that's prone to split anyway, a panel planed down to 3/8" is just too fragile, so i had to figure a way to make the reduced height panels.

unfortunately bits and shaper cutters for short height door panels are equally dwindling in popularity, as in there are none . so in lieu of a custom bit i just used a straight ~17 degree panel bit set too low in the table, the result is a panel profile that's about twice the width of the rail/stile profiles, which is the look i was shooting for.

since i don't have room for a shaper these are done on a router table like the windows i posted awhile back. using freud's door bit set.

they'll be finished with garnet shellac, then satin waterlox on top. this isn't the final assembly, unfortunately, just a dry fit. i've been shopping around for proper mortise locks and not having too much luck on the quality front. i tried a set from house of antique hardware a while back but they seemed awfully flimsy. have another set ordered from rejuvenation, so i'll see if those are any better when it comes in. but until i get the lock in my hands i can't make a jig for the lock plate and can't mortise the hole, so the door will have to wait until then (unelss anyone wants to give me a mortiser that can hold an entirely assembled door. now don't everyone volunteer at once!)

anyways, pic and sketchup plans...

[Larry Frank]

I really love your door. Can you tell me the source of your long leaf pine and the approximate cost. I have been thinking about a project using it and wanted an idea on the cost.

[Neal Clayton]

up in your area, probably high.

i last paid 5 dollars a square foot. that was "10-20 growth rings per inch" written on the invoice to guarantee old growth, F&S, in mississippi, undried. cut right off of a squared log and delivered green.

primary sources are mississippi, alabama, georgia, and east texas these days. the problem is it's most commonly only used for flooring any more, so any new cuts of old growth trees are almost entirely cut into flooring.

[John Keeton]

Neat job Neal! I notice you have alternated the cathedral pattern on the panels - left, right. That is probably a smart way of doing it, as I imagine it could be very distractive to have all of them going the same way.

So, how many clamps do you need to buy??

[John Thompson]

Looking good.. post when finished.

[Neal Clayton]

Neat job Neal! I notice you have alternated the cathedral pattern on the panels - left, right. That is probably a smart way of doing it, as I imagine it could be very distractive to have all of them going the same way.

So, how many clamps do you need to buy??

yeah, being 100 years old the house leans enough, it doesn't need visual leaning effects from door panels making it look more like something out of a tim burton movie .

[Neal Clayton]

here they are after the color coats.

plain ole garnet shellac, sprayed with an earlex 5000. after this cures they'll get buffed and a brushed on coat of satin waterlox.

the left is midway through the spraying layers, the right is finished except for the top coat.

i don't bother drilling the knob/key holes until afterward. these will use an old fashioned full mortise lock anyway, so the entire hole area will be covered by a rather large plate. even mistakes under there aren't a deal breaker at that point . the lock mortise is done but that's it before finishing.

[Neal Clayton]

unfortunately garnet shellac doesn't look nearly as good on shoes as it does on a door. after a year of off and on spraying in them i may have to finally retire these...

[John Thompson]

The standing version came out better on the pictures Neal. The light on the version laying on side reflects a very deep amber. I assume the standing is what they reallylook like and I think they look great.. and came out very well with the natural finish.

And BTW.... I see absolutely no need to retire those shoes at this point. They are similar to mine for shop and add some green grass stains from cutting grass. So.. real comfortable and until you have to start wrapping duct tape around them after the toes wear holes in the leather tops.. ain't nothing wrong so don't fix it.

Well done....

[Neal Clayton]

yep, the standing door is pretty close. think it's catching a bad shadow from a dust collector pipe on the top but otherwise accurate.

[John Keeton]

Neal, the doors really turned out great. I like the color and they should blend well with the look you are after.

On the shoes, after going to all the effort of getting a nice shellac "build" why would you consider gettin' rid of them???? They should be good for a couple decades now, what with all that protective finish I'm with Sarge, there just now gettin' to that comfortable stage.

Sarge, if you would trim those toe-nails ever now and then, you can put off those "toe-holes" a bit - the voice of experience! Every since I discovered that, I can get an extra 5 years out of shoes!!!

[C Scott McDonald]

Neal, the doors are awesome. Well done. They have so much character compared to the junky ones that are standard today.

Scott

[Peter Quinn]

Beautiful doors Neil, same style on my old house. Round here I hear people call them Morgan doors, not sure what the reference is, but that is how I hear the five horizontal panel doors called. I've made several in paint grade because that is what my wife prefers, and MDF is easy to come by. Do they make old growth MDF?

I like the shellac/waterlox combo a lot. I guess great minds think alike, because I used the same thing on a cherry door for the bathroom in April and was thrilled with the results. I used dewaxed sanding sealer as the cherry didn't need ANY push in the garnet direction, and original waterlox and had planned on rubbing it back to satin but I fell in love with the semi gloss on slightly figured cherry, so it stays as is.

FWIW, Freeborne makes panel raisers for the shaper that make the panel profile for those mid thickness panels, still available, but I have personally never seen similar for the router. I probably could have bought paint grade doors cheaper than that one cutter, but I had to match other doors in the house that we stripped and refinished clear grade.

Anyway, beautiful work and I look forward to seeing the final product swinging in the openings! Do you have any access to a PC lock mortiser via friends or rental? We have one at work, and it works great for the mortised locks.

[Neal Clayton]

i've got an old mid-20s millwork catalog laying around, i think they were called morgan doors in there too. doesn't mention where the name came from, though.

never heard of such a thing as that PC lock mortiser. works with a plunge router i assume?

i use porter cable's hinge guides but never saw a lock plate guide, i use a jig cut from 3/4 ply screwed to a scrap piece of 2x4 to square it up. then just lay the lock in the hole upside down and mark off the mortise with a ruler against the lock body.

i tried alot of finishes before coming up with garnet + waterlox. trouble is i have a hodgepodge of things that i wanted to be uniform (old floors, new trim, new windows, some old doors some new doors, some yellow pine some cypress, some oak), and from my experimentation with various things a colored shellac followed by a colored varnish is the easiest way to get at that. the idea is to get them as close as possible to the cypress windows from these threads, plus the waterlox brushes so easily that it's a pleasure to use. you can make a mess of the shellac and still have the final product look like a million bucks after the waterlox levels out on top .

[Neal Clayton]

so now there's a couple of rooms worth of "really finished" instead of "kinda finished.

windows and doors and transoms in two rooms, and finished, and walls painted, even furniture back in and the ceiling fan back in .

sorry for the bad quality, second one is a cellphone pic at a different time of the day. was kinda in a hurry to get out for thanksgiving.