I have a 6' opening on the back of my shed. I use two 3' wide wood doors on a sliding mechanism. Maybe 5-6 years ago I slapped some type of varnish on them and I've been using them ever since. Now I am repainting my house (and shed) and it's time to repair the doors - they have started coming apart and need to be refinished (I will paint them after stripping and rough sanding).
The first picture is the good door. The bottom rail has only separated slightly. The other door had a much larger gap that I disassembled with a rubber mallet, figuring I would re-glue the joints using TiteBond III. I found that it had dowels, so I imagine the other rails will probably also be doweled. This makes me reconsider knocking the entire door apart and re-gluing all the joints. Another consideration is that this minor project is taking a lot longer than I had imagined. (This is a virtual constant in all my projects!) These are shed doors, after all, and they are not visible to the house or neighbors. I.e., I want them functional but I am curbing my impulse to fully restore them.
I have cleaned up the mating surfaces on the bottom rail and corresponding area of the stile. On the worst door, I plan to "inject" some glue into the small gap in the second rail, glue the bottom rail (not the panels), and clamp everything together (I have a couple 7' and 4' clamps). Then I will inject some glue and clamp both the bottom rails on the better door.
Then I figured it would be a good idea to reinforce the joint and improve the effective clamping by driving some long exterior screws into the sides of the rails from the outside edge of the stiles, countersinking the heads. The stiles are 4" wide, excluding the molding. My longest screws are 4", but I expect I can find some 6" screws at my very well-stocked lumber yard. If not, I could countersink my 4" screws by 2".
Practical ideas? Any Suggestions? Thanks.
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