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Thread: Making your own interior doors

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by frank shic View Post
    alright, alright, i admit it's not ABSOLUTELY necessary... but it sure would be nice to have around! come on, guys? doesn't anyone want to build a wooden gate or a pergola or... just have the latest and the greatest from festool?!?
    Those new marketing videos Festool puts out are serious tool pr0n.

  2. #17
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    Hi Victor,Trust me you dont want to get into make new doors.You will pull your hair out trying to find suitable lumber.The doors you have now may be clear vertical grain dougfir.I am on a renovation project that has interior doors from the 30s we had them dipped and stripped.Very fine grained fir was under the many layers of paint.Cost about 150.00 per door.Much cheaper than buying new and all the chairactor. I do make doors and i always buy double what i need to pick stock that will behave in service never really know. Andrew

  3. #18
    Wow, I'm glad I didn't have a forum to ask, before I built 12 raised panel interior doors out of poplar 15 years ago. I'd have missed out on a very satisfying project. All mortise and tenon, panels retained with applied cove and bead molding cut on the router table. Built from rough sawn kiln dried 8/4 and 6/4 poplar. All work done with tablesaw/bandsaw/plunge router/router table. I did justify a HVLP gun to shoot white oil based paint finish. Doors were to replace original hollow core doors in a typical 70's house. They have held up quite well, with absolutely no warping or twisting. They still all close perfectly, so maybe I was just lucky! I say shop for the lumber of your choice, and go for it! BTW, I used the original doors as templates for positioning a ho-made router template to route the hinge mortises, and re-used the original (3 per door) 3 1/2" butt hinges. This made hanging the new doors a p0iece of cake.

    Regards
    Bob

    P.S.: you couldn't pay me enough to strip the old doors. Been there, done that, and I'd rather build new--much more satisfying to be woodworking!
    Last edited by bob hertle; 03-23-2012 at 7:13 PM.

  4. #19
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    would you have considered a festool XL if you could have used one for building them???

  5. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by frank shic View Post
    would you have considered a festool XL if you could have used one for building them???
    Frank is a bad man. I vote we ban him.

  6. #21
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    Ya okay bob,Everyone knows it takes sixteen years before poplar starts warping.So there.

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by bob hertle View Post
    Wow, I'm glad I didn't have a forum to ask, before I built 12 raised panel interior doors out of poplar 15 years ago. I'd have missed out on a very satisfying project. All mortise and tenon, panels retained with applied cove and bead molding cut on the router table. Built from rough sawn kiln dried 8/4 and 6/4 poplar. All work done with tablesaw/bandsaw/plunge router/router table. I did justify a HVLP gun to shoot white oil based paint finish. Doors were to replace original hollow core doors in a typical 70's house. They have held up quite well, with absolutely no warping or twisting. They still all close perfectly, so maybe I was just lucky! I say shop for the lumber of your choice, and go for it! BTW, I used the original doors as templates for positioning a ho-made router template to route the hinge mortises, and re-used the original (3 per door) 3 1/2" butt hinges. This made hanging the new doors a p0iece of cake.

    Regards
    Bob

    P.S.: you couldn't pay me enough to strip the old doors. Been there, done that, and I'd rather build new--much more satisfying to be woodworking!
    Thanks for sharing Bob. Did you have a problem with the softness of the poplar?

  8. #23
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    Loose tenons are as strong as a traditional M&T making them perfectly fine for a door. They also are a lot easier to fabricate efficiently and accurately, which helps in ending up with a flat door. Poplar is more than stable enough, is a dream to work with, and paints beautifully. It's only drawback is it's soft compared to most other hardwoods but it's every bit as hard as pine, of which is sold as doors by the millions. If your panels are flat panels, MDF would be a great choice; very flat and stable, cheap, and paints great. If you have a shop set up for handling stock the size required to make doors, it's not hard to make 10 doors. Figure a solid week, start to finish - so if you have to work a "real" job, that will mean more like 2 or 3 weeks of weekends and a few nights.

    John

  9. #24
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    I'm scratching my head on all the "poplar" criticisms. Before the economy went south I was making doors for a living, and we made lots of poplar doors in paint grade. You learn to pick your stock, go for straighter grain, weed out those stiles that seem to want to dance around daily, no problems. I built numerous doors for my own house from poplar, and again no problems. There are doors in the show room of the millwork shop where I work that are approaching 20 years old, no problems. For paint grade, its plenty hard enough, unless perhaps you stable small buffalo in your home? Sure is harder than most fir or pine IMO. VGF and good white pine will both cost double what poplar does in my area, sometime more. And anyone that has milled fir realizes its no joy to work with by any means, mostly has to be climbed to avoid tear out. So count me amount poplars advocates for pant grade passage doors. Soft maple gets stupid heavy, makes a decent paint grade door, but its not such a stable thing either.

    Should you make doors? Well, I have been trained professionally, my small home shop was built with door making in mind, I have access to a wide belt sander for leveling, takes me 6-8 hours for paint grade doors with MDF panels from rough lumber to ready to paint, a bit longer obviously for sold wood panels. I use ultra lite MDf for raised panels, it comes in thicknesses up to 2" (bring friends to help carry that, its still darn heavy), figure materials in my area are around $80 per door using MDF panels, around 45-50BF of material using solid panels, so around $125 in material for solid stock here in CT. Add to that the cost of the tooling, which can vary significantly depending on what methods you employ.

    You can buy a fir or pine slab, 1 3/8", 6 panel, at most home centers here, for under $50. Its a decent door, it comes in almost no choices as far as style. I know you can pay more and get more choices from many manufacturers. I have never seen a factory door in a home center that held even a dim candle to the ones I make myself. I have seen hight quality production doors that were at least as good as what I can make, but at a much higher cost.

    I'm thinking you have to get a price on what you want commercially, and weight that against your skill level, your shop situation, your access to quality lumber and its cost, your time frame, and frankly your sheer physical strength. Hardwood passage doors get heavy, especially with 7-10 clamps on them. At some point you need to glue them up, clean up the squeeze out, and flip them over to clean the other side. This takes two people, or a specialize bench/frame, or a big determined gorilla. And you need to hang them, which IMO actually takes more skill than building them for most door styles. I find making doors very rewarding, and if you have never done it ti will add to your skill set, so thats worth considering. Its never a yes/no answer, its really relative to your situation. You can do it, there is no shame in buying them either.

  10. #25
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    Believe me, porn is much cheaper! Wait till you all see the price of the XL!

    Quote Originally Posted by Victor Robinson View Post
    Those new marketing videos Festool puts out are serious tool pr0n.

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Victor Robinson View Post
    Thanks Peter - yup you're right on the article. Is Poplar too soft or moves too much? What economical wood would you recommend? If the panels are plywood would you still expect enough movement for the doors to get tweaked?
    For paint grade, I usually go with #1 or C-Select Pine, Doug Fir or even Radiata. Old growth Poplar is great if you can find it my most of what you get these days is very high in sapwood with very wide spacing of growth rings and not a lot of stability. Unless you're building the doors for a bathroom or a damp area, I'd use MDF for the panels as it will move around a lot less than plywood which often has a poplar core. If you're really set on plywood, make sure it has a fir core.

    I've made a lot of traditional 12-piece, raised panel doors over the years, few things are more satisfying than seeing your work hanging in your home but making, painting and installing entry doors is hard work. If you haven't made them loads of them already and have a decent shop setup, you'll find that 9-10 doors is a pretty serious project, especially if the openings are all different sizes.
    Last edited by Peter Kelly; 03-23-2012 at 10:54 PM.

  12. #27
    +1 for what Peter said. You can buy cheaper than u might build, but you will probably build nicer than you would buy, especially at borg. Nice doors get noticed, and doors are readily seen in your house. if you have the tools etc like Peter mentioned, no reason not too. straight gain is a key ingredient. i like to make the rails and stiles by gluing two thinner boards together then milling to thickness. In my mind that increases the likelihood they will stay straight.

    In my childlike mind, I wouldn't see why not to build them, and I would use poplar also.

    10 doors would take me while though, even without the extra glue step.

  13. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by Victor Robinson View Post
    Frank is a bad man. I vote we ban him.
    lol guilty as charged *bows*

  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Hedges View Post
    Believe me, porn is much cheaper! Wait till you all see the price of the XL!
    $1,200 actually. I had guessed it would be a little higher.

  15. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter Quinn View Post
    I'm scratching my head on all the "poplar" criticisms. Before the economy went south I was making doors for a living, and we made lots of poplar doors in paint grade. You learn to pick your stock, go for straighter grain, weed out those stiles that seem to want to dance around daily, no problems. I built numerous doors for my own house from poplar, and again no problems. There are doors in the show room of the millwork shop where I work that are approaching 20 years old, no problems. For paint grade, its plenty hard enough, unless perhaps you stable small buffalo in your home? Sure is harder than most fir or pine IMO. VGF and good white pine will both cost double what poplar does in my area, sometime more. And anyone that has milled fir realizes its no joy to work with by any means, mostly has to be climbed to avoid tear out. So count me amount poplars advocates for pant grade passage doors. Soft maple gets stupid heavy, makes a decent paint grade door, but its not such a stable thing either.

    Should you make doors? Well, I have been trained professionally, my small home shop was built with door making in mind, I have access to a wide belt sander for leveling, takes me 6-8 hours for paint grade doors with MDF panels from rough lumber to ready to paint, a bit longer obviously for sold wood panels. I use ultra lite MDf for raised panels, it comes in thicknesses up to 2" (bring friends to help carry that, its still darn heavy), figure materials in my area are around $80 per door using MDF panels, around 45-50BF of material using solid panels, so around $125 in material for solid stock here in CT. Add to that the cost of the tooling, which can vary significantly depending on what methods you employ.

    You can buy a fir or pine slab, 1 3/8", 6 panel, at most home centers here, for under $50. Its a decent door, it comes in almost no choices as far as style. I know you can pay more and get more choices from many manufacturers. I have never seen a factory door in a home center that held even a dim candle to the ones I make myself. I have seen hight quality production doors that were at least as good as what I can make, but at a much higher cost.

    I'm thinking you have to get a price on what you want commercially, and weight that against your skill level, your shop situation, your access to quality lumber and its cost, your time frame, and frankly your sheer physical strength. Hardwood passage doors get heavy, especially with 7-10 clamps on them. At some point you need to glue them up, clean up the squeeze out, and flip them over to clean the other side. This takes two people, or a specialize bench/frame, or a big determined gorilla. And you need to hang them, which IMO actually takes more skill than building them for most door styles. I find making doors very rewarding, and if you have never done it ti will add to your skill set, so thats worth considering. Its never a yes/no answer, its really relative to your situation. You can do it, there is no shame in buying them either.
    As usual Peter is in harmony with my thoughts, so what Peter said......

    Building custom doors is part of my business too, but if the doors are normal styles in normal sizes, I buy them. My supplier can get me very nice [read not Borg quality] raised panel doors in pine for about 2 bills prehung. I would lose money trying to compete with that, and so you too have to make a decision. You are actually going to have costs of close to what doors can be bought for. Would you rather be fishing, or making a dining room table? In my current house I bought my doors. In my next house I will have to make them because everything is scaled using Phi, but if I could buy what I wanted, I would.

    Larry

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