Building an entry door (work in progress...)

[mreza Salav]

Well, I have started building an entry door for a house that is to be built as well. I have plenty of time before it is to be installed.
It is out of Honduras Mahogany. The door will be 8' tall and 42" wide but with two side lites and posts the whole unit will be approximately 86". I say approximately because I haven't finalized my dimensions, as always I modify them as I go. It might sound crazy but I have an order in which I prepare the pieces and each time I find the nearest lumber that would go with what I have done so far without much change (e.g. the plan calls for a 6" wide post and I can get it with some of the lumber to be 5 7/8" it will be the new size).

Anyways, here is a rough drawing of it to see how it is supposed to look at the end:

plan1.jpgplan2.jpg

The door and side lites will be 2.25" thick. First order of business was to get all the hardware needed (hinges, handle set, weather stripping, threshold, etc). The threshold was for standard 1.75" thick doors so I have to modify it (as will be seen).

The order to build is to first build the frame, posts, and the jambs. Then side lites, and finally the door. The side lites will be from 3 lamination of 4/4 material. For the door I'll be doing stave core, all from Mahogany.

First started milling the pieces for the jambs and frame:

e1.jpg

Then the materials for the posts. The posts will be 6" wide and 4.5" deep plus a half cylinder column that will be attached. The posts will be made out of three 8/4 pieces.
Here I use dowels for aligning them and then use a few clamps. The column is made from two 8/4 and two 4/4:

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Cutting the wast of the column before starting to "turn" it:

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Since I don't have a lathe that could turn this 101" piece I built a box to use a router to do the work. This box was in fact built as an I beam to which I'll do my glue ups but can use this for turning this as well. One little trouble was I made it out of 4x8 material and so wasn't long enough. Had to add an extra short piece to one end to extend it.
Used 3/4" pipe flange and a short pipe to make the shafts:

e6.jpg

continue...

[mreza Salav]

After this I realized I needed to think about my indexing. So added an extra piece under the flange (as will be seen later) for indexing the piece when doing the flute work.
Added two pieces on the top of the box and the router jig has two guides that will ride on these pieces and will locked (so the jig can only move forward and backward and no other movement). This was critical to allow me to move the router with one hand and started rounding the piece with a 1/2" bit:

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Here the column is pretty round:

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Then doing the beads and other things. The 2nd last photo shows the indexing mechanism, I have it from both ends to make sure it doesn't move a bit.

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The column is now ready, a little sanding is left and then separating the two halves...

[mreza Salav]

Here is a short video showing how I started turning. It was much easier as I would simply move the router with one hand and rotate the piece with the other (if I didn't have the camera in hand):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BhQD...ature=youtu.be

Smoothing the posts (to which the half columns will be attached):

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Then I started working on the threshold. The threshold piece I bought had a cross section shape of the following:

20130702_110824.jpg

The problem is the area on which the door shoe will sit on is omly 1.75" wide and plus I didn't like the pine and oak pieces used. So decided to replace them.
To get a beveled piece I attach a smaller piece to the one I am planing to get the result I want and then glue the new piece with construction adhesive (instead of staples that were used!):

e16.jpge17.jpge18.jpge20.jpg

continue...

[mreza Salav]

resawing some veneers for the stave core construction. Here are a bunch of wood from 7-11" wide and mostly 9' long:

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Then send them all through the sander:

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Here is what you get after sanding for a while, a 50 gallon drum full of fine saw dust:

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Here are all the pieces sanded down:

e29.jpg

[mreza Salav]

The posts are made of three 8/4 material, I decided to put a skin over them from inside so that you don't see there are three different pieces making up the post. My wife says nobody will notice it after it's stained up but *I* know, so have two veneers for them ready and glue them both together at the same time:

e30.jpg

Sanded the columns a bit and then cut them open (it was a messing job that needed hair dryer, nail polish remover, etc).

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Then cut the profile of the threshold on a scrap to copy to the ends of the jambs and posts. For the jambs I cut them by hand and then smooth them using flush trim router and the profile.

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And then the posts and the fluted columns that go on top. These are cut on the miter saw (wasn't that easy) and then fine tuned by hand. The half columns are not glued yet as the posts are already very heavy.

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Cut all the strips (2.5" wide) for stave cores and made the first glue up (epoxy). A near disaster was happening as I was almost running out of my epoxy before the last strip...

e35.jpg

[mreza Salav]

Built all the stave cores and the veneers. Here are the 2" thick cores ready to apply the 1/8" veneers on:

e38.jpge39.jpg

[mreza Salav]

All the stave cores are done; all rails/stiles pieces are ready for cutting to size and routing the profile, making the M/T and finally make the panels. The ends that don't have a skin over will be thinner anyway to form the tenons.
Mahogany fairly soft and splinters/chips easily (like cedar). Have to be do some extra step while routing to minimize tear out...

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[mreza Salav]

More progress (in case anybody is following):
Made the profiles at the ends of the rails as well as the tenons, and then the stiles and the rest of pieces:

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Have to trim the tenons to size, and make the mortises. At least most of the pieces are ready. Hopefully I've passed the half way mark now:

e48.jpg

[Mel Fulks]

Mreza, I remember the admonitions to you about how much work you were taking on,doesn't seem to be a problem for you at all ! Looks good ,keep posting.

[mreza Salav]

Thanks Mel. I am hoping to be done with this door by the end of this month and we are planned to start digging the ground next week, so I'll have plenty of time

[Tony Rodoracio]

Very nice work Mreza. Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures on your progress.

[Patrick McCarthy]

Mreza, nice work. I am impressed that you still had some clamps left during the glue-up! Please keep posting. Thank you, Patrick

[Peter Quinn]

Looks great Mreza, exciting to see you process unfold.

[mreza Salav]

Thanks everybody. I'm also glad that it is getting somewhere now. For a while I was just planing and planing and glueing. I think I emptied upwards of 400 gallons of
shavings from my dust collector....

[Gary Muto]

Mreza,
Your doors are coming along great.

Thanks everybody. I'm also glad that it is getting somewhere now. For a while I was just planing and planing and glueing. I think I emptied upwards of 400 gallons of
shavings from my dust collector....

So, how many board feet are in garbage bags?