Exterior door

[Kevin Jenness]

Kevin,
Thanks for the information and your helpful insights. As I mentioned I will use epoxy for the first time. I understand the logic concerning a rough or textured surface for the adhesion of the epoxy for the laminated pieces. I am leaning toward using a router to get the first 2 1/2" inches of material out for the mortise then finishing with a drill to get an additional 1/2". Do you believe the walls in the mortise will be sufficiently rough to allow good adhesion for the epoxy? Thanks, Jack

I have made scores of doors joined with 2 1/2" deep routed mortises (I use a slot mortiser and spline tenons) and epoxy and am not aware of any failures. I do sand the splines. If you have a very smooth finish on your mortise walls it wouldn't hurt to touch them up with a rasp or 80# sanding block. If you want a definitive answer, make a test mortise, slice off one cheek and glue it to a test tenon, then try to break the cured joint apart.

I learned about using epoxy from the 1985 edition of Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction which makes no mention of abrading wood surfaces for adhesion. After a few failures I revisited their website guidelines in the early 2000s which do advise rough bonding surfaces. I have seen successful bonding of planed surfaces on low density woods like pine, but my come to Jesus moment happened when I glued up some walnut leg blanks. Just for grins I hammered a chisel into the cured glueline to find that the two halves popped apart quite easily, with epoxy in the joint but sheared cleanly off the machine planed mating surfaces. That got my attention and I have been using rough surfaces for epoxy bonds since then.

I recommend you buy a copy of David Sochar's Small Shop Production of Custom Wood Doors.

[Jim Becker]

Kevin,
Thanks for the information and your helpful insights. As I mentioned I will use epoxy for the first time. I understand the logic concerning a rough or textured surface for the adhesion of the epoxy for the laminated pieces. I am leaning toward using a router to get the first 2 1/2" inches of material out for the mortise then finishing with a drill to get an additional 1/2". Do you believe the walls in the mortise will be sufficiently rough to allow good adhesion for the epoxy? Thanks, Jack

No worries at all, IMHO. Even "smooth" wood is rough compared to slick surfaces that need abrasion. 'Nature of the material.

[andrew whicker]

Epoxy is about the lowest stress glue up you'll experience.

I use epoxy when I have complicated glue ups because the set time is so long regardless of its other properties.

[John TenEyck]

Kevin,
Thanks for the information and your helpful insights. As I mentioned I will use epoxy for the first time. I understand the logic concerning a rough or textured surface for the adhesion of the epoxy for the laminated pieces. I am leaning toward using a router to get the first 2 1/2" inches of material out for the mortise then finishing with a drill to get an additional 1/2". Do you believe the walls in the mortise will be sufficiently rough to allow good adhesion for the epoxy? Thanks, Jack

You might consider using a roughing endmill.

John

[Tom Bender]

Take some worry out of the lockset install by doing a practice install in a mockup about 6" long.

Presumably the cabin will have another door. See if you can get them 'keyed alike'.

[Tom Bender]

We all love wooden doors but they can be a world of trouble when exposed to the weather.

David Sochar's book would be a good investment.

[Mike Goetzke]

Years ago I took on the challenge to build an entrance door. Luckily I found a professional door builder on this forum who mentored me. I'm forever thankful to "Joe Grout" - ha, if that is his real name.

I was like you wanting to get nice thick white oak for the frame but Joe insisted I use LVL (laminated veneer lumber) as the core and use white oak veneer on top (1/8"). The door was big and heavy but not super difficult to build. But, the frame/jam pieces had some cuts I would never do again on the TS. WOW - just looked it's been up for 17 years now!

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....light=entrance