The making of another Craftsman door

[Frank Snyder]

We've been without a door for our first floor guest bathroom for...oh let's see here...almost 4 years. Since gutting and remodeling our Craftsman Bungalow back in 2003, I promised my wife I would make all of the doors that I threw out (they were in really, really bad shape). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get to this "honey do" item until this week.

To match all of our hardwood floors, I went with Birch for the doors. It's a very hard, dense wood and not as expensive as Maple. It has a lot of unique figuring and color variation which I find appealing. The bad thing about it is it likes to move a lot, so measures must be taken to prevent this.

To keep a Birch door stable without using a veneered stave-core construction method, I picked up this face-to-face lamination technique that actually works quite well. I've made 3 entry doors using this method and they've stayed straight and true throughout the seasons.

The stiles and rails are comprised of 2 layers of wood, glued face-to-face with their growth rings opposed. The idea here is that the one layer keeps the other from cupping or twisting, and vice-versa. For an 1-3/8" interior door, I start with 4/4's Birch and plane it down to just under 3/4" of an inch. I keep the boards thicker, wider and longer than what I need at this point. The boards get their inside face slathered in Type II wood glue, and then sandwiched between 2 very straight 2x6 cauls (wrapped in celaphane tape so the glue won't adhere), then clamped every 4-6 inches. I leave them clamped for 24 hours, then move on to the next set of boards. Repeat until all of the door parts are made and you're left with a bunch of ugly wood and glue sandwiches.

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The next step is to mill the composite boards to their thickness, rip them to width and cut them to length, except the 2 outside stiles...I leave them long until the door is glued up. This makes it easier to disassemble to door when doing a dry run assembly. I also keep a few small cut-offs handy (exact thickness and width) for setting up the tenon jig and dado blade.

Next, I use one of the cutoffs to set up the tenon jig, then cut the tongues of the tenon. To cut cheeks, I use my JessEm Miter Excel on the table saw which produces very accurate crosscuts. Once all of the tenons are cut, I move on to the dadoes which will receive the panels. In this case, I'm using 1/2" panels, so I dial in my dado blade to exactly that width. The boards are run through the table saw on edge and I use a featherboard to keep them flat up against the fence. Again, I use one of my cut-off scraps to set the fence and the depth.

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The next step was for me to layout the stiles and rails to the door's final dimension so I could mark the mortise locations. The top and bottom rails are haunched tenons, so I marked those as well. To haunch the tenons, I just used my bandsaw.

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cont'd...

[Frank Snyder]

Once the dadoes are cut and the mortises are marked, I move on to making the mortises, which for this project, I got to christen my new PM heavy duty mortiser. Setting this beast up was a breeze and it was actually a lot of fun to plow through these mortises as quickly as I did. I'll post a review on this tool a little bit later.

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cont'd...

[Frank Snyder]

After the mortises are made, I cleaned them out with a chisel and assembled the door for a dry-run. Everything fit together like a glove, and I double-checked my measurements for the plywood panels. To break down the 1/2" piece of plywood, I used my Festool guide rail and saw, then squared the panels up and cut them to final size on my table saw. The panels are lightly sanded and edges eased to prevent assembly problems. I like to prefinish my panels before gluing them up, and I even apply one coat of finish to the inside of the dados, avoiding the areas where the joints are. I then do one last dry-run assembly to make sure everything fits together properly before gluing them up.

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The glue up is a bit stressful, and normally I would recruit my wife to give me a hand with this process. Unfortunately, I was on my own today, but I did okay. Tomorrow, I'll cut the excess stiles off, sand the entire door then begin finishing. Since this is an interior door, I'm just using 3-4 coats of a wipe-on poly. You may also have noticed that one of the stiles is wider than the other. This is actually a pocket door, so to make the door so that when closed, it is symmetrical inside its cased opening and flush with the jamb when open, I had to make the inside stile wider than the outside stile.

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I'll update this thread once the door is finished and installed.

Thanks for reading.

[Pete Brown]

Very nice looking door

On your birch sandwich method: did you notice any separation between the laminations at all? I would have thought they would try to peel up along both edges, or at least along the edge where the mortise is.

Also, the mortise picture you show - is that before or after you cleaned it out with the chisel? If before, any tricks on how you got the mortise so clean? I have a smaller Powermatic mortiser and I'm starting to question the wisdom of ever getting it.

Finally, when you leave the horns long on the stiles (on top and bottom, I believe), what do you use for reference when measuring out your mortises? Do you measure from a center point? For the cabinet doors I've built, I've always measured from one end or the other, but that leaves no room for error (unfortunately!) and does make disassembly very difficult.

Pete

[Frank Snyder]

Thanks, Pete.

I had no voids with these or other laminations I've done. I used Bessy Tradesman clamps every 4-6 inches, and the use of the 2x6 cauls really helps distribute the force and eliminates any voids.

The clean picture was after I hit it with the vacuum nozzle. This machine makes a mess, no question, but they're more like shavings than sawdust, so it doesn't bother me. I just use the shop vac after each mortise.

For reference, I measure up from the bottom of the bottom rail. I do my stacked layout, then check square and my dimensions. Once set, I mark the mortise locations.

Hope this helps.

[Pete Brown]

The clean picture was after I hit it with the vacuum nozzle. This machine makes a mess, no question, but they're more like shavings than sawdust, so it doesn't bother me. I just use the shop vac after each mortise.
Hope this helps.

Thanks Frank. By "clean" i meant the quality of the mortise. My mortiser, despite being squared up quite well, tends to wander and even twist a bit, leaving poor sidewalls in the mortise.

I'll start a new thread on that so as not to hijack yours.

Pete

[Mike Cutler]

Nice photo essay Frank.
I like your door design, simple and clean lines. Very nice. They'll be beautiful when hung. Will you be making your own door frames?

Doors are fun and challenging. No cheating, the door has to hold it's own shape.

[Mark Singer]

Frank...Great explination and terrific doors!

[Frank Snyder]

Mike - Thanks. I usually make my own jambs, especially with exterior doors so I can do the kerf-in weatherstripping. But for this door, since it is a pocket door, I used Johnson's pocket door frame and hardware (good stuff) and the jamb (1x2's & 1x5) gets attached to the opening. I'll post pictures of what this looks like when I'm done.

Mark - Thank you. I'm an ardent follower of your work and I appreciate your encouragement.

[Mark Carlson]

Frank,

Loved your thread. It made me want to make my own door. Cant wait to see the final product installed.

~mark

[John Schreiber]

Very nice and thanks for the tutorial. Doors make such a difference in a house. Such an improvement on what is available at the Borg.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks for the great pictorial, Frank! Very instructive and likely to come in handy for me someday...

[Lou Morrissette]

Frank,
Thanks for the excellent tutorial. Not exactly my type of project but I enjoyed your detailed explanation of each step. Your tip on opposing growth rings in your "sandwich" glue up is a good one.

Lou

[Bill Simmeth]

Great work and super tutorial, thanks!

I have to tell you Frank, I am incredibly impressed. You started that shop, what, beginning of July? Here you are six short months later moved into that terrific looking building (that you built solo!), productive and even posting tutorials. Fantastic! My hat is off to you.

[Frank Snyder]

Wow...thanks for the nice comments.

Mark - By all means, you should try to make a door someday. They're very rewarding since they'll see a lot of use, and like Mike Cutler pointed out, they'll make an honest woodworker out of you .

John - I installed some "solid" pine 6-panel Borg-doors for a friend last year, and I was really disappointed with how poorly they were made. The panels were splitting, the veneered skin was super thin and had been over sanded in some places, plus the door wasn't straight and true, even with its stave core construction. Doors, in my opinion, should last a lifetime if properly made and maintained. I'm hoping that these doors I make will outlast me.

Jim - I hope that this write up inspires more woodworkers to attempt door making. I'll also get a review of that mortiser posted like you asked...

Lou - I can't remember exactly where I read about the face-to-face growth ring lamination trick, but it had something to do with a door maker making a door which had one species of wood on the outside, and another on the inside, and this was the technique he used to keep it stable. I just used the same species for both sides.

Bill - Thanks for the flattering remarks. In hindsight, I'm not so sure I'd attempt to build another structure so willingly...it was a LOT of work and I can see why anyone would want to contract this out instead of doing it themselves. Mainly, I just wanted the experience, but I will think long and hard before I try that again.

I've got more projects planned than I can list here, and if you guys want me to, I will continue to post them as I progress.

Thanks again.