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Thread: Making doors from scratch.

  1. #1

    Making doors from scratch.

    I'm thinking of what I'll need to make large entry doors and Domino, horizontal mortisers come to mind. I'm looking at making large "raised panel" type doors so I can carve the panels on a cnc machine. If I was to go this route I could control the wood selection or would I be better buying a "blank" door from a door manufacturer and then carving/cutting that. Does anyone know of suppliers of large, hardwood doors? tia Dubliner

  2. #2
    Large doors generally need a larger (deeper) mortice and tenon than you will get using a "Domino". A horizontal mortiser would, of course, be the ticket. But there is a cost factor. If you are only making a few doors, you would be better to mill the mortices with a router/jig or chop them by hand. But if this is to be an "ongoing" endeavor, a mortiser might be a worthwhile investment.

    Most (or at least many) manufactured hardwood doors are not solid wood but are actually assembled from parts that are veneered over a laminated core. So you would need to make sure that purchased doors would have "actual" solid wood panels. Also humping fully assembled hardwood doors on and off your CNC machine's bed is going to be a lot more work than if you only had to deal with the panels.

    YM

  3. #3
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    Cheapest route might be a traditional chisel mortiser or drill press/forstner bit/chisel if you are only making a few doors for yourself. Domino wont make even close to a deep enough mortise, and a router will be a challenge as well. Much easier to carve those panels before they are glued up. And if you make a mistake, much easier to make a new panel then a whole new door.

    If you are not equiped to make them your self there are lots of custom door shops regionally in this country, I worked for one for 4 years, products are typically expensive but then you can specify exactly what you want, possible have them make the panels, you carve them, let them assemble the doors? If so find a good shop in your region of the country to match your local climate/relative humidity. I would not hang a hardwood door made in Florida on a house in Arizona!

    Dowels make a fine door if you are using cope and stick, can be done with hand jigs for $50 (I have done it). But really for a heavy hardwood exterior door with solid panels intregal mortises are king. Might make sense to make the panels a 'sandwich', ie: two 7/8" floating panels back to back to further facilitate carving. I have seen exterior doors with panels made of a sandwich of wood/extruded insulation/wood that offer some increased R-value, viability depends on your climate and how deep your carvings will be.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
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    Would it be possible to combine cope/stick with Dominos? Also, how do you keep the rain/moisture from leaking into the gap between the panel and the frame when using a solid door construction?

  5. #5
    "Would it be possible to combine cope/stick with Dominos..."

    Of course this is possible. But the Domino is still not going to provide enough strength for a large door. The cope and stick maybe is sufficient for a cabinet door but it will provide little strength on a large passage door. What you could do with some expectation of success is combine the cope and stick with several good sized dowels that would penetrate to a depth of around 3/4 of the width of the stile into both the stile and the rail end.

    "...how do you keep the rain/moisture from leaking into the gap between the panel and the frame..."

    I have always used glazing putty applied during assembly. I am sure there are other good methods but stay away from silicone unless you are calking after finishing because this will prevent any finish from adhering to any areas that get even a tiny bit of silicone on the wood. In truth, it is almost impossible to create a permanent, water tight seal between the frame and panel.

    YM

  6. #6
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    I suppose big means fairly thick rail and stile material. Put the vertical bits (I can never remember the name) through a bandsaw and split them. Now machine the mortices using a router in each half and glue them back together and finish the dimensioning. The tenons can also be cut on a bandsaw or tablesaw. You will never see the join as it will be lost in the design and will only be apparent on the shut edges of the door.
    Chris

    Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening

  7. #7
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    I have found the Freud door router bit set to work well, albeit a bit tedious, for combining a cope-and-stick joint with a long integral tenon. I'm not an experienced door person, but have used it to make some large, dressy, exterior gates that have held up quite well.

    Two questions, however:
    (1) Doesn't a long tenon cause cross-grain wood movement problems?
    (2) How significant is the interior versus exterior wood movement issue for door panels? I've read a recommendation to create door panels from an unglued lamination of two pieces -- one interior and one exterior -- to better accommodate different temperature and moisture levels.

  8. #8
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    Norm built an entry door. On the use of the Domino, I think you could do it; just use multiple dominos per joint
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  9. #9
    I was just looking at a Laguna horiz. mortiser with a 3hp motor @ 265 lbs for $995, are my eyes playing tricks on me!!
    http://www.lagunatools.com/platinum3.htm

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    No, Laguna is, because the machine hasn't arrived from China yet. Been looking at that myself. I seems they were anounced this fall but don't have them to sell yet. Looks very close to the Hammer for $1900. I wish one American company would pick up the horizontal mortiser as an option, of course it would probably still be made in China!

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Columbus, Ohio
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    105
    I did this door with hand cut mortises and saw cut tenons on the lower rails. The two piece arched top has hand cut mortises with loose tenons. Hand cutting mortises (with a chisel) are not that hard to do, at least in mahogany. It took about 30-45 minutes each. The mortises on the arched pieces took a little longer because of the end grain.

    All the sticking is actually applied molding because of the arched top and the glass panel.

    The lower panel is bordered with foam concrete backer rod to give it a good air seal. Since there is a storm door I didn't worry about water tightness.


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