Freud's Interior Door Contest

[scott spencer]

Wood Mag and Freud are sponsoring an interior door contest but I've seen very little discussion about it. The winner gets a trip for two to Venice and a tour of the Freud plant.

I've started a closet door and will post some pics of my progress. Anyone else entering?

[Peter Quinn]

Do you have to use Freud tools to qualify, or for that matter must you use a router? They want photos that highlight your "routing technique", but I rarely use a router to make doors and I don't own any Freud door making sets for router or shaper. I do use a Freud RP2000 for raised panels. HMMM? Been envisioning a nice arched top QSWO door for the bathroom, might be time to stop envisioning and start building!

[scott spencer]

Good question on both counts but I can't answer either for sure. I doubt you need to use Freud bits.....kind of tough to verify. I also doubt you need to use a router to build your door, but I'd guess it'd improve your odds of winning.

[scott spencer]

Well, here's the progress on our closet door so far. The frame is red oak, the panels are butternut. Lots to be done yet but you can get an idea of where it's heading.

[Peter Quinn]

Looks great Scott. I checked with my local Freud dealer and he seems to think using the Freud passage door set is a requirement for entering the contest. Counts me out. Good luck. I hope they send you to Italy!

[scott spencer]

Looks great Scott. I checked with my local Freud dealer and he seems to think using the Freud passage door set is a requirement for entering the contest. Counts me out. Good luck. I hope they send you to Italy!

Not a requirement as I understand it, and there's really no way for them to tell by looking at pics. I seem to recall that router technique is one of the judging criteria, but that doesn't imply that you must use Freud bits. Not really sure to be honest with you, but that seems like a pretty stringent requirement.

[Per Swenson]

Scott, nice job.

[Phil Thien]

Great job Scott. I sure hope you win!

[Dave Lehnert]

How do they pick the winner? If I was Freud, I would most likely pick the photo of the best door that just happens to have a Freud router and bits in the back ground. Think it would only be the way to go if you are trying to win to use all Freud products.

[Walt Caza]

Hi Scott,
Your door is looking good.
I know your wife has dreamed about a trip to Italy...so Good Luck!
I see you are mixing woods in the same project again. Interesting...
I am not sure how a guy with 6 children finds any shop time at all?

Maybe the hush about the contest, is other guys who's wives also dream about Italy...
and they're trying to improve their odds of winning?
You are brave and a good sport to get the rest of us interested in entering!

May I ask how many hours to build a door like that?
I've got a few duds in my old house.
Thanks for the peek!
be well,
Walt

[Neal Clayton]

i actually am building doors with freud bits, and a freud fence, maybe they'd appreciate that in their contest . the below doors are built from salvaged heart pine, finished with garnet shellac (sorry for the pic quality, cellphone..).

it doesn't take that long to build a door walt, depending on the intricacy of the design of course. for simple 5 panel doors like the ones below, one can easily be cut and assembled in a day by yourself, starting with rough lumber. only caveats are if they're to be stain grade rather than painted, you need to try to build the rails/stiles out of the same board for color consistency. so the lumber can be expensive, when you need pretty square 16 foot 2x6s clear of knots, and if you want raised panels 2x10s of similar quality to boot. if you're going to use your old hardware/locks or similar matches, make sure your stiles are the same width as your old ones too, the stile needs to be 2x the width of your lock backset (backset is the measurement from the edge of the lock plate to the center of the knob hole), minus the stile profile. for instance on mine to match my old doors i started with 4" rails and stiles, which leaves me 3 1/2" after the profile is routed, so i have to use 1 3/4" backset locks, which are kinda rare tbh. house of antique hardware has one nice 1 3/4" lock for sale, but most places have 2 1/4" or 2 1/2" backset locks only, which would need to have a 5 1/2" or 5" stile board to fit on center. other than that consideration, you can pretty much design them however you like.

unless you are pretty skilled with a chisel, i would recommend picking up a hinge mortising jig as well. you'll have to build a jig for your lock plate, i haven't found an easily adjustable one of those (assuming you're using old mortise locks like your other old doors). i use the porter cable hinge jig that sets up on rails, costs about 200 dollars.

suggestion: draw them up in some sort of 3d app like google sketchup. most of the time is laying out the design, the cutting of the parts is pretty simple. sketchup vastly simplifies the layout and measurement process. scott's would take a bit longer since he had to create a curved jig for the top, but once any jigs are made you can churn them out pretty quick.

[Charles McCracken]

How do they pick the winner? If I was Freud, I would most likely pick the photo of the best door that just happens to have a Freud router and bits in the back ground. Think it would only be the way to go if you are trying to win to use all Freud products.

This is actually Wood Magazine's contest and theirs to judge. Freud is just sponsoring with the prize.

[Ben Abate]

I was trying to submit a series of doors but the site would not let me download the pictures. I guess this is not working. has anyone entered??? I'll submit them to you fellows instead. As you can see the doors are in my laundry room. The room is not big enough to get better pictures. I guess I should organize my hats better. The door panels are of Flamed Cherry, it was the first time I'd ever come across any of it. The finish is a dark Craftmaid Claret stain and the top coat is M.L Campbell Conversion varnish, Dura Lac I think. It has been quite a few years since I did this. By the way, the entire project was done with Freud bits,,,, no kidding, all done on a router table........

[Peter Quinn]

Unless you are pretty skilled with a chisel, i would recommend picking up a hinge mortising jig as well. i use the porter cable hinge jig that sets up on rails, costs about 200 dollars.

I recommend unless you are a field carpenter hanging many doors of different sizes with different hinge locations in different houses and different hinge sizes with different set backs that you save your $200 and make a mortising template from a 1/2" piece of MDF on your table saw. Hinge mortising tools are great for speed and flexibility in the field but offer no more accuracy than a simple shop made jig that takes 5 minutes on the long side.

You can simply mark the hinge locations on the edge of a 3" rip of 1/2" MDF as long as your door, raise the blade of the TS to equal the distance from the face of the door to the setback of the hinge you will be using, and cut out the two or three slots as if cutting a tenon in multiple passes using a cross cut sled or stout t-square. Tune the template to match your hinges exactly and snugly. Then attach several small blocks to the front edge (the edge you will be using to guide your router) perpendicular to the template face, being sure to locate the blocks so they will not interfere with your router in use. These blocks also form a clamping point to secure the template to the door.

Remember in use to off set the template by 1/8" versus the jamb to allow clearance between the jamb head and the top of the door. I usually run the template flush with intersection of the jamb leg and jamb head when routing the jamb if I am making the jamb, and 1/8" above the top of the door for routing the door hinges. For existing old jambs I make the template to match the hinge locations pulling marks from the actual jamb. It is often necessary to add a dutchman if the hinges on an old jamb have been run in too many times, and I find the shop made template can be configured to allow you to route a bit deeper, add the patch, then re route for the new hinge thickness.

Wow, that was a lot of words to describe what is really a piece of cake to do. Its worth a try before buying the jig. You can make a lot of MDF templates for $200. So easy even I can do it.

[Matt Ocel]

I'm slowly getting my entry assembled.
I'm using reclaimed material from a deck that was torn down last year.
I got it "rough milled" and am currently letting it dry a bit more.
Just picked up the Freud 98-300.
I am shooting at getting a dry fit by the end of the weekend.
Hopefully have pics then.

Ciao!

P.S. Sorry Scott, but I think I got the winner.