I occasionally do a gratis project for the guy I get logs from; nothing's free. This time he wanted to reuse an unused door from his 1830-ish house to block access from one portion of his house to the main part. The door needed some repair work, needed to be hinged the other way, and needed a new jamb to be made to fit it.
The door had a big chipout at the top of one stile so I started by cutting a straight edge and inlaying a new piece of wood. This photo was taken later after it had been trimmed.
This is how far out of square the upper rail was. It's an old house and clearly had settled badly wherever this door last was hung.
Sorry, no picture, but I trued it up with a circular saw against a guide clamped to the door, then a couple of swipes with a bench plane. To change the hinging I first glued filler blocks into the existing hinge pockets. Then I made a little mortising guide to cut the new pockets. You'll see a special mortising bit in my palm router. They are made by Whiteside, come in various lengths, and are 1/2" diameter with a 1/2" bearing on top. This means the guide can be the exact same size as the hinge, no more adding 1/16" all around like you have to when using a collet. The 1/2" diameter also fits perfectly with the corners of many hinges.
After the new pocket was cut it looked like this:
To cut the pockets in the new jamb, I first clamped the jamb to the side of the door with a 3/32" shim at the top to account for the gap needed there, then marked the hinge locations on the edge of the jamb. Then I reused the same mortising jig to cut the pockets. I removed the back fence and screwed it directly to the jamb. It's a paint grade project, so it's not a big deal to fill a few more holes.
I used 1" long screws to screw the hinges to the jamb, so they protrude through the back of the 3/4" stock. Those screws get in the way when sliding in the shims during installation, so I cut them off with a grinder.
Because the door is now hinged the other way the bevel on the lock side needs to be cut the other way. I'm not sure there actually was a bevel on it before, but there is now. I cut a 2 degree bevel on it using the tablesaw and a couple of roller stands to support the door on the way through.
The bevel cut revealed that the door was constructed not only with through tenons but that they were wedged. That means the mortise is tapered wider at the outside, and the tenon has two vertical cuts in it. After the tenon is inserted into the mortise, wedges are driven into those cuts and that forces the outer edges of the tenon against the sides of the tapered mortise, locking it in place. The tenons also were pinned. I would guess this door was made w/o glue. After nearly two hundred years later, who's to argue with the methods used to make it?
To install the new lockset I used another jig to drill the bolt and handle holes. This jig is made for a 1-3/4" thick door, so I added a 3/16" shim between the fence and door in order to center the bolt's 1" hole on the edge of the door. Then I bored the hole using a 1" spade bit. I bored the hole a little beyond the side of the handle hole because sometimes the back of the bolt needs additional clearance.
Then I turned the door flat and bored the 2-1/8" hole for the handle, working from both sides to avoid tearout.
I put the holes between the tenons, didn't want to weaken the door any. Fortunately, it was still at a good height around 39". I also installed a deadbolt, same procedure as for the handset except the hole in the face is only 1-5/8" and is only drilled halfway through. With the deadbolt, you can see how the bolt extends back beyond the hole in the face. Here's a photo showing the two sets of holes, after the escutcheon mortises were cut and the bolts installed.
I didn't talk about the putting the jamb together. It's nothing special, just a 1/2" ear and a 1/4" deep dado at the top of the side jambs for the head jamb, which I cut on my RAS. Perfect machine for that job. I sized the header to give a 3/32" reveal to the door on both sides. I'll cut the mortises on the lock side after my friend gets the jamb and door installed, and also install the stops then.
Thanks for reading along.
John
The door had a big chipout at the top of one stile so I started by cutting a straight edge and inlaying a new piece of wood. This photo was taken later after it had been trimmed.
This is how far out of square the upper rail was. It's an old house and clearly had settled badly wherever this door last was hung.
Sorry, no picture, but I trued it up with a circular saw against a guide clamped to the door, then a couple of swipes with a bench plane. To change the hinging I first glued filler blocks into the existing hinge pockets. Then I made a little mortising guide to cut the new pockets. You'll see a special mortising bit in my palm router. They are made by Whiteside, come in various lengths, and are 1/2" diameter with a 1/2" bearing on top. This means the guide can be the exact same size as the hinge, no more adding 1/16" all around like you have to when using a collet. The 1/2" diameter also fits perfectly with the corners of many hinges.
After the new pocket was cut it looked like this:
To cut the pockets in the new jamb, I first clamped the jamb to the side of the door with a 3/32" shim at the top to account for the gap needed there, then marked the hinge locations on the edge of the jamb. Then I reused the same mortising jig to cut the pockets. I removed the back fence and screwed it directly to the jamb. It's a paint grade project, so it's not a big deal to fill a few more holes.
I used 1" long screws to screw the hinges to the jamb, so they protrude through the back of the 3/4" stock. Those screws get in the way when sliding in the shims during installation, so I cut them off with a grinder.
Because the door is now hinged the other way the bevel on the lock side needs to be cut the other way. I'm not sure there actually was a bevel on it before, but there is now. I cut a 2 degree bevel on it using the tablesaw and a couple of roller stands to support the door on the way through.
The bevel cut revealed that the door was constructed not only with through tenons but that they were wedged. That means the mortise is tapered wider at the outside, and the tenon has two vertical cuts in it. After the tenon is inserted into the mortise, wedges are driven into those cuts and that forces the outer edges of the tenon against the sides of the tapered mortise, locking it in place. The tenons also were pinned. I would guess this door was made w/o glue. After nearly two hundred years later, who's to argue with the methods used to make it?
To install the new lockset I used another jig to drill the bolt and handle holes. This jig is made for a 1-3/4" thick door, so I added a 3/16" shim between the fence and door in order to center the bolt's 1" hole on the edge of the door. Then I bored the hole using a 1" spade bit. I bored the hole a little beyond the side of the handle hole because sometimes the back of the bolt needs additional clearance.
Then I turned the door flat and bored the 2-1/8" hole for the handle, working from both sides to avoid tearout.
I put the holes between the tenons, didn't want to weaken the door any. Fortunately, it was still at a good height around 39". I also installed a deadbolt, same procedure as for the handset except the hole in the face is only 1-5/8" and is only drilled halfway through. With the deadbolt, you can see how the bolt extends back beyond the hole in the face. Here's a photo showing the two sets of holes, after the escutcheon mortises were cut and the bolts installed.
I didn't talk about the putting the jamb together. It's nothing special, just a 1/2" ear and a 1/4" deep dado at the top of the side jambs for the head jamb, which I cut on my RAS. Perfect machine for that job. I sized the header to give a 3/32" reveal to the door on both sides. I'll cut the mortises on the lock side after my friend gets the jamb and door installed, and also install the stops then.
Thanks for reading along.
John