A basic door

[JGrout]

Nothing fancy really sort of typical for me. 

I have alluded to an alternative way to construct a door that uses more standard and simplified construction. I will go over the process highlights.

I use LVL from the lumberyard for cores in my stiles and sometimes in my rails as is the case with this door. The client wanted a different species on the exterior ( hickory) and red oak on the interior to match the existing trim 

so I bought a 2x12x13' long LVL   cross cut 82" off for the stile cores and three pieces 25" long for the rail parts. I also ripped red oak into pieces from skip planed stock that were 7/8" thick x 1 1/2" wide 4 pieces for the stiles and two each for the rails. 

I then clean up the LVL faces ( I just run them through the sander to remove the dirt and most of the rough) and then rip the LVL into pieces 1 5/8" wide x 1 3/4" thick ( it can vary depending on how I make the veneers but this is where I start) then rotate the LVL pieces the core and glue it up 

                     

The last pic on the right is the rail cores I just bulk the parts together and glue them I will size them in the next step. 

Once this is out of the clamps I determine my rail and stile final widths (+ 1/4" for cleanup and a bit of wiggle room when I press the veneers to the cores) and add the hardwood edgings  to the cut pieces again gluing and clamping. The reason for the two step process here is to save and maximize the core stock , it does not matter much where you glue the cores at this point as long as the glue has wood to stick to you will be fine. 

I then go about the business of resawing the hardwood face stock while these cores cure. I try to cut the material so that I can utilize bookmatched veneers on the stiles and for instance the bottom rail if it is wider than my stock by gluing in that case. the stile stock can also be bookmatched if need be. I did not take any pics here (I forgot
) but I do have pics of the finished product 



Now this is where I depart from the standard cope and stick method you see on most production doors as well as some of my custom doors 

the glass unit for this door is a 3/4 lite with dimensions of 22"x 48" As a general rule I like to size my stiles at 5" + sticking but this does not work in this instance as the glass would have to be 26" wide. IOW custom glass is not cheap when you have it made but if you are willing to work with replacement units that are made for open stock doors  the price is more palatable. so I made my stiles 7" wide to accommodate the glass .

Then I make  tongue and groove cuts on the parts for assembly of the door perimeter frame but in reverse of the standard way of cutting T&G so the rails get a groove on the ends and the stiles get a tongue 
 
      

Yes this is in the process of assembly but so you know I cut the T&G 1" wide x 1" thick leaving a 1" x 3/8" high edge on both sides . while this may seem unconventional it is designed to accommodate the glass thickness. The bottom panels can be cut thicker to make up the space as well. 

going back just a bit I glue in stages but I never stop until the entire unit is fully glued 

So step one is the base and the middle with the mullion installed 



while that is sitting I install the top rail into a stile ( I glue doors vertically it is just easier IME) 


notice the straightedge on the bench once i have the two parts glued and clamped I take that straightedge and run it from the rail down the stile and assure the two are in plane I just adjust the pressure on the clamps to get this correct. 

The next step is to add the bottom and low mid rail unit I glued up earlier to the same stile. 



I remove the two clams I had on it to start ( the glue has stuck quite adequately in the ~10 minutes it takes to get to this point) add dowels ( dowels are for alignment and shear in the door otherwise they are not even necessary) and drop the unit onto the stile. I use a rubber faced mallet to drive the parts together until it moves no more then use clamps to finish it off.  Then again I check for tight joint connections and use the straightedge to bring it to plane 

The last stile has 6 dowels and three joints to bring together at one time, so before I start I make sure I have all the parts I need in place and glue the dowels in the stile first. I also add glue to the stile parts beginning with the bottom and work to the top( more in a moment on why) Once I reach the top I remove the clamps from the partial assembly, add glue to the dowel holes and the groove and work my way back to the bottom removing clamps and gluing as I proceed. when all the parts have glue I take the stile roll it in my hands and start the task of getting it in the rails. By starting at the bottom I find it is easier to align the rails with the stile and once the parts are starting into the grooves I can slip a clamp on to hold the stile in place and go work on getting the top rail and stile connection together. 

Here is what is looks like partly assembled 

  

And starting to reapply the clamps to the completed slab

Once I have all the parts installed and a clamp on the top and the bottom rails I roll the unit onto the assembly bench and finish adding the clamps 

 

I also check the plane of the rails and stiles to make sure there is not twisting or roll . The door slab is in essence complete now and left to cure 

As you might have noticed I have a stub on the bottom of the stiles in the last pic. I have the same stubs at the top and the top and bottom rails are wider than the final net height of the door. I learned long ago it is best to make the unit a bit extra tall ( the width is actually correct at assembly) so I can make a minor adjustment in the height if needed. The one thing you really want to avoid is a door that is too short for the unit opening. 

Once the door is out of the clamps I sand the unit to at least 150g the joints get cleaned up with a shop chisel I sue to remove glue first then if a bit of mismatch exists ( it does happen) I just clean up the joints.until smooth 

once this is done I cut the door to final height and bevel all the edges slightly with a hand sanding block to remove the sharp edges. 


next the molding installation 

Joe

[ez-duzit]

Good job.

[Roly]

Looks great and will be very strong.  Be sure and take pictures of finished door.  What does it weigh when complete ?   Roly

[jteneyck]

Thanks for posting this process Joe.  Timely, too.

John

[Phil Thien]

This is on my list of things to try, thanks for posting and looking forward to more.

[Steve N]

Nice post Joe. Sometimes LVL is the right stuff. I hear from Megan as a benchtop, not so much though

[Pirate]

Thanks for the great write up, Joe.
Once again, I learn something valuable from you.
You and other talented woodworkers, who are willing to share, is the reason this forum is so great.

[Richard D.]

Nice write up Joe! What thickness is the veneer and how do you clamp it?

[Alan S]

It may be basic to you, Joe, but there are several features far from obvious to me.

First is the idea of ripping and turning LVL to get perfectly quartersawn stock for great stability.  You have mentioned that before, and it's brilliant.

Making the tongue and groove backwards is another interesting idea, presumably to set up for inset moldings to hold in the glass.  I am waiting to see how you do that, and what sort of glass you use.

This is definitely where I'll look when I encounter this task.  It is nice that the current version of Woodnet will archive the thread, so it won't expire in a year as they used to.

[Steve N]

 It is nice that the current version of Woodnet will archive the thread, so it won't expire in a year as they used to.

Do say???? Is that written somewhere?

If it's important to you, I would do a copy and paste to a file on your computer is all I'm saying here.