Recent Door Project

[KevinMalone]

I have been a lurker on this forum for a long time, and really enjoy reading the Q&A, seeing pics of other shops and beautiful projects. In the spirit of Derek's post a few weeks back about the lessening of activity, I thought it would be good to share my latest project with you all.  Lately, I have been more interested in adding technical/technology into projects. Some simple, like an led light strip in the armrest of a gaming table. Others a bit more complex, like a recent door project. 

This client has an early 1900's bungalow that has been very well looked after. The front door situation, however, was behind the times. It had two side windows, not glass, but plexiglass, so no insulation whatsoever. As we are in Houston, this is not ideal. The door was a solid painted rectangle. For the homeowner, way too boring.

After some consultation, he decided on a modern look with 5 horizontal windows evenly spaced on the door. He opted to go with black paint outside, and white inside to match the interior trim. I prefer to build exterior doors with mahogany to deal with the fairly extreme heat and humidity we have here, so painting over it was a little heartbreaking, but we know the beauty that lies underneath.

The glass has a film applied that switches from transparent to opaque using a remote. This could also be wired to a smart switch to set it on a schedule, but he wanted to do it manually. There are 5 separate panels for the door glass, all wired together through a channel on the hinge side with the wires concealed with trim. The wiring passes through a hinge, into the framing, and connects with the side window panels to make it all switchable with the remote.

Below is a link to a little video of the end result. Happy to dig into the build details if anyone out there is interested.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yZW2PqZv1Lg

[FrankAtl]

Looks great! Thanks for sharing.

[jteneyck]

That looks great.  I'm sure it's huge upgrade over the old, essentially slab door.  Tell us more about the film.  Who makes it?  Can you cut it to size or must it be ordered cut to size?  What are the power requirements?  Thanks.

John

[KevinMalone]

The film comes from Smart Tint and is cut to size by the manufacturer. They claim it can be trimmed but, given the cost, I am very careful to order the correct size. You need to wire it up through a transformer they sell. I believe it is 60V. The units now come with a remote control. You can also leave the transformer switched on and supply power to it through a smart switch (Wemo, Leviton, whatever).

[jteneyck]

The film comes from Smart Tint and is cut to size by the manufacturer. They claim it can be trimmed but, given the cost, I am very careful to order the correct size. You need to wire it up through a transformer they sell. I believe it is 60V. The units now come with a remote control. You can also leave the transformer switched on and supply power to it through a smart switch (Wemo, Leviton, whatever).

Thanks for the info.  

John