Interior Divided Light Doors Build Along - Part 7

[jteneyck]

Here's a link to Part 6.  The rails for the arched doors were the last parts that needed to go in the vacuum bag to glue on the veneer, so I thought I'd show a few details of that process.  I use Weldwood Plastic Resin Glue (PRG) for most laminating work because it creates a very rigid bond. 



You mix it 5 parts dry resin to 3 parts H2O, but how you mix it is critical.  If you mix all the resin into all the water a little at a time it will glob up into little balls that never completely mix and if you try to use it like that it will leave lumps on your substrate; not good.  The correct way to mix it is just like it says on the container, though they sort of gloss over how critical this is.  You dump all of the resin at once into 2/3's of the water and stir until it looks like runny peanut butter.  Then add the remaining water, slowly while stirring.  That will give you a very smooth and uniform glue with a consistency about like TB II.  The mixed glue has a reasonably long pot life but a pretty short open time after you spread it on, which means you have to apply it pretty quickly but also evenly, and then get everything under pressure.  I've found a foam paint roller works great for spreading the glue both quickly and evenly.  I buy them for less than $2 each, cut them in half for use with a 4.5" roller, and throw them away after a single use.  This is how the glue looks after spreading at a rate of about 1 lb dry resin to 40 Ft^2.  You apply glue to only one side, and it's best to apply it to the substrate, not the veneer.  If you put the glue on the veneer it generally will start to curl immediately, making it difficult to handle.  



Here are the two lower arched door rails in the vacuum bag. 



Notice that I taped the veneers to the core so they wouldn't shift as I loaded them into the bag.  Also note that the black foam under the veneer assembly and plastic sheet.  This is some natural rubber foam that accommodates any variation in veneer thickness on the bottom so that the pressure is even everywhere.  The foam is 1/8" thick and has a compression of about 25% at 10 psi, so it will handle any normal variation in veneer thickness.  Breather mesh over the top completes the key elements.  

While that was in the bag I trimmed the rectangular door to size.  To do that I went and made a full size template of the door opening. 



Unfortunately, the head jamb and floor are not even close to level, pitching down from the hinge side at least 1/4".  I seriously thought about rebuilding the existing jamb so I wouldn't have to trim the door so far out of square, but ultimately decided not to.  OK, so I laid the template on the door and marked the angles at the top and bottom and adjusted for the reveals I wanted at the top and bottom.  Turns out I had to cut a lot off the bottom.



To make the cut I made a spacer from the edge of my circular saw shoe to the blade, and used that to position a straight edge the correct distance from the cut line, applied tape to the top to help limit chip out, and then made the cut.  The cheap Diablo framing blade cuts amazingly smoothly. 





To cut the hinge mortises I made a little template to guide the router collet. 



After the mortise was routed, I used Rockler's little right angle chisel jig to square the corners.  This little thing works great.






Finally, I needed to cut a bevel on the lock side stile.  I did that on the table saw.  To hold the door steady and flat with the saw table, I put a HF roller stand under each stile.  I know doors usually are beveled at a higher angle, but simple trigonometry proved that a 1.5° bevel is all that's needed so that's what I used. 



With help from a friend, we took the door to test fit it.  I used the same mortising jig that I used to cut the hinge pockets on the door.  To attach it to the jamb I removed the fence and screwed it directly to the jamb.  Those screw holes will be covered by the door stop once its installed.  I made a story stick to lay out the hinge locations on the jamb. 



OK, here's the door hung in place.



The bottom reveal is large, as it should be, because I need to install a threshold under it to accommodate the elevation change between this room and the kitchen floor.  The top was a perfect 1/8" at the hinge side but almost hit the head jamb at the lock side so I need to re-trim the top of the door. 

And that's it for today.  Thanks for following my long winded entry.

John

Thanks so much for the help, Metod. It would have been a bear to handle that door alone.



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[Tapper]

Nice job, as always John - thanks for the build-a-long! Back in the 1950's my dad and I used Weldwood glue as the adhesive for building wooden boats. Oak, mahogany and marine plywood were the primary materials. It worked great! The wood would fail rather than the glue.

Dad discovered that you could put the excess in the freezer and then thaw it out when you needed to use it later. Back in those days every penny counted!

Doug

[Bill Holt]

I have thought about building a door a few times, even bought a high dollar set of bits.......Your great posts helped me realize I may not be ready for prime time.

Your doors are awesome!

[Steve N]

Per usual John, home run