Interior Divided Light Doors Build Along - Part 14

[jteneyck]

Here's a link to Part 13.       

Wow, this is turning into quite a tome.  The good news is all the parts are finally made.  The last parts to be made were the glass stops.  They are generally a simple affair, just a simple rectangular shape with a taper on one face and a little rabbet on the other, pretty easy for all the straight glass stops.  But curved glass stops are needed for the curved lites at the top of the arched doors.  To make those I first roughed some stock to 13/16" thickness, and then held it under the door and traced a pencil line on it where it met the glass pocket.  I bandsawed the parts proud of that line and then used my compass plane to tune them to the line.  Here's one.  

      

The glass stops are 7/16" where they meet the glass and taper to a little less than 3/8" at the outer face.  I put a pencil line at 7/16" on one face and 3/8"- one the other, set my bevel gage at whatever that angle was (around 5°) and then tilited my bandsaw table to match the bevel gage.  Then I carefully sawed proud of that line.



More compass plane work on the inside faces, followed by some sanding; then I cut the little rabbet on the top, outside corner on my table saw.  I just pivoted the part against the fence, no big deal.  Here are the finished parts.



I cut the glass stops needed for the straight runs from scrap left over from the project, that's why you will see so many different lengths in this photo.



So all the parts are now made, and I have them lying around everywhere, like on top of this cart:



And on the floor over here:



I got an email from the glass tempering company today that my pieces are ready to ship and should be here later this week.  The curved lites at the top of the French doors are not tempered, which is legal and allows a local glass company to cut those pieces to the shapes needed.  So I made templates of those parts today.  I taped a piece of heavy paper across the openings at the top of one of the doors, and traced the perimeter of the openings on it, then glued that paper on a piece of Masonite, and cut the shapes, making them about 1/8" smaller.  I put the "rain" glass pattern on the parts so the glass guys will know which way to orient the glass when they cut it. 



And that's it for fabrication.  Now I have to do the final sanding and get set up for finishing. 

I need to come up with a good way to hold the doors for spray finishing that allows me to finish an entire door at once. I want to stand them vertically.  Anyone have any ideas how to hold them that stills allows complete spray access and w/o leaving any permanent holes, etc. where they will be visible? 

John

[JGrout]

I just put stand off blocks on the floor then drive a nail in the bottom of each stile so they are about 1/2" exposed. 

Then I set them on the blocks at an angle to each other ( think a partially opened bi fold door unit) with a few inches between them and screw a scrap to the top of the arched stiles  

A second set of hands is nice. If none available clamp a cross to support one door vertically then tie the two together and remove the cross

If you want a bit more support on the outboard side use sticks and screws to again make a cross screwing to the middle hinge pocket ( I try to avoid this as it makes access to the edge tough. even with a stand off in the hinge pocket)

Joe

[jteneyck]

Thanks Joe.  A quick assessment of my clearance makes it clear I'm going to have to finish them lying flat or hung horizontally.  There just isn't enough height to spray the top of the arches with them standing up.  With a rectangular door I could just put a big screw in the middle of each rail, top and bottom, and suspend the door between two sawhorses, spray one side, rotate and repeat.  But that's not going to work with the arched door because I don't want any defects showing in the top rail afterwards.  Or is there some clever way to avoid that issue?  A pivot on the bottom and a bracket screwed to the top hinge pocket, perhaps?  Spray one side, remove bracket, rotate door - somehow w/o touching the sprayed side, replace bracket?

I can do them flat, it's just going to take a lot longer and I'm worried about drips running at the edges that I won't see until they are hard to fix.  Shouldn't really be an issue, but .....

John

[atgcpaul]

John,

Why does the glass need to be tempered?  Are these exterior doors or close to an exterior door?  Maybe I missed that.

BTW, great work!

[JGrout]

any door that has glass in it over the minimum ( which IIRC is a softball cannot pass through it) must be tempered to a height of ~72" 

the application (interior or exterior) does not matter 

John I have not been faced with a height issue ever ( I have 13' vaulted ceiling in the new shop) and lots of walkaround room 
I just assumed you had good clearances all around the doors if they were set in the center of the shop .  Walking around and spraying them  upright is how I/we have always done it 

that said  if you can get them close to a wall for support ( say within 3' ) you could put a single long stick (say 5') perpendicular to the door and centered at the top with two screws and  use two blocks at the floor ( again to keep it off the floor)  then under those two blocks furniture glides and two short nails to keep the blocks in place. Then lean the unit against the wall, spray one side ( not the edges) rotate the unit using the edges , then spray the edges and the other side 

I suppose you could wedge two sticks in the glass openings to use as grab bars as well, just keep them close to the unit glass area where any no finish would be seen 

joe

[atgcpaul]

any door that has glass in it over the minimum ( which IIRC is a softball cannot pass through it) must be tempered to a height of ~72" 

the application (interior or exterior) does not matter 

Thanks.  Good to know.

[Duane N]

I'm enjoying the ride along with this build. I usually don't comment because I know I can't help with anything or feel I don't know enough to offer an opinion other than saying you do some nice work. Can't wait to see the finished project.

[jteneyck]

I'm challenged for height in my basement shop, at around 93", but it's warm, dry, and 50 ft away at all times, so it's OK.  

I just couldn't give up on doing them vertically and after looking at the situation again I realized I could place the doors to sit between two floor joists and would have enough room to spray the arched rails, at least at an angle if not straight down.  The flat door doesn't matter; I can finish the top and bottom edges by hand after the rest of the door is done, since those edges won't show; same for the bottom of the arched doors.  So, using one of Joe's ideas (thanks again, Joe) I put together a little support to hold the doors.  It's just a plywood base with two 2" screws sticking up through it to support the bottom of the door, and a diagonal brace connected to a leg off the base screwed to a standoff block screwed into the middle hinge pocket.  I should be able to spray everything w/o much problem now, with plenty of room to walk around both sides of the door.    



John

I'm working through a final finishing schedule now and should start spraying dye tomorrow.

John

[jteneyck]

Just to follow up on what Joe said about the requirement of tempered glass, I had quite a time finding a company to supply the glass that my clients wanted at a price that was reasonable.  I ended up going with Wolverine Glass in Wyoming, MI.  I bought 39 pieces of tempered glass, enough for all three doors, plus a couple of extras, and 8 pieces of untempered (2 extra), in a pattern called rain.  With crating and shipping the price was just about $1300. 

If you ever need to use tempered glass, make sure you find a company that does the tempering themselves.  I paid about $22/pc for the tempered pieces.  Seems high, doesn't it?  Well, I had quotes from other companies anywhere from around $50/pc up to almost $70/pc.  When I started asking why their prices were so high I found out they were just middle men when it comes to tempered glass.  Make sure you go to the source. 

John