Reusing an Old Door
#11
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.  

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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.   

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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.  

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After the new pocket was cut it looked like this:

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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.  


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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.  

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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.  

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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.  

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Then I turned the door flat and bored the 2-1/8" hole for the handle, working from both sides to avoid tearout.  

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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.  

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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
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#12
Nice work as always. That door will last another 100 years. I use 1/4" radius hinges so I do not have to square the corners. That door was way out of square.
Treat others as you want to be treated.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” — Mae West.
24- year cancer survivor
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#13
Nice read

Good point about the door lasting for so long with that construction, who's to argue. Won't find construction like that today.

I *hate* working on doors. Even one of the tasks you did is a hassle, the entire thing is a big project, hope he understands that. Guess you gotta do what you gotta do to keep getting those logs.
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#14
Great work and post, you always seem to capture the right progress and walk us through the process. Always informative and I learn something each time. Thank you sharing and taking the time to post.
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#15
Very nice job, as usual John. Always nice to refurbish and reuse good period correct material.

Doug
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#16
Thanks all.  Yes, working on doors is never a fast job.  I think I spent at least 5 hours on this one.  But besides "paying" for my logs, I almost always learn something, like the wedged and pinned tenons in this one. 

I said "foxed tenon" earlier, but that's not correct.  A foxed tenon is just like a wedged tenon but the mortise is housed, not a through mortise like in the door. You pretty much get one shot at assembly, because the tenon is never coming back out once those wedges hit the end of the mortise pocket and wedge the sides of the tenon out against the tapered walls of the mortise.  And that makes me wonder about the sequence for assembling the wedged tenon door I worked on.  Is the tenon wedged first and then the pins installed, or is it drawbored first, the pins installed, and then the wedges driven home?  Anyone know?  

And I'm a sucker for passage doors.  They are big, often heavy, yet the tolerances have to be very good for them to work properly. You install them in imperfect openings so even if you did a great job building the door it won't look or function properly unless you do an equally good job installing it.  Think about that the next time you need a new house door.  The installer is just as important as the door manufacturer.  My friend bought a big set of French doors with side lites to go out onto his patio, name brand.  The installer and helper worked for hours on it but it wouldn't close properly, not well at all, really.  The store comes out and says it's defective and orders a new one at no charge.  The second door arrives, and a different installer takes out the old one and installs the new one.  It was no better.  The factory rep comes to look at it and says it wasn't installed properly.  He has a factory authorized installer come to reinstall the doors and witnessed the installation.  No better.  A third set of doors is ordered and, yep, they still weren't perfect. Better, but far from perfect. The store asked if a $700 refund would make it perfect.  He said yes just to be done with it.  

John
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#17
(02-05-2023, 10:32 AM)jteneyck Wrote: Thanks all.  Yes, working on doors is never a fast job.  I think I spent at least 5 hours on this one.  But besides "paying" for my logs, I almost always learn something, like the wedged and pinned tenons in this one. 

I said "foxed tenon" earlier, but that's not correct.  A foxed tenon is just like a wedged tenon but the mortise is housed, not a through mortise like in the door. You pretty much get one shot at assembly, because the tenon is never coming back out once those wedges hit the end of the mortise pocket and wedge the sides of the tenon out against the tapered walls of the mortise.  And that makes me wonder about the sequence for assembling the wedged tenon door I worked on.  Is the tenon wedged first and then the pins installed, or is it drawbored first, the pins installed, and then the wedges driven home?  Anyone know?  

And I'm a sucker for passage doors.  They are big, often heavy, yet the tolerances have to be very good for them to work properly. You install them in imperfect openings so even if you did a great job building the door it won't look or function properly unless you do an equally good job installing it.  Think about that the next time you need a new house door.  The installer is just as important as the door manufacturer.  My friend bought a big set of French doors with side lites to go out onto his patio, name brand.  The installer and helper worked for hours on it but it wouldn't close properly, not well at all, really.  The store comes out and says it's defective and orders a new one at no charge.  The second door arrives, and a different installer takes out the old one and installs the new one.  It was no better.  The factory rep comes to look at it and says it wasn't installed properly.  He has a factory authorized installer come to reinstall the doors and witnessed the installation.  No better.  A third set of doors is ordered and, yep, they still weren't perfect. Better, but far from perfect. The store asked if a $700 refund would make it perfect.  He said yes just to be done with it.  

John

John, a perfect example of the lack of workmanship in our society today. I've seen it reflected in many areas of daily life. Seems very few are now interested in learning the skills that help make this country great. But I digress......

Your work on that door is a perfect example of how it's done correctly.

Doug
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#18
Good job. I currently have two similar style doors I reworked and installed in this house, that came out of a 1880's house that we used to live in.
Steve

Missouri






 
The Revos apparently are designed to clamp railroad ties and pull together horrifically prepared joints
WaterlooMark 02/9/2020








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#19
As always, we appreciate your showing and teaching us. —Peter
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#20
Thanks for posting. That is one solid door that was worth saving. I loved the wedged tenon construction.

Well done.
...Naval Aviators, that had balz made of brass and the size of bowling balls, getting shot off the deck at night, in heavy seas, hoping that when they leave the deck that the ship is pointed towards the sky and not the water.

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