Oak door

[HCJtractor]

If it's just the long 6" X 84" boards you're worried about, check out the local woodshops. They would likely S4S the boards for you for very little money. The rest are shorter and easier to work with.

Cliff

That's very true. If you could get the longer boards done, the others could be done on typical home shop sized tools. As far running the whole door through a thickness planer after assembly, i would have to ask why would you have to do that? If you start with straight flat stock of the same thickness, you end up with a straight flat door. The floating panels can be any thickness. The frame is what matters.

My point was you are not going to get good results trying to joint a 2" X 6" X 7' board on a normal 6" home shop jointer. And if those 2 boards are not true, your door is not going to function well.

We have a great Woodworkers Guild in my city where they have a shop equipped with top of the line commercial grade tools much larger than a hobbiest would have. Here you could easily make a door. It is available to members as long as they are trained. Volunteers are there to oversee and advise. Pretty cool set up.

 

[HCJtractor]

Then referring back to Norm, you will need a 40 inch thickness planer so you can send the door through it to have that perfectly flat and true door.

I doubt a 40 inch planer will run much more than 8 K
Your door project will be well worth that little expenditure
:laughing:

:thumbsup:

one more comment. A thickness planer doesn't make anything flat and true. All it does is make everything the same thickness. Send a bowed board through a thickness planer and it will come out the perfect thickness but still bowed. A jointer serves that role, not a planer.

 

[czechsonofagun]

one more comment. A thickness planer doesn't make anything flat and true. All it does is make everything the same thickness. Send a bowed board through a thickness planer and it will come out the perfect thickness but still bowed. A jointer serves that role, not a planer.

Same experience

 

[dlauffenburger]

As alluded to in other posts your door design is going to significantly effect your construction process. If you are building a solid door you are going to have to deal with quite a bit of expansion and contraction, but if it is going to have floating panels and glass the expansion/contraction will be minimal in comparison.

I disagree with using all thread, that is the worst thing you can do to a panel that you know will expand and contract, the all thread will prevent the wood from moving laterally so it will warp and bow at the joints. The wood is going to move with moisture and if you try to prevent it you will cause warping. You just need to design and build it to allow some movement. For a heavy door you need to ensure your tennons are significantly lager that what a Rail and Stile bit system will provide, so you will need to make floating tennors. i would use a heavy duty dowels, i would edge joint the boards and glue them together then drill 3/8 or 1/2 holes thru the board into the ajoining board and then glue and install dowels.

If you are building a flat door i highly recommend a glue joint bit for your router, the bit forms a interlocking profile with the board next to it so there will be more glue surface as well as forming a more air tight seam to prevent air infiltration.

If you have any questions please ask.
Dave

Dave's Woodworking Website Homepage

 

[hizoot]

I'm not sure where "Old Dominion" is.....so if its Texas,I have a 12" x 92" jointer I can help you with. I also have a 20" planer.

I believe the 40" Timesaver Norm used was a drum sander,not a planer. When you get to the finished project,you may find a cabinet shop with one of these that can do a final sanding/flattening. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[czechsonofagun]

Old Dominion is Virginia - thanks for the offer, but too far.



Dave, thanks for the suggestions. I remember doors my dad built - with help and machnery of professional furniture maker - tennons for corners were all the way through, but it was only a frame with three glass panes and made from frasier fir - the most common wood in Czech.

I have a pile of cedar for this weekend to make some shoe shelves and under the bed drowers but after that I will go through the pile of oak and see what I can find as far as cuts.

Will post pictures and ask for advice, the only thing surprising is that nobody on the whole TBN done something like that??

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Then referring back to Norm, you will need a 40 inch thickness planer so you can send the door through it to have that perfectly flat and true door.

I hope he didn't actually use a thickness planer on a frame and panel door! That makes no sense at all since the rails would be chipped to pieces going cross grain. Perhaps it was a wide belt sander? 36-42" belt sanders are pretty common and used for table tops etc. That or it was a slab type door.

Cliff

 

[PatasColo]

I recently found that there is a custom door shop near us. They were selling barrels of scrap wood (cutoffs) as firewood, so we picked up a couple barrels (that's how we came across them... looking for firewood on Craigslist).

You might see if there is such a place in your area, or alternatively a cabinetmaker/furniture maker, as you and others have alluded to. My guess is that if I called this local shop and told them I was making a door out of oak and needed suggestions on planing/jointing, there's at least an even chance they might offer to help me out. The more local the shop, the better. Might give you some other pointers on the process in any case. Most people enjoy doing a good deed, and helping others do something that they believe in.

 

[Depmandog]

I personally wouldn't be afraid to join boards of that length. After joining your first two boards, lay out the stock and if you have gaps - set the joiner for a super shallow pass and only run it halfway (or quarter way). The joints will close - it might take a few passes. Mark and number the boards to keep the orientation consistent until glue up. Basically you are matching each board to one another.

There is a slight chance doing this could get the overall door out of square, which can be corrected easily enough if you check your dimensions as you lay up your stock.

Oh yes, it would be nice to have the biggest and best tools out there, but we all learn to make do with what we have. Adapt and overcome (as long as we are safe - that's 2 points coming to me courtesy of the safety police)!!