Advice wanted on edge trimming a door.

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

My builtin wardrobe has a conventional door on one side and a bi-fold door on the other. When I dry-fitted everything before adding the dominos, glueing-up, nailing, etc the doors fitted together well. Now that I've done the final assembly and painted everything I've discovered a boo-boo when I fitted the doors. Somehow, I got the framing slightly out of line. When I fitted the doors they now jam very tightly when closing. In fact, I can't really close the doors together at all. Fortunately, I can play with the line up of the bi-fold doors as the top and bottom pivot points can be adjusted to change the angles. What I'm effectively looking at is to remove the single door and edge trim it.

I need to trim the edge of the door. At first glance, I need to remove +/- 2mm from the edge. First thing that came to mind is to join two guide rails together and use my TS55 and run it down the edge. In theory, this should work but I'm mindful of the fact that I'd like to get the best possible finish. I also wonder if the TS55 might not have enough material for the blade to cut cleanly so could there be a chance the blade might tear the edge rather than cutting it cleanly? I do have the 1400 router and a straight cutting bit, so that's an option. I don't have any planes so that's not an option. Could someone give me some input as to the best approach I could adopt? Remember, I only have an MFT/3 table and no inside shop to work in. I did a good job building the doors outside in the garden. It's a pity I tacoed the final assembly but I guess I got too excited!

Edit: I should add the doors are perfectly rectangular. It's the framing around the doors I've made a bit of a pig's ear of.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

You mean the door jambs are racked/out of square?

I would hate to see you shave some off a perfectly square door, just to fit it in your wonky openings.

Is the framing that tight, that there are no shims behind the jambs?

Your ts-55 is perfect for that taks and it will not screwup the door.

I have cut several 3 degree bevels on some nice doors with no ill effects!!

 

[peter halle]

Peter,

Don't be afraid to take a gnat's whisker off the door with the TS-55.  Darcy mentioned in his post beveling the non hinge side of the door. If I understand you have a normally hinged door and then a bifold that when closed butts up to that?  If that is the case and you close both together and they are fine, then bevel the edge of the normal door.  With the Festools, you can do a one degree bevel, try it.  Doesn't work, set the rubber guide to the cut and try a 2 degree bevel.  If the cut isn't what you expect, without moving the rail, cut it again.  It can clean up the edge.

Nibble - don't bite.  That is the real beauty of this.  It is repeatable.

Peter

 

[danrush]

Have to echo both Darcy and Peter H.  The 55 is perfect for trimming the doors you describe.  When trimming finished doors or cabinets, I tape the scribe line with blue painters tape.  I know that it may not be neccessary with the rails and splinter strips, but it eases this old dog's heart a bit.

Dan

 

[AlexThePalex]

Both the TS55 and the OF1400 will do this job nicely.

 

[peter halle]

Have to echo both Darcy and Peter H.  The 55 is perfect for trimming the doors you describe.  When trimming finished doors or cabinets, I tape the scribe line with blue painters tape.  I know that it may not be neccessary with the rails and splinter strips, but it eases this old dog's heart a bit.

Dan

I thought I was the old dog.  Ok. Ok. I stand corrected... just old.  Woof.

There comes a point in time with the Festools that have you read all the stuff time and again, watched videos, listened to podcasts, etc.  Let the horse lead and go for it.  That's why you bought it in the first place.  This may sound harsh.  It's not meant to be.  I second guess myself to death and then reality somehow works its way in.  Trust you tools.  Double check your mind while using your tools.

Peter

 

[Peterm]

Peter, I haven't used a plane much at all since I bought my TS55, it does the job of trimming so well. The only thing I'd add to all the above responses is that the dust collection won't be up to much when you're just taking a couple of mm off the edge of a door, so don't be tempted to try this in situ - definitely one for out in the back garden!

HTH, Pete.

 

[southern_guy]

I have just done a similar exercise with room doors that were too small. (Not sure who built our house, but to refer to them as a builder would be stretching the definition of builder). With door in place, I put a mark 5.2 cm in from the door jamb, top and bottom. I then removed the door and trimmed a whisker off the edge with  the TS55 and a 3m guide rail. I then glued a strip of timber to the edge of the door.  Once the glue dried I ran down each edge with a flush trim bit. Finally, I measured 5 cm out from the mark I had originally made, and positioned the guide rail in line with these new marks, before again running the TS55 along the length of the door. The result, a door that fitted the door frame with an even gap all round.

I wouldn't have even attempted this without the TS55

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

The jambs are indeed now slightly out of square and I've used MDF around the carcass to dress it all up. When I did the original work I built the doors first and then very precisely measured the framing around them which is perhaps a little unorthodox but remember I'm a hobbyist and not a skilled artisan with years under my belt. That part of the project was very successful. I had to use a wider gap at the top and bottom of the doors. The bi-fold door uses hardware for the support and slide allowing removal and fitting of the door. It uses two pivot pins on the static side and the free side has another pin that slides to and fro along the rail above it. Perhaps if I had made the doors a little wider than needed I could have trimmed the edges when doing the final fitting. Hindsight is a wonderful teacher.

All in all it worked really well. I've also painted the doors with two coats of sealer, two coats of undercoat and two coats of finish paint. I don't know how much additional thickness the paint has added so perhaps that's also contributed?

In the past, I've used my DeWalt tools to remove whiskers here and there and to be honest, neither of the circular saws I had did much better than tear-cum-scar-cum-scuff the wood on the inside of the blade. Perhaps the blade wobbled as the outer side was basically cutting nothing but air? For the record, I've only kept the 14v cordless saw which I use for coarse ripping when I buy sheet stock from the timber yard which is too big to fit in or on top of my car.

I've only got one attempt to do it right so it's really comforting to know I can shave whiskers off with the TS55 and make fine adjustments with the guide rail until I get a decent fit. Having been bitten by DeWalt's circular saws a couple of times before it was too easy to apply the same poisoned thoughts to Festool. I really need to apologise for doubting that the TS55 would do a superior job. Sorry Festool. Sorry FOG.

The hinges have enough space behind them that I could use to add some shims to slightly adjust the spacing between the two parts of the bi-fold door. That would spread the width of the bi-fold door allowing me to get a much neater fit on the main door to its left side. I've learned a lot from these forums since I joined and I really appreciate the collective knowledge of everyone here. Thanks a million guys. I'll report back when I've cracked the problem.

 

[peter halle]

Peter,

We look forward to hearing how it goes.

 

[Kevin Stricker]

Just a couple thoughts:

Have you checked the outside edge of both doors(where they meet) for plumb?  I am guessing your problem is with the bifolds, even the "expensive" solid sets at HD have cheesy hardware.  I would attempt to move the rail and pivots first to see if I could get it to work that way.  If no amount of fiddling gets acceptable results then consider taking the extra off the Bifold door as that face is always hidden when open.  If the problem is with closing, and you like the reveal between the doors when closed then put a bevel on the inside of the fixed door.  Make sure your saw can cut through your door with the bevel cut, and use a ripping blade for best results.  I would use blue tape on the top side too unless you have a rail set up for a rip cut strip.

Good Luck

 

[richard.selwyn]

Just a reminder as I don't think anyone else has mentioned it - and my apologies if I am stating the obvious, but make sure you are using the right blade and that it is clean and sharp.  A sharp blade that is dirty will cut like a dull one.  A dull one will make a mess.  One with few teeth will leave more score marks, one with more may burn etc etc....

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

Just a reminder as I don't think anyone else has mentioned it - and my apologies if I am stating the obvious, but make sure you are using the right blade and that it is clean and sharp.  A sharp blade that is dirty will cut like a dull one.  A dull one will make a mess.  One with few teeth will leave more score marks, one with more may burn etc etc....

Richard,

Thanks for that feedback. The only blade I have is the standard blade that came with the TS55. Will that do the job ok? I've measured up the cut I need to do. It will be about 1cm at the bottom of the door and about 4mm at the top. The door is made from fairly standard planed pine.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

The standard blade will do the trick if it is fairly fresh, at least nice and clean.

 

[Peterm]

Peter, just a thought, but that's quite a wedge to be taking off one side of a door - it may well end up looking unbalanced? You might want to think about trimming a little off each side of the door rails to keep them a similar width.

Cheers, Pete.

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

Peter, just a thought, but that's quite a wedge to be taking off one side of a door - it may well end up looking unbalanced? You might want to think about trimming a little off each side of the door rails to keep them a similar width.

Cheers, Pete.

Pete, thanks. I did give it some thought as to whether it would be noticable or not so I will cut both rails to minimise any wonkiness.

The other idea is that if I remove all the material from one rail and it looks like it's unbalanced then I could always remove the same amount from the other rail. That should then restore the balance.

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

Great Scott, what an amazing tool the TS55 is as if we did not know. I was able to adjust the bi-fold doors slightly and this helped to reduce the amount of material I needed to cut. I needed to remove about 1mm at the top going down to about 5mm at the bottom so I took it off the main door. The doors were built pre-Festool (apologies for that but I was not wise in those earlier days). So, with some very careful setup and after locking together two rails I set about tearing off the thin wedge of material. Impressive or what? There was absolutely no tear out or splintering whatsoever. The edges of the door are so sharp I'm sure you could cut paper with them. The material I removed at the 1mm end was so precisely thin I was able to form a circle with it. That was the most adventurous and potentially risky cut I've done to date. I originally doubted the TS55 could do it with such accuracy and I'm glad to say my appreciation of this amazing saw is elevated to where it should be.

I originally found the saw was hard going until I noticed I had it set to the lowest speed. Doh!

As they like to say in the UK: "job's a good'un."

 

[peter halle]

Peter,

[thumbs up] [thumbs up] [thumbs up] [thumbs up]

 

[kev carpenter]

Just a wee note sometimes with the rails if you change blades or do angle cut it messes up the zero clearance strip  you dont realy notice it until you cut somting like conti board or end panels for kitchens but dont buy another strip when you have cut somthing important just peel of and stick back on (peel of the adhesive strip with the plastick bit ). [big grin]

good luck anyway with ts-55 door are joy to fit  [smile]