Custom Kwila Balcony Door

[CeeJay]

After we built our balcony last year we left the entry at the top of the stairs open. We figured breeze and sun would be nice.

However after 6 months the blazing western afternoon sun had us rethinking, so I decided to put a door in.

It’s a weird size (650 x 2400) so a standard door wouldn’t fit so I built one.

I used Kwila to match the step treads and the Corten screens. I decided to try and make operable louvres so we can adjust for angle of sun and still let the breeze through.

I used full-width bridle joints top and bottom, and big M&T joints for the centre. I pinned the joints with 12mm Ebony dowels.

To make the louvres pivot I used stainless steel shelf pins, epoxied in to the rails.

Finished with some nice black hardware and 2 coats of Osmo UV protect, I’m really pleased with it.

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[lshah72414]

You Sir, are very talented. Love your attention to detail. Beautiful work.

 

[MikeGE]

This is a beautiful door!  Do you adjust each louver separately, or are they joined somehow so all move when one is moved?

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Kwila? Never heard of that. It looks great though.

 

[tsmi243]

Outstanding

I seem to remember you posting pics of the porch before, and thinking "this couldn't possibly get any cooler"

And then you go and do something like this...  [big grin]

 

[CeeJay]

Thanks all for the kind compliments.

No the louvres have to be adjusted individually. I very briefly thought ‘how cool if they were all joined’ then thought about how to achieve that without some ugly outrigger arrangement and abandoned that idea!

Kwila is also called Merbau. It’s a tropical hardwood, quite oily, very weather resistant. Pretty much all outdoor furniture in Australia is made of Kwila.

It bleeds a lot of tannin. After I cut the rough parts for this project I left them out in the summer rain for 4 months to let the tannins bleed out, otherwise it doesn’t take finish at all well.

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[Cheese]

Nice job on the door... [smile]  Did you ever think about some small hidden gearing to link all of the louvers together? So if you move 1 louver the entire row will rotate.

And I still like the Cor-Ten panels.

 

[CeeJay]

Nice job on the door... [smile]  Did you ever think about some small hidden gearing to link all of the louvers together? So if you move 1 louver the entire row will rotate.

And I still like the Cor-Ten panels.

Thanks Cheese. I did think about it for a really short time. Then thought about the hot sun, tropical rain, wood movement, and came to my senses….[emoji846]

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[luvmytoolz]

Fantastic work, really looks awesome, must weigh a heap!

I'm really curious how it's holding up to the sun and weather, and how the Osmo is fairing?

 

[CeeJay]

It’s pretty heavy. About 40kgs or 100lbs.

So far it’s holding up great in the weather but only been up 12 weeks so will let you know an a year or so!

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[Festdewalkita]

CeeJay, beautiful door!  How has that Osmo UV held up? 

(We've finally bought some Ipe outdoor furniture {wife gave up on me making her something nice as I have too many irons in the fire  [embarassed] [sad]} and I'm wondering if the beautiful Ipe is better protected by the Osmo UV than the Penofin the retailer uses when they assemble the Jensen-supplied pieces.)

 

[woodbutcherbower]

Superb work !!!

[member=72399]CeeJay[/member] [member=75933]luvmytoolz[/member] [member=74097]Festdewalkita[/member] A serious word of warning to you guys and to anyone else reading this = if you’re referring to Osmo 420 UV protection oil, the formulation was changed a year ago to meet a new set of European solvent and environmental regulations. They didn't make any kind of announcement about this. The net result is that it’s now no longer suitable for ANYTHING which isn’t vertical - so that means doorsteps, window sills, the top rails of gates and balustrades, the flat surfaces of outdoor furniture - even the small horizontal framing lips on your beautiful new door. They've changed the application instructions on the can accordingly, but of course guys like me (who have been using the product for years) don't take time out to read the instructions when they're opening maybe their 50th or 60th can of what appears to be an absolutely identical product.

In the last six months, I’ve had to revisit customers to strip and refinish seven exterior joinery jobs (including a huge £6,000 set of oak driveway gates) where the 420 had failed catastrophically on horizontal surfaces as soon as it got wet. It’s cost me heavily, but Osmo’s policy is unsurprisingly just to refund the cost of the can  [sad] 

Just a important heads-up for you, especially if you live in the colder, wetter states.
Kevin

 

[luvmytoolz]

Superb work !!!

[member=72399]CeeJay[/member] [member=75933]luvmytoolz[/member] [member=74097]Festdewalkita[/member] A serious word of warning to you guys and to anyone else reading this = if you’re referring to Osmo 420 UV protection oil, the formulation was changed a year ago to meet a new set of European solvent and environmental regulations. They didn't make any kind of announcement about this. The net result is that it’s now no longer suitable for ANYTHING which isn’t vertical - so that means doorsteps, window sills, the top rails of gates and balustrades, the flat surfaces of outdoor furniture - even the small horizontal framing lips on your beautiful new door. They've changed the application instructions on the can accordingly, but of course guys like me (who have been using the product for years) don't take time out to read the instructions when they're opening maybe their 50th or 60th can of what appears to be an absolutely identical product.

In the last six months, I’ve had to revisit customers to strip and refinish seven exterior joinery jobs (including a huge 6,000 set of oak driveway gates) where the 420 had failed catastrophically on horizontal surfaces as soon as it got wet. It’s cost me heavily, but Osmo’s policy is unsurprisingly just to refund the cost of the can  [sad] 

Just a important heads-up for you, especially if you live in the colder, wetter states.
Kevin

That's just crap and more than a bit disrespectful when manufacturers do those sorts of shenanigans and just "hope" customers won't notice!

 

[Festdewalkita]

Superb work !!!

[member=72399]CeeJay[/member] [member=75933]luvmytoolz[/member] [member=74097]Festdewalkita[/member] A serious word of warning to you guys and to anyone else reading this = if you’re referring to Osmo 420 UV protection oil, the formulation was changed a year ago to meet a new set of European solvent and environmental regulations. They didn't make any kind of announcement about this. The net result is that it’s now no longer suitable for ANYTHING which isn’t vertical - so that means doorsteps, window sills, the top rails of gates and balustrades, the flat surfaces of outdoor furniture - even the small horizontal framing lips on your beautiful new door. They've changed the application instructions on the can accordingly, but of course guys like me (who have been using the product for years) don't take time out to read the instructions when they're opening maybe their 50th or 60th can of what appears to be an absolutely identical product.

In the last six months, I’ve had to revisit customers to strip and refinish seven exterior joinery jobs (including a huge £6,000 set of oak driveway gates) where the 420 had failed catastrophically on horizontal surfaces as soon as it got wet. It’s cost me heavily, but Osmo’s policy is unsurprisingly just to refund the cost of the can  [sad] 

Just a important heads-up for you, especially if you live in the colder, wetter states.
Kevin

That is amazingly valuable information, thank you Kevin! 

*Another* disappointment from techno-idiocrats.  Add it to the massively long (and constantly growing) list.

 

[RJNeal]

Sweet door. Nice job.