Door trim DOH!

[fcraven]

I was blissfully looking forward to the day when I could use my TS55 to trim the bottom of a door. Instead of ye ol' hand held power planer mess, common unto carpenters, I could truly demonstrate my brilliance to the customer.  ;D

Then, yesterday as I was cleaning up, the floor guy said unto me, "Hey can you trim up this door?" "Yeah, verily," I did reply, "After the homeowner agrees to pay me for it.

The excitement was welling within my festool holding hands, and Verily, I did look upon the door.... only to see that had raised moldings which prohibit the placement of a guide upon the line.  :'(

Not to be thwarted by such a depressing moment as this, I determined that the door could be thither laid upon 2x4s, and a door width shelf could be set upon said 2x4s, and clamped in some manner, thus providing a level platform upon which to set the Festool guide, allowing a quick clean cut of the bottom of the door from the other side.

--I have no idea why I went old English there.

So, does this sound like a good plan, have any of you faced this problem before?

 

[Ted Miller]

Me being the rentetive guy I am with tools. I would mill some wood down the same thickness of the molding then place it on the door so the giude could lay flat on the molding as well as the piece I just planned down. Then cut away...

 

[fcraven]

Me being the rentetive guy I am with tools. I would mill some wood down the same thickness of the molding then place it on the door so the giude could lay flat on the molding as well as the piece I just planned down. Then cut away...

This was another idea, but I don't think the the TS55 could reach that far, thus I would need to flip the door, or return the 55 for a 75...

 

[Toolpig]

but another door against it end-to-end (of the same thickness).  then flip the saw around the make the cut.

tp

 

[Ted Miller]

or return the 55 for a 75...

Best do that today, $ are going up Sunday, lol.

One of the main reasons I went with the 75, just wanted the most cut I could get from that blade...

 

[fcraven]

but another door against it end-to-end (of the same thickness).  then flip the saw around the make the cut.

Well, that's what I did today. Fortunately there were some smaller (thinner actually) doors that went from the master bedroom into the master bath that needed trimming as well, I used one of them as the platform for the cut. It's hard to see but there are actually thin 1by strips under the doors, so they aren't actually sitting on their moldings.

It worked fine BUT, If I needed to cut off more, I would have had to use a different technique. Fortunately I measured several times, and from different locations (top of door, bottom of top jam, bottom of lowest hinge), just to make sure, The door was so freakishly heavy I couldn't even attempt to "set it in location to scribe the bottom. Thankfully our painting foreman, Fidel, was there to help me.

Couple of notes:

The extra dust shield is overpriced but I'm pleased to say that it works. For the price,  it should be adjustable, so that it can be lowered down to the level of the wood, or hang over an edge. I was also surprised there was no brush on it. To save money all of us could make one with something as cheep as cereal box cardboard, or the Red Green solution, Duct(k) tape.

The solid wood at the bottom (clearly this thing has an MDF core) of the door was very sappy . The TS55 was not please, Yea, I was disappointed with it's getting bogged down. In the middle of the cut the saw stopped-- this gave me a moment of swearing auf Deutsch, as I thought I had overloaded the saw, and it shut itself down. . What to do? I didn't have Bob's number readily available, I couldn't get online! And then it wouldn't start again. More swearing in German. Then I realized that my Fein vac wasn't working either.  I  managed to throw a breaker

As it happens, the cut was just about perfect, oh, and the bottom is now actually STRAIGHT. ;D

The second photo is a mantle that had a 52" LCD TV placed over it. if all goes well it will be getting a "second level" to help hide the TV. 

Sorry the photos will have to wait. They are not allowed due to size, and I have some sick kids...

Does any one know of professional level cleaning equipment like carpet steamers that might be applicable to a contractor. I could use such item for customers, and to clean up the mess my son left on the couch, the floor, his pants, and his sister's foot.... I love my wife.

 

[rblaustein]

I've trimmed several solid frame/panel doors from my house using the TS55/rail/Fein vac combo (no moulding to contend with though) and also tripped the breaker for the outlet in my garage a few times.  One suggestion that I read in the old Yahoo Festool site (I think from Rick Christopherson) was to set the saw for full plunge.  The idea is that there is less strain on the motor because the teeth are cutting mostly perpendicular to the wood, rather than buried in it and cutting parallel.  I think that did help with subsequent cuts.  I also tried the Panther blade and it was an easier cut.  Since more of the cut in trimming a frame/panel door is a rip rather than a crosscut, it's not so surprising.

 

[fcraven]

Here's the pictures.

If I had a lot of doors to do, I would have tried the panther, but I was over half way through at the time, and the door has Masonite siding, so I was most concerned with that. I like the idea about plunging the blade the entire way...but the doors are already 1.75 thick. As you can tell from the photo They are essentially sitting on the floor, so I thought it best to keep the blade as "shallow" as possible. Next time, I'll use 2x saports rather than 1x.

 

[Dave Rudy]

Fred,

That is one beautiful room -- are you responsible for that?

Dave

 

[fcraven]

are you responsible for that?

No, the room came that way. But I may be adding a secondary mantle arround the big haning TV (which isn't in the photo yet), to keep the lady of the house happy. Overal the room does look very nice, but up close their are some interesting shortcuts that the builder used. Although the woodwork and panelling is oak/ash, in several places you can see where they used a clean side of regular plywood.