Exterior door,how to?

Ive built some cool doors in sapele, sipo, african mahogany. I want to build some bubinga doors.

how about some bubinga? A price range of what you want to spend on the material may exclude some materials like teak which goes for about 19.00/bf around here.

Sipo tenons.

1 3/4" or 2 1/4" thick
 
There was an episode of Woodworks where David Marks made an exterior door.

Go to diynetwork.com and look under woodworking, then wood works then the episode list.

There should be a transcript of the episode and a bunch of pictures. Construction very similar to TOD's description.

Jim
 
When I first got involved in building large doors back about 22 years ago there was an article or two in Fine Woodworking on period doors and some pictures and stuff on some modern artsy type doors.  There were also one or two published books on door and entry design but they really didn't get heavily into construction...more design idea books IIRC.  Any thing that I could find and study at the time was helpful but there was not a lot.  I also looked at how some commercial doors were designed and made and what I liked and disliked about what they did.  I remember seeing one local firm that cut the cope and stick on shapers and then used 6" lag screws countersunk through the side stiles and into the rails...and to top it off they plugged the counterbores with 1" dowels down the edge of the doors...YUK....

Over the years I recall Woodsmith doing an article on building a door and I have always thought that they do an excellent job of showing how to do it and why to do it that way.  And they keep the tools needed simple usually. I think Better Homes and Garden Wood magazine did an article on building a front door too....probably in the mid 1990s or perhaps a little earlier.  There have probably been some more stuff in Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding but I don't recall seeing any new books on door or entryway design or construction.  I guess I just sat down an figured a lot of it out applying the principles of good woodworking.  The other key was having the tools to work with the large and heavy pieces of wood.  A piece of 8/4 cherry 10" wide and 10 feet long is heavy and hard to move through machines even when it is completely dry.  But the beauty of a finely crafted door when completed and installed makes it all worth the trouble.

The other thing to keep in mind is a stained and varnished door is a lot of work to maintain if it takes very much direct sunlight or if it is not protected by a covered porch or overhang.  So, if you go solid wood and stain and varnish finish just understand that you may spend a weekend a year to maintain it properly....and if you don't it will either look really bad, rot out or both.

Best,
Todd
 
Thanks all of you for your idea,i did get white oak and the door is made and ready to be installed.
I'm going to try to set it this week end.
This was a first time experience for me.Never done an exterior door before,to be honest,never done any doors(except for cabinet doors)
Not only this was the first time,but as i mention before the door is rounded on the top.
It turn out pretty good.My only problem now is that the door jamb is not really perfect(it's been work on before)It is an older house(1939)so i may have to fudge a little,or a lot to make the new door fit.
I will try to post some pics. soon.
 
 
I did a double take when I saw your post saying you finished already. Then scrolled up and saw the 3 month gap in the thread.
I thought, 'man, this guy is faaaassssttt.'
 
Here is my first door... Its a screen door made out of cedar for a freind to her specs.  40 X 80 X 1 1/8" thick and she wanted a husky dog included.  I couldn't talk her into using mahogany, so we settled with cedar.  (The dog howling at the moon I scrolled out of cherry)  Construction is integral mortise and tennon I cut on the Leigh FMT.  My largest bit is 1/2 inch diameter by 2 inch depth.  I used appropriately sized double tennons on the three larger rails and a single on the rail under the spindles.  The decoratice corner brackets have two loose tennons made with the domino.  Hinges are self closing and mortised in place.  Finish is an australian oil.  The screen is splined in on the other side. The spline dado was cut with the OF 1400 and long festool rails.  Then the screen spline joint  is covered by a picture frame I made with a triple bead cutter, mitered corners pinned with miller dowels (visible on the back side).  Then the frame is attached with brass screws so it can be removed to repair or replace the screen.  For the glue up I used Plastic resin glue

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Actually nick, On the right of that pic where you see the lawn mower handle is the wall I'm going to use for the chop saw we have been discussing... You can see the space is limited when I park there...My dedicated shop is in the double attached on the other side where you see the legs of the ryobi stand.
 
Nice door, Wayne.  She should be very pleased with it.  If you have a photo of the obverse side, please post it, so we can see what you described in words.

Dave R.
 
I found the other side of the door...pic didn't come out too good....  This was a fun project for me and I didn't make too many mistakes!  She loved the door and he huband hung the door a few hours before all of her dog loving friends showed up for her party.

[attachimg=#]
 
Very nice door Wayne.  Sounds like you built it to last also... 

Door making is very enjoyable and not really all that hard to do...it just uses a lot of board feet of wood for solid doors.  A typical door has 40-50 board ft I figure by the time it is all said and done and that doesn't include the jambs or trim even...

Best,
Todd
 
Todd

Well this was my first practice door.  Eventually I'm gonna make one to enter into my shop from the parking garage.  The door will be 36 X 96.  Not sure what i'm going to use to make it.  Something nice to make a statement I think. Its really not necesary but something fun to do I guess.  The old door, steps up over the block.  I have to cut that all out downto the floor and reframe everything first.  Maybe Jatoba or mahogany...I don't know...any sugestions for something special but not out of site in cost?
 
Wayne,

I'd say that door your made demonstrates "perfect practice." 

If you make your 36" x 96" door of jatoba, your going to need some seriously HD hinges to carry the weight.  The few pieces of jatabo I have handled seem to be noticeably more dense than most mahogany. 

Dave R.
 
ayne,

I guess you would be looking at about 50 bf for that door.  The door I made for my dad's place in Pittsburgh is cherry and 4 ft wide and 8 ft tall.  I have always like cherry and thought a cherry door with curly cherry raised panels makes a very nice door.  I am not a huge fan of Oak, perhaps because I have used so much of it because that is what people seem to always want their stuff made from too.  Even an oak door with curly oak panels would be quite beautiful.  It also depends on if you want have any glass and if so the kind of glass.

Best,
Todd
 
Eiji Fuller said:
Ive built some cool doors in sapele, sipo, african mahogany. I want to build some bubinga doors.

how about some bubinga? A price range of what you want to spend on the material may exclude some materials like teak which goes for about 19.00/bf around here.

Sipo tenons.

1 3/4" or 2 1/4" thick

I once worked on a job in downtown Boston that we remodeled an entire floor for this big investment firm. Everything was Bubinga. The place was insane. The foreman for the job told me that the office doors with side lights were $10,000. The picture is not great but it is one of the conference rooms with built in telecommunications with a huge TV screen. The door is on the right and had special aluminum trim that held the glass in.

Dave
 
That's quite a nice table, and walls...

I wonder if they've participated in the TARP?

Tom
 
Tom Bellemare said:
That's quite a nice table, and walls...

I wonder if they've participated in the TARP?

Tom

No, this was back in 2004. This place had Bubinga everywhere. The kitchen that was put in this place, a lot of restaurants would have been jealous. They also had a big gym/exercise place. They put in these things so the employees did not have to go home. You want to eat something, email the chef and see what he has in stock. It was outrageous.
 
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