Need help building interior doors

[rocky100370]

Building new house and I would like all my doors to look like barn doors. I also would like these to be made from pine and trying not to go broke doing this. The problem Im having is locating 1 3/8' material. obviously the standard thickness of a 2x6 is supposed to be 1 1/2". Do you guys buy these and then plane them down to 1 3/8"? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

Hi rocky100370,

Welcome to the world of door building. There are a LOT of ways to execute what you're looking for, but here are some ideas based on your criteria:

To hit your 1-3/8" (35mm) thickness, I normally purchase 8/4 rough-sawn stock, which gives you plenty of material to face joint and thickness to final dimension. I'd avoid trying to use 2x framing stock as it will likely have a lot of knots. If you don't have ready access to 8/4 material, you can produce scantlings by gluing up three layers of 4/4 material. Either way, I'd focus on acquiring kiln-dried material, free of knots, with reasonably straight grain, and focus on producing stock which is dead flat and straight.

For joinery, I'd suggest dowels. Of course there's always options like mortise/tenon or Domino, but both require a fair amount of machinery investment and/or set-up and skill. I recently visited several window and door shops in Germany, and all of them were using dowel joinery for their 68mm doors and windows, so you're certainly not giving anything up with dowels. Rangate sells 10mm x 100, 12mm x 100mm, and 16mm x 150mm hardwood rot-resistant dowel pins intended specifically for door/window production:https://rangate.com/products/rot-resist-dowels

Assuming you're planning on standard leaf hinges, Templaco produces affordable hinge mortising templates:https://www.templaco.com

If you're trying to keep it simple, you can go for a shaker-style door using plywood panels.

If you're interested in a read, David Sochar wrote a nice book titled "Small Shop Production of Custom Wood Doors"

 

[Packard]

Are these going to function as actual barn doors on barn door tracks, or just look the part on hinges?

I hung two doors on barn door track where the barn door functioned better than a normal swinging door.

I think (and I think I read somewhere) that the barn door trend is waning.  I still favor barn doors where they improve function over conventional swinging doors, but I would think twice about it elsewhere.  I would especially think twice where it creates interference with other doors or openings.

I would note that doors that hang on barn door hardware can be just about any thickness you want.  It will not affect function.

I found that privacy locks were more challenging to install than in swinging doors.  And sounds and light escape from barn doors more than they do for swinging doors.

 

[Peter Kelly]

The moisture content for kiln dried framing lumber can range anywhere from 10% - 25%, wood for interior doors should ideally be 6% - 8%. If the material you use isn't sufficiently dry, your doors will twist as they acclimate and not shut correctly. Interior doors are a lot of work to build, finish, install and there'd be nothing worse than going through all of that work to have a house full of bent ones.

I'd recommend looking for a mill or local shop that will select and plane down kiln dried vertical grain 6/4 to 1 3/8" for you.https://woodfinder.com

 

[rocky100370]

No these doors will be like a regular entry door with hinges. They will just have the barn door look.

Are these going to function as actual barn doors on barn door tracks, or just look the part on hinges?

I hung two doors on barn door track where the barn door functioned better than a normal swinging door.

I think (and I think I read somewhere) that the barn door trend is waning.  I still favor barn doors where they improve function over conventional swinging doors, but I would think twice about it elsewhere.  I would especially think twice where it creates interference with other doors or openings.

I would note that doors that hang on barn door hardware can be just about any thickness you want.  It will not affect function.

I found that privacy locks were more challenging to install than in swinging doors.  And sounds and light escape from barn doors more than they do for swinging doors.

 

[Peter Kelly]

By "barn" do you mean a ledge & brace style door? These are usually made from 4/4 stock, pretty easy to come by.

[attachimg=1]

 

[rocky100370]

I like that but Ill send a pic of the door I had in mind.

 

[tjbnwi]

If you are hingeing these doors I'd suggest rail and stile construction. This will make the hinge and knob harware easier to work with.

Tom

 

[Birdhunter]

There is a trick I use to get dead flat long boards. I buy boards that are a little thicker than half what I need for the end product and a little wider. I use a really cheap hollow core door as a reference base. I put one board on the door, apply glue, and clamp the second board onto the first board. They come off the door perfectly straight. If the boards have a bow in them, I place them so the bows go in opposite direction. I then mill them to the proper dimensions. I found that hollow core doors are dead flat, even the cheapest ones.

 

[Packard]

I built my door from 5/4” pine which both Home Depot and Lowes carries.  Prior to the pandemic, that stock was mostly knot free.  During and after the pandemic, the stuff looks like much lower quality material with lots of small knots and attention has to be paid when picking the lumber as much of it has twists and bends.

At the time, I figured the cost at about $120.00 prior to paint—materials only (not including any hardware. 

There was a time when hollow core doors were a bargain.  They were made with door skins (thin plywood) and the honeycomb was glued to the interior of the plywood. 

The lumber for the perimeter was about 3” wide and you could trim it.

Current hollow core doors have a thin veneer of wood over cardboard. 

Finishing becomes an issue.  Applying Sealcoat (shellac) has too much solvent and the veneer will bubble and delaminate from the cardboard.

Applying a nice thick coat of latex or acrylic paint with the door horizontal will have too much water component and it will saturate the cardboard and cause warps and bows.

Only thin coats of water based seems to work.  So making your own doors is a major step up from the hollow core doors that the big box stores sell. 

 

[rocky100370]

If you are hingeing these doors I'd suggest rail and stile construction. This will make the hinge and knob harware easier to work with.

Tom

Hi that is EXACTLY what I’m wanting to do except for the center I’m using tongue and groove. Are those the standard 1 3/8” thickness? Where do you purchase your wood?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tjbnwi]

If you are hingeing these doors I'd suggest rail and stile construction. This will make the hinge and knob harware easier to work with.

Tom

Hi that is EXACTLY what I’m wanting to do except for the center I’m using tongue and groove. Are those the standard 1 3/8” thickness? Where do you purchase your wood?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, 1-3/8.

These were fabricated when I lived in the Chicagoland area, Paxton Lumber or Rayner & Rinn-Scott is where the product would have come from.

The wood would have been purchase rough and machined to dimension.

Tom

 

[sancho57]

why couldnt  /wouldnt you just laminate the material together? 3/4 pine/3/8 ply and 3/4 pine?

I think it would make for a very stable door

The FT track saw is made for this sort of thing

 

[Peter Kelly]

I make all of my exterior and interior doors using built up stave cores for the stiles which gives you a much more dimensionally stable product than solid wood. The cores can be made up out of laminated 4/4 or 5/4 pine though I've been using LVL's lately. If you were to also build up your rails this way, you could obtain everything from most local lumber yards or box stores.

[attachimg=1]