I have several interior hollow core doors to trim off after installing new carpet and am wondering what would be the best saw/blade combo to use. I'm thinking a worm drive with a 40 or 60 tooth blade but have no experience trimming doors so am looking for someone who has "been there done that" before I butcher them and get in hot water with the war dept.
Rob Mills ~
The saw and the blade have nothing to do with it, assuming the blade i s reasonably sharp.
The best thing would be to make an edge guide to clamp to the doors. This requires more material and assembly. Read through this article:
The knife cut on the veneer is necessary with either method. The bottom should be sealed with a coat of paint or varnish to prevent the doors swelling from humidity. New doors' warranties are void if this is not done.
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table saw w/ fine tooth crosscut blade
Maybe it's a case of "when the only tool you have every problem looks like a nail" BUT I find that a belt sander can take a lot of the bottom of a door.
Well my Tablesaw will handle a door....But it is by far much easier to use a straight edge and a circular saw to trim your door.... Makes no difference if the circular saw is a worm drive or not....Just use a good sharpe blade ...
Scoring is a good idea and I would do it...plus I tape the edge from which the blade exits the door...(with a circular saw that is the visible top facing edge...) it would be the bottom if using a tablesaw....
Hint...if the door is a closet door just make the cut so the inside surface would be the side that splinter... but I would still tape and score..
Good luck...Its not really hard to do...
Bob G.
I used a 7 1/4 inch blade on a circular saw. Put the door on a couple sawhorse. Put a board (1 x 3 or so) side to side. Clamp the board on, about six inches from the bottom of t he door. Or as needed for the width of your saw. Run the edge of your saw along the board. That helps make for a straight cut.
Oh, I may disagree with that. I used a "jig saw" one time. What my Dad used to call a sabre saw. Made a straight cut one side of the door, and a curvy ugly cut on the other.
Circular saw works better.
Push the saw VERY slowly.
carpet and am wondering what would be the best saw/blade combo to use. I'm thinking a worm drive with a 40 or 60 tooth blade but have no experience trimming doors so am looking for someone who has "been there done that" before I butcher them and get in hot water with the war dept.
Several times I've done this I've used my circular saw and a fine tooth (don't know how many) hollow ground plywood/plastics/laminates blade, wrapping the cut line and adjacent area with several layers of masking tape, never a splinter.
BTW, you should set your line length in OE to 70 characters.
Use a panel saw.
Rob Mills ~
They won't trim them for obvious reasons - it's not their job and there's a chance they'll screw it up and owe you a door.
The worm drive isn't necessarily better in this application. The extra weight is a liability and you don't need the extra oomph. Instead of using a 1x clamped in place, use one of those clamping straightedges. Very useful.
If you use a plywood blade, you'll probably get some burning as they're meant for thinner stock. If you score the cut line, you really don't need one. I usually set the straightedge so the cut is just outside the score line. Then clean up with a plane and chamfer back to the score line. Factory edge.
RYou should slightly chamfer the cut edges so the doorskin veneers with a block plane so they won't splinter. Skew the plane so it slices better.
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