Plane suggestions required

[James Salisbury]

Hi,

I am looking for suggestions for a suitable plane for adjusting doors and frames. It looks like that pre painted doors have been hung into an existing propery with wonky frames....

Any suggesions?

Thanks

[The Medway Handyman]

You can't plane a frame square.

You can plane the door, but if it's a panelled door it will still look awful.

[John Rumm]

Sometimes taking the architraves off and wedging the frame can go along way to improving the appearance without needing to shoot in the door so much.

[Brian G]

James,

A Stanley No 4 is ideal for trimming doors - not so good though for sorting the frames out - but be prepared to sharpen the plane iron several times if the doors are heavily painted.

With regards to the frames, I presume that these are internal door linings with 'planted' door stops (nailed on) with something like a 3" architrave around them?

If that is the case, providing the doors (and I presume these are of the interior flush type) haven't been 'hacked' around too much, I would be inclined to sort the frames out by removing the architrave and the planted stops and using a level and a good, parallel straight edge (slightly shorter than the door), plumb and straighten the styles (both ways) along with levelling the head - this may well involve cutting the old fixings off, wedging and refixing as required.

Once you are satisfied that frames are a good as they are going to get (you can't always get 'em dead right) then refix the architrave and temporarily fit the stops in position, refit the door, easing as necessary, check the latch receiver housing and adjust as needed and finally fit and fix the doorstop to suit the shape of the door.

If the doors are a panelled door with 4" styles, then these are a bit easier to refit as there is more 'meat' to play with - but do ensure that when you finished, both stiles look as if they are of equal width - and avoid cutting too much off them if possible.

And always remember, on painted work like this - filler and paint applied correctly can hide a multitude of 'errors' - a joke honestly :-)

Brian G

[dom]

Very good advice form Brian. I'd also recommend a Stanley No:4, but get an old one. Look to pay15-20 quid in an antique/junk shop/ebay. The steel on the old plane irons was far superior, taking and holding a better edge, along with a better quality adjustment. Older Stanleys will have wooden handles, rather than the modern plastic.

If you're not used to using a hand plane, get some advice on grinding, honing and adjusting the blade - and practice on scrap until you can consistently produce good results.

[Stuart Noble]

A circ saw is quicker, easier, and invariably more accurate. I've just taken the bottoms off some painted doors after carpet fitting. Perfect finish and no chips, despite one of the cuts tapering from nothing to 3mm.

[Brian G]

Depends on the amount you are taking off the door Stuart and - where!

Cutting top, bottom and stiles the full length - then yes, but for such things as bevelling the 'leading' edges for a close fitting door when shut or around 'bumps' in the frame and floor - then you'll have a job beating the old Stanley No 4 or No 5 with a sharp iron - especially when you have a Clerk of Works breathing down your neck for the perfect 'penny' joint all round on the closed door...

Brian G

[Stuart Noble]

Put it this way. I'm not good enough with the plane to achieve anything close to saw cut accuracy, especially with a tapered cut. I set up the straightedge, and I know the result will be spot on. I might set the planer to zero depth of cut if I need a perfectly smooth finish. I've seen proper chippies do this by hand, cramped on a 3rd floor landing with no room to swing a cat, and I take my hat off to them.

[Andrew Gabriel]

This is extremely easy to do with an electric hand plane. Remember to try and do a roughly equal number of sweeps in each direction, to avoid ending up with the edge non-square.

[Brian G]

Yes, and it's even worse when you are trying to fit a 7' x 3' front door that seemed to weigh 'a ton' - in the narrow passage of the old BISF houses with one leaf of the 'loose pin' hinges (3no) welded onto the steel frame...

Brian G

[Peter Ashby]

I used my old Stanley no 7 to take 3mm off the bottom of the door that didn't clear the carpet. We still don't use it much (the clothes airer is usually in front of it) but at least it can be opened at need now.

Peter