making passage doors

[Robin]

For some reason I want to make doors. Now I do need some doors, but that's not the reason I want to make them. Since I'm a rookie, and getting too old to acquire years of experience I want to jump right in. But I don't want to jump right in with mahogany. I was thinking of ripping good quality dimension lumber to about 1-7/8", gluing the factory 1-1/2 sides together, and planing down to the right thickness for rails and stiles. That way I won't cry too much when I throw away a door I've made; that plus a rail or stile made that way would be less likely to warp. At least that's my thinking.

Is this a dumb idea? You have a better idea?

Robin

[Charley]

I say go for it. That's the way I would do it for the first try. A few suggestions: Take the time to carefully select the lumber for tight grain and the closest grain pattern that you can find that looks like quarter sawn (all the grain lines run perpendicular to the sides of the board). The best router set for making doors that I've seen is the Freud. Are you planning to use a router bit or some other method to fit the rails and stiles? I've been thinking about making a few doors but haven't tried it yet.

[todd]

I think before I started working with dimensional lumber, I'd be looking at some relatively inexpensive hardwoods. Around here, poplar and ash are the cheapest.

todd

[Robin]

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Well, that certainly would seem the way to go, BUT I have a problem with sources. I just moved from a white collar town (Washington, DC area) that had multiple hardwood dealers to a blue collar town that had one hardwood dealer whose phone is now disconnected. (I now live near Hazleton in NE PA.) If I order thru the Internet poplar doesn't cost that much less than mahogany when you consider shipping. I know there are sawers within a two hundred miles that sell all kinds of wood. My truck gets about 8 miles/gallon so I would have to buy more wood than I have room for to justify the trip. So that leaves Lowe's and HD. The thickest hardwood they sell is 3/4". I thought of gluing two boards together face to face which gives wood bearly thick enough for a door with no provisions for planing or sanding mismatched joints. I thought about putting a thin piece of plywood in a poplar sandwich, sort of veneered wood with the veneer on the inside. Then I thought, I have the clamps to glue things edge to edge but I'm going to need a jig or a veneer press to successfully glue such wide boards together. Then I thought, This project is spiraling out of control. That's when I came up with the idea of dimension lumber.

[Robin]

table and using a router. When I looked at the price of tables and realized, given the time and trouble of mounting, and dismounting a router it meant committing a router to the table I bought a used shaper. So now I have a 3 hp shaper that can use router bits or up to 1-1/4 shaper bits for not a whole lot more than the table-router combination. And as soon as I get 220v power installed and a place to put it (probably late Spring) I'll be ready to go. Then I looked at the prices of router bits. A router bit big enough for a door costs hundreds of dollars, but I my shaper which came with a 2" high knife holder. One can buy a set of knives for under $30. At that price they are not carbide, but then I can sharpen then some myself. And I can afford more than one profile. So my recommendation to you, based on nothing but conjecture on my part, is to buy a used shaper, knife holder, and knives because it's cheaper in the long run, and, hey, the shaper looks cooler in the shop than a router table.

[J. Clarke]

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Have you tried ?

[Pig]

Gee, try Lewis Lumber in Picture Rocks, west on 80, north on 180 to north (east?) on 405, from Hazelton shouldn't take you more than an hour or so, and they have plenty of poplar pretty cheap, and kiln dried. Tuba4/8/10 is in excess of 15% (or more) moisture and will eventually disappoint you in an interior door application. DAMHIKT.

Mutt

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