Piggin Doors - an Idea!

[Grunff]

catalogs and they look good".

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

You would be best trying one then.

They are a god send if your crap with a hand/electric plane.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[Grunff]

They're very useful, certainly - but not for trimming a hardwood door!

[Davao]

I've used this technique before but on a short length of chipboard flooring. I had cut a narrow piece to fit under the radiator in the bathroom but then found that when I needed to remove for a some reason, it was a bugger to drop into place. Risk of jammed fingers and that. So on the longitudinally adjacent length I cut a similair width but at an angle of

5-10 degrees. This made dropping it into place very easy. So going back to the piece beneath the radiator, I removed it again and recut a strip a few mmm wide at the same angle. Then I glued and pinned it back to radiator piece again. This leaves the glued together radiator piece 3 mm narrower but the radiator pipe holes allow me to shift it closer the main piece of chipboard.

Arthur

[Davao]

And of course, I cut the chipboard flooring piece 'opposite' these 2 lengths at the same angle.

[Stuart Noble]

IMO the OP did exactly the right thing using the right tool. If you can take precisely 3mm off the edge of a door with a plane, and keep the edge perfectly square, then I applaud your skill and envy you your spare time, but really this is a 5 minute job for a circular saw. With today's tungsten blades you get virtually a planed finish anyway. Pus he didn't have to rebate the hinges again What is this obsession with routers for simple straight cutting? And what's wrong with a length of 2" x 1" and a couple of clamps as a guide?

[Bob Eager]

Use really long screws for the hinges! And ten hinges...

[Bob Eager]

Ah, well...you should have sawn off a long strip a bit deeper then the rebate, added your strip of hardwood and then put the original strip back!

[Matt]

That's often said, but the cynical would say that if that were really the case everything would be made of glue :-)

[Andy Hall]

I didn't say that there was anything wrong with it, other than sticking the cut off piece back on and being certain of proper bonding would need either a lot of clamps or a stout bar the length of the door and fewer clamps.

Hardwood doors are very heavy - or at least my oak ones are.

Actually yes I can, and it isn't time consuming. It simply requires a decent plane, properly sharpened and set.

On that point definitely not. Not even close.

I can see the attraction. With hardwood it can be fiddly if you haven't done it much. I've rebated for hinges using chisels, although more typically use a little trim router, a hinge jig and a corner chisel.

No obsession at all. It's one of a number of effective techniques to do a job like this.

The piece of 50mm x 25mm would need to be very straight. If one looks at the typical softwood from DIY stores, that is far from the case. I might consider it if I had freshly machine planed it myself, but that's about it.

[Weatherlawyer]

[Tony Bryer]

8' x 6" piece of Contiplas. Millimetre accuracy.

[Brian Sharrock]

I did say .... an article of _Faith_; not that it was true ... :-(

[meow2222]

What are surforms good for? Cant say I've ever got far with mine.

NT

[Grunff]

Shaping softer materials - high density foam, epoxy based filler, that kind of thing. I'd never use one on wood.

[meow2222]

Ohhh! I was trying to use it on wood. Thanks!

NT

[Stuart Noble]

Cabinet makers would probably use masking tape. Sounds odd, but there is a technique to applying it whereby the centre of the tape is stretched almost to breaking point with the thumbs so that the edges curl up. The pressure is just right for a glue joint. I've seen quite large display fittings assembled that way, and the fixings applied next morning. A bit of a knack to it but a real timesaver/clamp saver if you acquire it.

If you're that fussy, you could always finish it with a plane. By then you don't have to worry about the dimensions. To me, planers are for finishing, not stock removal.

But you enjoy it :-)

But it isn't the right technique because it isn't the most efficient. You could crosscut 2 x 1 with a router, or machine a groove with a circular saw, but you wouldn't.

Then use 6" contiboard. If nothing else, it's invariably *straight*

[Matt]

Neither would I except with balsa - which contrary to common belief isn't even a softwood :-)

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

why would'nt you use it on wood, ie the sides of doors?

certainly they are not for use on wood wider than the blade but for taking a few shavings of doors it's usefull.

I must point out though there are two types of blade, the hole type cutter and the straight angled cutter.

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[Andy Hall]

I've used that in certain instances, but not one like this.

I frequently do, either with hand plane or machine planer.

Generally I agree, although we were only talking about 3mm or so here.

Yes I do. Sometimes I'm in a hand tool mode and other times in a machine mood.

I suppose that it depends on what one understands "efficient" to be in a given context. I was talking more about "effectiveness" which I am not sure is the same thing.

I tend to think of "efficient" as being more of a focus on time taken and "effective" as more of a focus on outcome and generally prefer to go for the latter.

For something like a hardwood door which I would see daily, I would definitely look much more at the outcome and the best way to achieve the desired result than in time taken to do it.

Obviously one has to think about available tools and machinery as well. For some, the setup time to get something right can be considerable and outcome the same. In some cases, it can be efficient to do a whole lot of similar operations in a batch - probably not here.

Occasionally if I See or think that I will use a particular technique/tool a fair amount, then I will think about buying said tool.

In terms of using a circular saw to cut a groove, then if you meant using a had held circular saw, then I would generally agree with you. I can think of at least six ways that I have used to cut grooves over the last few months:

- Router and guide rail

- Router cutter in router spindle in spindle moulder

- Adjustable slot cutter tooling mounted in table saw

- Plough plane

- Sliding compound mitre saw (using depth setting)

- Chisel

(the last two were across grain as part of joints etc. so I suppose technically not grooves.)