Door frame construction

[Arthur2]

Hi. I am currently in process of building a door frame (exterior) with sidelights and toplight.

The design wil include 4 cross halving joints...

------------------------------- | | | | | | | |

---------+-----------+-------- | | | | | | | | | ------- | |---------| | | | | | | | | | | | |

---------+-----------+--------- | | | |

(The 4 verticals

below the threshold to a concrete step)

So my question is, (about the cross halving joints at points indicated by +) should the horizontal members be 'in front' of the vertical members?

Or does it not matter?

Thanks.

Arthur

[Steve]

"Arthur2" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I assume you're going to use a lap joint to join the verticals and horizontals (stiles and rails). In that case, the strength of the joint will be the same no matter which piece is in front. All the (fake) raised panel doors in my house have the stiles interrupted by the rails--the horizontal piece looks like it's in front.

Draw it in SketchUp and see which way you like better.

[Arthur2]

Thanks. The reason I asked the question is that I want to replace the red hardwood horizontal pieces with some mahogany. I have some 60mm x 70mm section and I will join these to the vertical timbers I described in the original post. So if I cut the pieces so that the mahog horizontals are at front I would have to glue on more 25 - 30mm thick mahogany to the backs of these rails to bring them up to the same depth as the stiles. Is this nuts or fair enough?

So all stiles will be the red hardwood sections I descibed in OP. All rails will be mahogany and I plan to paint the stiles and varnish the rails. I will be remodelling the ovolo mouldings on the stiles, also. Weird perhaps?

Arthur

[Steve]

"Arthur2" wrote in news:f-6dnTdEBrD [e-mail]:

Not too weird; maybe just a little. ;-) It's unusual to have paint and transparent finishes in the same application, but not unheard of.

When my clients want to do something out of the ordinary, I advise them to do a mockup. You could tape some colored paper on the rails and stiles, then stand back a ways to see what you think. Look at it from the street, too. If you decide you hate it, you've saved yourself a lot of work. If you like it, you can move forward with confidence.

[Arthur2]

Thanks.

I think the mixture of painted and varnish is ok too. But it does depend on using the right combination of moulding work. My initial thought is that the stiles should have a simple fluted moulding while the mahogany rails require something more bold. I could use a web site that shows a variety of moulding work.

Arthur