Jump to content

Screen door

Rate this topic


Ben Lippen

Recommended Posts

So I did this repair job on another church last year, and had to tear out a bunch of 5/4 x 4 mahogany decking as part of it. Rotten on the ends, but I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Not about the money value, because I'm sure I could have made a few bucks on that. But I just knew there was another cool job in that wood, somewhere somehow. So I took it all home and stashed it away. After all, it was laid down a mess of years ago, and was nice, old tight grain, probably actually not an endangered species at the time it was cut.  It wasn't  T & G , but was face nailed with nasty 10d ring shank galvy nails. Fortunately the nails came out of the old framing pretty easily, but were not coming out of the mahogany without a fight. I hauled it away and stored it with nails still in it, and the blood stains, lol...

 

And then one evening at my local watering hole, sharing a rum libation with a couple who are friends and clients of mine from other jobs.... A couple of old school surfer folks. Peace sign door mat kinda folks. Which brings us to where the story comes back to the screen door.  

 

She mentions that she wants a screen door for the kitchen/side door of the house. And how she cant find the one that she wants and had to settle for one....  and so I have a germ idea and grab a piece of paper from the nearby waitress and draw this up....

 

sketch.jpg

Edited by Ben Lippen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shoot my mouth off and ask what do ya think of think of this door, made out of reclaimed mahogany?  Much to my chagrin she didn't blink and asked when she could have it done and hung up. 

So I hadda round up all that material, pick out the best, straight-ish pieces, and then clip the nails off so I could drive them back out. It was the only way to save the wood.

 

I wanted to re-saw it all, but got a flat tire on my band saw. Then I tried to run it through my planer, but it was just too old/hard for my 12" planer......

So I set up a quick jig and ran all of the boards through the table

saw and took just 1/16th off the front and back.  It all came out great.

 

 

100_8651.JPG

100_8652.JPG

Edited by Ben Lippen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lucky for me, the pieces I had were all about 81" long, which made them perfect for a door. I found two fairly straight pieces to use as rails for the door, and picked the best of the rest to make up the rest.

Cut the rest of the picks in half  and took a door cutting jig that I had and put a stop on it to make a straight board cutting jig. Ran all them "bent" cut boards thru that to get a square edge before I ripped them down to size..

 

100_8665.JPG

100_8666.JPG

100_8667.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then I set up the router table with my tongue and groove bit set.

I did a whole lot of math, and decided on a best plan for board sizes and such. And then I did that. I made a panel up with the different sized boards.

 

100_8669.JPG

Edited by Ben Lippen
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now thats impressive. Thanks for sharing, libation induced idears are sometimes worth the effort. Not many folks with the talent to build a door out of scrap, a project deserving of being proud of yourself. Far from being a homeowners weekend endeavor, door building and hanging are reserved for those in the know.  And being paid to do it don't suck either.  

"Thats as big as a fish that size gets" - Russ Wilson
RIP JM
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Ben Lippen said:

So I did this repair job on another church last year, and had to tear out a bunch of 5/4 x 4 mahogany decking as part of it. Rotten on the ends, but I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Not about the money value, because I'm sure I could have made a few bucks on that. But I just knew there was another cool job in that wood, somewhere somehow. So I took it all home and stashed it away. After all, it was laid down a mess of years ago, and was nice, old tight grain, probably actually not an endangered species at the time it was cut.  It wasn't  T & G , but was face nailed with nasty 10d ring shank galvy nails. Fortunately the nails came out of the old framing pretty easily, but were not coming out of the mahogany without a fight. I hauled it away and stored it with nails still in it, and the blood stains, lol...

 

And then one evening at my local watering hole, sharing a rum libation with a couple who are friends and clients of mine from other jobs.... A couple of old school surfer folks. Peace sign door mat kinda folks. Which brings us to where the story comes back to the screen door.  

 

She mentions that she wants a screen door for the kitchen/side door of the house. And how she cant find the one that she wants and had to settle for one....  and so I have a germ idea and grab a piece of paper from the nearby waitress and draw this up....

 

sketch.jpg

Did the same thing. I worked for a contractor in Farmingdale who did strictly historic restos, Covenhoven house, Christ church, Lawrenceville Presb. church etc. Christ church in Shrewsbury had pews built in 1965 66 to take care of the Ft. Mon. military overflow. Fast forward to 83 or so, the fed govt paid for an historically correct resto. and the pews had to go. 15' long with 19'' high backs and 13'' seats all from 5/4 pine with the largest knot smaller than a birds eye. The boss gave me 3 of these, I made a still existing storm door a few cedar lined chests ,corner cabinets and turned several bowls among other things. All gone now. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys. Nobody else might know that, that is high praise from a couple folks I hold in quite high regard. And it's certainly nice to hear from you two, Phil and Mike.

 

Okay, so I made the door up, with both upper and lower panels as I drew it up. Glued up two panels, and then sanded them. Cut the circle in each panel, then I did a dry fit.

Waaaaaayyyyy too heavy for my liking. So I nixed the upper panel. Plus, I liked the bigger view better. I just couldnt make the circle big enough to fit the opening, unless I went to an elipse, and I wasnt ready to go that far for a screen door.

 

 

 

 

100_8671.JPG

100_8676 (1).JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After I got the go-ahead from the clients on the change, I proceeded with the figuring how to make the peace sign. Yeah, I know that I could have just cut the sign into the panel as it was, but there was always going to be that weak point on each side of the down piece, and I just didn't feel good about it.. . So I made all separate parts for it. 

Plus, I got to rip them all down a bit smaller than the rest.... Anyway, cut them parts, and laid them under the big ol' hole all lined up..... Drew nice clean lines of the radius on each. Then I took each end to the drill press where I had mounted a 2" drum sanding bit sunk into a temporary fence. I ran each piece against that sander until I had them to fit nice and tight.  

 

 

100_8679 (1).JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pocket screws, all told twenty, on all the rails (one on each side, two per end) and two each on the peace sign ends. I cheated and ran finish screws into each side of the upright in the peace sign, lol. But it's all well glued up and looking good now. I should mention, that I brought in my buddy to help me with the final glue up, lest it be a total panic mess. The panel glue -ups were hard enough by myself, I wasnt gonna risk it with the final assembly. Flat panel glue ups are hard enough, but tongue and groove glue ups are way harder to get everything well coated before ya lose it.....

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The camera flash makes all sorts of stuff show up that I cant see right now looking at it. But I'll run a stain rag over it one more time tonight. Tomorrow it starts getting Spar Varnish and sanding between. Maybe 5...probably 7 coats. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to register here in order to participate.

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


×
×
  • Create New...