Some Doors Like I Haven't Made Before (Update)

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Some Doors Like I Haven't Made Before (Update)

3/25/09 Home stretch now. Today we went back to the site and hung the completed empty frames, did the final adjustments to the primed doors, mounted the catches and returned the doors to the shop for final painting and glazing ... nothing left to do but cut 52 pieces of irregular glass with thin muntins, (no room for sloppy glass cutting), putty em, final coat the insides of the doors and hang em up ...next week this time ... Phew! .. Click the photos to enlarge them,,

3/20/09 Had a brainstorm Wednesday. I took all the glued up door frames to the site and fitted them to the existing cases before I did any more work on them. Since the cabinets were site built, and not by us, there was some 'reconciliation' that needed to be done so that the doors agreed with their surroundings. That bit of prep work also took away the anxiety that I would have had about doing a lot of work on four doors, wondering as I finished up the glass work, if they were going to be the right size. After this week, I think I might go back one more time and install them with the paint, hinges and catches on before I do all the glass work. That would lead to a truly peaceful final installation ....

This post actually started on 3/6, about half way down this entry, but we just got back to working on the doors this week, and, after making a few jigs and holders, we think we have everything figured out. We actually glued up the first whole door and took it off the jig at the end of the day today .... AND, the grid was, as I mentioned in the first part of the post, surprisingly rigid. As they say, the rest is just an exercise. A little fitting, some priming and painting, and a little antique glass cutting and glazing .... installation, catches, pulls, final painting ... We'll be done by Christmas for sure .... The whole process would take a Fine Woodworking type article, but I'll just hit the highlights here. Click the photos to enlarge them ...

To start, we placed the glued up door frame over the glass divider grid ... see detail below that shows the start of the divider grid process ... you have to notch the grid where it interesects the frame so the the moldings can sit over the glass dividers ... trust me on that one ...

Now, using the cheat sheet in the middle of the jig that shows the angles of the mitered intersections from the CAD drawing, cut the molded and grooved top pieces to fit using a thin blad on the table saw, and glue them to the divider grid as they are fitted up. I started with the corner rectangles, than did the center rectangles next, and then the four way x's last.

Viola ... door one glued up above.

The skinny muntin bars were molded on the edges of a wider (4" strip) and then ripped off and the edges of what was left molded and ripped again...

Then we had to make a holder jig to run the skinny pieces through the shaper with the power feed.

Once they were molded, we ripped the skinny part off and milled the center groove (not shown) that locates the molding on the glass divider grid. (are you following this? ) Below is the original beginning of the post with the CAD drawing, the matched cutters and the info on making the glass divider grid ...

3/7 The cutters are here

We had a request to make some doors for some existing bookshelves in a client's house. We started with the typical 'picture in a book' of some Federal, I guess they are, style doors. I had restored some similar, but slightly different, doors a couple of years ago so we had the basics under control. To start, on the CNC Trevor made the pattern of 1/8" deep channels in a piece of MDF using the CAD drawing below ..

The 'web' after the Elmer's glue sets on the muslin ... You can see the 1/8th " deep channels Trevor cut on the cnc to help him keep the frame parts consistent and symetrical. Easier than working on top of a drawing.

Close up of the muslin reinforced joinery of the 'web', which is the first step. Glued butt joints reinforced with thin muslin glued on with Elmer's white glue. Next we'll make the little molded 'hats' that will form the muntins to hold the glass. (See the cutter CAD drawing below) Those will also be butted and glued to each other and to the 'web', coped into the door frames and once glazed, will be more rigid than you might suspect. Check the cutter cad below to get a better picture of the final concept ... Click to enlarge the photos ..