Cutting a book matched burr walnut door?

[Martin_S]

I have a 1930's gentlemans wardrobe. I bought it because it was cheap and the internal storage was of the highest quality - pull out shelves, beautifully fitting drawers and a large clothes hanging space, all veneered in what I think is maple but I lack expertise to be certain.

The outside is a series of panels of book matched burr walnut - my wife thinks it is hideous but I can see the quality, even at this age the joins - while visible - are all tight and as good as when it was 1st made.

My problem is that it is a very large piece of furniture and I cannot fully open the doors in the room that it was bought for (they hit the end of the new bed).

My wifes suggested solution is to throw away the doors (sorry - just the messenger - I refuse to throw them away) and replace them with a lighter wood face frame, perhaps with sliding doors.

Mu current thought is to keep the doors but to cut them in half vertically and hinge the 2 halves. Obviously I cannot practice, once I cut, nothing can be undone - is it possible to cut something like this cleanly in a table saw? What is the cut face going to look like? Any better suggestions? What else could I do with the doors if I follow my wifes suggestion?

 

[AndyT]

I sympathise with your wish to preserve the wood.

I've not tried to do exactly the same but I have used quite a few bits from old furniture.
The surface of the veneer will probably have some sort of glossy finish, which could be shellac, cellulose lacquer or varnish. In any case, it's probably brittle and likely to chip and crumble when cut. Also, if you try to cut the veneer with anything too aggressive, it's likely to split and break at the edges.

So you need to stop the splintering. I think I would put masking tape along the line of the cut, then clamp a straight edged piece of wood along the line. Use a knife to cut cleanly through the tape, the finish and the veneer. Then use a fine toothed backsaw, resting against the wooden straight edge, to complete the cut, cutting with the saw low down nearly parallel with the surface.
This will be slow work and the saw will clog with sawdust but the cut will be as thin and smooth and straight as possible.

If you must use a power saw you will probably lose about 3mm of wood, before you do any cleaning up.

If you do use a power saw then it might help to clamp sacrificial wood above and below the cut to minimise breakout.

I'm assuming you have ordinary diy tools - others may suggest professional tracksaws with extra fine blades which would work, but cost more than a houseful of wardrobes.

Do think about hinges before you start - you might need to add wood along the edges to give you something to get screws into.

 

[profchris]

Running a saw along a straight edge needs practice. I do it to cut fret slots, and it's easy to skid off line.

Also, I bet this notional straight piece of wood isn't that straight!

I'd start by checking that the substrate to which the veneer is glued won't fall apart when cut.

To make the cut itself I'd use a Japanese pull saw. That will cut faster than the back saw, and I find it very easy to follow a line (but the sawdust is pulled out to cover the line, so needs blowing away every couple of strokes).

However, the saw will try to pull the finish away, so I'd score my line with a scalpel first. Then I'd want to deepen and widen the score to allow my pull saw to cut without pulling on the finish. This would need thought, but probably a stouter knife blade would do it, and I'd practice on scrap with a finish.

Finally I'd plane down the cut surfaces with the plane blade angled so it's slicing the finish towards the back.

Something like 2mm or 3mm total needs to be removed to allow the two halves to open, so it's not essential to use the thinnest possible saw.

 

[custard]

is it possible to cut something like this cleanly in a table saw?

Assuming a decent table saw and a decent sawyer, then the answer is yes, it's perfectly possible. Especially as the doors will be passed across the saw outside face up, so any spelching will be confined to the inside face.

The bigger problem is what comes next.

When the original doors were hung they were tweaked and fettled to achieve an accurate closure and smoothly operating locks and catches. Now to achieve the same quality closure you'll have to fill the kerfs to a tolerance of about 0.1 or 0.2mm. Plus you'd have to deal with the exposed substrate. By the 1930's plywood had been standardised into the same 8' x 4' sheets we use today. The clean, "no frame and panel" art deco look of the 30's was the first really big user of plywood; so I'd expect you'll have plywood edges (and quite possibly plywood voids) to deal with. There are answers to all these problems, but they're not quick and easy.

I admire what you're trying to do, many of the art deco pieces from the 30's are just superb items of furniture, but the fact is you'll struggle to pull this off successfully and your wife may hate the compromised results even more. So your efforts might all be for naught.

 

[ColeyS1]

Screw some full extension drawer runners on the backs of the doors and have them slide open. You'll no doubt have to add a few pieces of wood to fix the runners to the carcase, but it should look better than chopping the door in half. Got any pictures of it ?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Martin_S]

One of the great things about working with wood is that there is no right or wrong way to do anything and much of the joy, for me at least, is thinking through the various options and coming up with alternatives - I find it a very creative and rewarding process.

ColeyS1 - Sliding sideways! Had not thought of that... Am having trouble visualising how I would mount the runners as everything in the cupboard in question pulls out (ie it is all closed box drawers or open tray pull out shelves.

Custard - You are spot on. I have one chip in the veneer on a corner, very tiny, through which I was trying to ascertain what the underlying material is.... My wife (who is obviously more expert than me) told me to look at the bottom of the door, which I did and was surprised to see unveneered, untreated, bare 90 year old plywood...

ProfChris and Andy T, I appreciate your point but don't believe I can get anything like a straight, clean edge using a handsaw of any form and think it has to be a plunge or table saw with all the concerns that come with it - the door is not perfectly flat and if I do cut it, I have to decide whether the cut faces will need veneering or sealing or....

As regards thickness of cut, kerf, etc. I don't think I need to worry - but this could be my big mistake - for the door to hinge in the middle it will need a little clearance and also, the hinges are going to need a little space too - so am thinking that with a fine blade I may have to do some work to make the halves slightly smaller, but need to work that out on some scrap before I start cutting in earnest.

I will take some photos just for info, but thanks for all the input so far.

 

[MikeG.]

Take the doors off the cupboard and store them away somewhere safe. Put some crappy bi-fold mdf things in their place. Once you can find a proper place for the piece of furniture, put the original doors back on. Anything else would be vandalism.

 

[AndyT]

Unless you are imagining something different from what I think you mean, you don't need any clearance between the half-doors - you want them to close up tight as if they were a single piece. Hinges would be let in to the edges.

Perhaps Mike G's idea is the most practical.

 

[Martin_S]

Mike G, I picked this up from a charity shop for £40. They told me it had been there for 2 months and was about to be sent for 'recycling'. Whilst there is quality there in the veneers used and the veneering / construction, it is only a plywood cupboard and it has seen better days. So I am not arguing with you, but would 'keeping it alive in any form' not be better than 'recycling'?