Fitting thicker Victorian doors to frame

[jeffinfrance]

or you could mould the edge of the infill and set the rebate back a bit.

got to be better than all the risks involved with cutting into or removing old stuff.

jeff

 

[Benchwayze]

True, or buy a suitable moulding and infill!
So many approaches. :lol:


Cheers Jeff!

John

 

[cerbera84]

hmmm. I think I'm going to have to go down either the scoring and chiseling route, or the router and chiseling route. this is because 3 of the 5 door frames I need to adjust do not have architrave on both sides, and due to the way the un-architraved side butts the skirting, it wouldn't be possible to plant 1/4" timber on. if I thoroughly score both sides of the waste 1/4" I'm removing, and be really careful.... is there anything that could really help avoid splitting this frame?

 

[jeffinfrance]

hi ben,

how wide are your frames and doors? be much simpler to just fill in the existing rebate and plant new jambs to make the deeper rebate.

you could probably use some off the shelf skirting to give you a new period moulding on the new liner and jamb.

personally i would do everything possible to avoid cutting into those jambs or taking off the architrave. if they were made according to "best practice" the mitres could be mortice&tennoned as well. potential for a world of pain.....x 5!!!

 

[clewlowm]

just pop in to your local joinery company, exchange a few beer tokens and stick them through the sanding machine.

 

[cerbera84]

the door frames rebate to rebate are approx 30", the doors are 33" themselves so they'll need a lot of trimming! hmm I don't think I could reduce the frame size any more by planting wood to form a new rebate

 

[Would Like Answers]

Could you router the edges of the actual doors ie thin them down to the thickness of the current frames? Would that solve the problem?

 

[rogxwhit]

Having glanced at this, it seems given all the circumstances that the most elegant answer would be to deepen the rebates. However - it'll be a task to do this neatly. People are swift to shout 'router!' because they like their toys, but you'll have to work out how you are going to control that router - the router fence riding against the moulded architrave isn't a terribly stable solution, especially at the corners.

Maybe think in terms of temporarily screwing on a planed, straight guide batten or two, if there's room. That'll only leave some little holes to fill later. Overhead will be the fun part! And the corners would be finished with a sharp chisel & a mallet. All in all it's a simple operation that needs a good level of skill! If you lack confidence, either tough it out and learn on the job, or pay a craftsman to do it ...

 

[rogxwhit]

Excuse the hasty penmanship! Batten 1 guides the cut, batten 2 guards against tipping, router used without fence. This way you cannot over-cut in any direction. If it's a plunge router, plunge & lock before starting, then tilt it into the work to start the cut. The cutter will be exposed so take care. Batten 2 will obviously be prepared to be the same thickness as the rebate depth.

 

[rogxwhit]

Another thing is that fitting and hanging a door is a craft in itself where you do certain things in a certain order - it's all common sense & there's an inbuilt logic to it, but if you've never done it before ...

It does look like it's worth doing a first-rate job ...

 

[MARK.B.]

There are as has been said a few ways you could go to get the result you want,each of them will require time /patience/tools, and the ability/skills needed to get a finish that looks the part. If you don't have the skills needed then there is a possibility that you could end up with a finish that looks like a Dogs Dinner. Routers even the small ones are unforgiving and will in the blink of an eye make you regret using one . To get a good result with a chisel takes imho even more skill ,its a lot slower than a router but you can make as big a mess. You don't say if these doors you got have been painted in a previous life or what condition they are in, do they have intricate mouldings of are they simply flat faced . If flat and painted then the suggestion given by clewlowm is a good one ,getting a joiners shop to take 1/8th of each side would leave a surface clean of paint etc so you could apply your chosen finish ,it also removes the need and risks involved of altering your frames in any way, If there are intricate mouldings then possibly not such a good idea.

 

[Doug71]

I would hope he has got the doors sorted by now as he asked the question 12 years ago

 

[MARK.B.]

Dammit i missed that

 

[rogxwhit]

Good lord I missed that too - somebody restarted the thread. I've been shouting in the wind! Poo. Indeed Cerbera's last post on anything was on 17 Dec 2014 ...

 

[Would Like Answers]

Thanks all! I restarted this thread because I’ve got this problem right now! Lovely doors that are too thick for the frames. 11mm too thick. And joiners tell me that routing out the frames will leave too thin a door butt. And it will look a mess and can’t be done.
But I thought leave the frames alone and alter the edges of the doors. Has anyone tried this? It is just too inelegant? Does anyone have a photo of a door like this.
I love the doors - the house is in Glasgow.

 

[rogxwhit]

Leave the doors alone - you'd spoil them! Yes, inelegant. But post pics of the frames so we can see the proportions. Which for internal doors are normally called linings ... and have either a machined rebate gauged to the door thickness, or a planted (= nailed on) stop.

 

[deema]

I have done this myself, so I can offer practical experience. The previous suggestion of a MDF tacked on is what I did with both a router and a multi tool. Using a bearing follower bit in the router the MDF is used both to rest the router on as well as providing the edge for the bearing to follow. This will clean out the majority of the waste. It won’t get into the corners. I then used a multi tool with a wood blade using the door frame and the MDF to act as rests (with a couple of strips of gaffer tape to lift the blade up off the guides slightly) to guide the muti tool blade in and keep it straight are true. A bit of tape acting as a depth stop on the blade. With a chisel to release the last mm of wood, ie mutitool cuts not meeting to stop and danger of an under cut. I used a Clifton bullnose plane to clean up the mutitool cut removing the nose to create a chisel plane right into the corners. Quick once over with a bit of sandpaper to take off the edges and it was ready for paint. It took about an hour per frame.

 

[Doug71]

I have done a few and did pretty much what deema has said.

The main problem you come across is that old casings/linings are rarely straight or flat so sometimes you need to set things up with a straight edge rather than just following the casing.

As said don't take it off the doors and photos would help