Ray's barn door

[Steve Maskery]

Those who have followed my workshop build thread will know of the debt of gratitude I owe to Ray for his unwavering help over the last 2 years. I shall never be able to pay him back. However, he asked me about replacing a door to the barn at the rear of his house and, of course, I was delighted to oblige.

This is the offending article that has stood there for most of the last 120 years:

Yes, the bracing really is that way round.

Having measured up I prepped the stock and marked out and cut the mortices:

Then it was over to the tablesaw to cut the corresponding tenons. This is the setup on the Ultimate Tablesaw Tenon Jig (well you didn't expect me to use anything else, did you?)

They need to be 110mm long but my TS will only cut 78mm or so

So there was a little bit of handwork to do....

 

[Steve Maskery]

..Finishing them off by hand was very straightforward, because I now had a nice flat cheek to work from, it was just a case of extending it a bit.

I don't saw everything with a machine, you know

The bottom rail is quite deep, so the tenon is split into two, so as not to weaken the stiles

Then it was assembly and wedging. I know I took some photos of this but I'm blowed if I can find them. I have two cameras and they don't appear to be on either. Maybe I imagined it, but I don't think so, I like to show them off!

So it was then cutting and fitting the braces and checking that everything was nice and flat

The rebates for the cladding were made by simply affixing a strip all round the inside

 

[Steve Maskery]

When I got it over to Ray's he had already stripped the frame

but what we hadn't noticed was that the frame was nowhere near planar. One top corner was 20mm out to the front, the other top corner was 20mm out towards the back.

Of course, the old door was twisted in the same way having been there so long, but my nice new flat door looked awful. So we set about trying to square up the frame and fit the new door to it.

When we had got it to something like acceptable, we fitted the outer cladding. They need about 1.5mm clearance between each one, but we had spacers of only 1 and 2mm, so we alternated them. There is enough deviation from straight anyway, it doesn't really matter.

I bevelled the bottom edge to aid run-off

But when we hung it and removed the packers it sagged and looked very unhappy

It wasn't good, so I said to Ray, "Would you like me to make you a new frame as well?"

 

[n0legs]

Door looks great Steve =D>
Shame about that frame though, rip it out.

 

[Steve Maskery]

So last Saturday I took round a new frame and Ray has been painting it.

Today I went round and we fitted it. The hinge jamb was fixed first leaving the header and opposite jamb loose for the time being.

The leading edge of the door was no longer straight because we had tried to fit it to the old wonky frame, so we trued that up

With packers in for clearance it looked much better

The door was wedged up to the header and a makeshift washer put between the hinge and the pintel. When we remove that, it should give us just the right amount of clearance at the top.

Then we could fix the rest of the frame to meet the door nicely all the way round

Then it was a matter of fitting the lock. I made a bit of a pig's ear of that, then Ray finished it off and made a complete pig's ear of it. Shame. But fortunately we discovered that the door was a bit tight in the middle on the leading edge. It was the jamb that was a bit bowed out, but rather than planing the jamb true, we planed the door to fit, removing the evidence of our ham-fistedness in the process. Some days you get away with it.

We fitted the strike plate perfectly though

Of course, Chris has been plying us with cake and drinks all day, but she won't let me take her picture

So now the job is (almost) complete

There is still the internal skin to fit, but the insulation is already cut, we simply ran out of time today. I think Ray intended it to be a darker colour to match his other exterior woodwork, so I'm not sure if it will stay that colour, but Chris said, with a big grin on her face, that she was more pleased with the door than if I'd given her a diamond necklace. My kind of lady.

At this rate I shall have repaid my debt by the time I'm 120 years old.

 

[MattRoberts]

Great thread, thanks for sharing the detailed process!

 

[Racers]

Nicely done Steve.

Pete

 

[Baldhead]

Very nice Steve, nice to see you working 'in' your workshop instead of on it. :lol:

Stew

I don't want to steal your thread but, I recall you saying you were evaluating the Bosch mitre saw, if I'm right can I ask how you found it?

 

[Steve Maskery]

It is superb, Stew, just superb. Powerful, accurate, great capacity.

I haven't really got it set up in the right place though. I don't have any wall space left (the knuckle arrangement means that it can happily sit against a wall, as nothing sticks out the back) so I have it away a bit, in front of a cupboard, my stack of systainers and the drum sander. When the supports are out, it is difficult for a fat geezer like me to get behind to access the stuff I need. I need to reorganise that whole quarter of the workshop, really.

Any drawbacks? Not many, and they are small. I've not been able to get the laser to work very well. There are two, one each size the blade, but as you adjust them closer, the blade casts a shadowand they disappear. The DX is good but not great. Other than that, it is the bees knees and I love it.

I have written a proper review for Nick, but of course, he is not publishing at the moment, so I don't know if it will see the light of day. I must give him a ring and see how he is getting on.

 

[focusonwood]

Looks great....I need to make a couple of these.

I was planning to make the frame and then rebate with a router for the cladding...any reason why you didn't do this?

I'm still on a steep learning curve so my signature is very accurate!

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well you can do that, and many would, but it doesn't look as classy, in my opinion. It's obvious at the corners that it has been done that way.This way, the edge of the cladding lines up properly with the M&T joint.
HTH
S

 

[focusonwood]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[dc_ni]

As Baldhead said its nice to see you getting to work in the workshop Steve. I imagine its at times like this that makes all the trouble of the build worth it.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Thank you, guys, much appreciated.