Restoring an Edwardian Front door

[Setch]

I started with a length of accoya which at 2.4m should have been ample, but ended up being *just* enough. A cautionary tale to inspect the timber more carefully when selecting, as there was a huge split/shake which cost me half a metre at one end.



I dimensioned my components with the bandsaw and jack plane. Some posters on here have found accoya dislikes planing, but I found it pretty agreeable, once I got used to the static-cling of the shavings.


The replacement rail was prepared in three layers, and on site I clamped the middle lamination to the door to transfer the mortice locations. The mortises for the mullions were empty, but the rail had been sawn out, so I had to drill and chisel out the old tenons.



I cut a scarf joint between two mortice locations, so I could fit the rail without taking the door apart (or even off it's hinges) and pinned it with a drill bit, so I could use the dry assembly to mark up the tenon locations on the mullions.



The joinery was cut with the tracksaw on my site bench/MFT top.



I cut the "mortices" in the central lamination of the with my oscillating multi tool, and then did a dry fit, before making a ply panel to secure the door overnight, and calling it a day.

 

[Setch]

The following day it was time for glue up.

Before I could glue I scribed the face of the mullions onto the outer faces of the laminated rail, then disassembled everything, carefully noting the best order for assembly in the process. I glued the centre lamination of the new rail first, then the mullions, all using 5 minute Poly glue. The laminated construction allowed me to glue up one component at a time so the short open time wasn't a problem.

While that all cured, I finessed the two outer laminations of the rail. I'd made my components a hair over 46mm thick, expecting to sand/plane them to final dimensions after the dry fit. As it happened, they were perfect, except the laminated rail which was left a bit thick, so I planed the outer faces down to my scribe marks so all the joints would sit flush.

Then, it was time to glue up the rail, which looked a bit Hellraiser-esque!



With that done,

 

[Adam W.]

I bet it took a long time to cut the mortices with your vibrator.

 

[Setch]

I bet it took a long time to cut the mortices with your vibrator.

Not much love for oscillating tools? They are noisy, but I'm finding more and more uses for them.

In this instance they weren't really cutting a mortice, as the centre lamination was the same thickness as my tenons. The mortice was created by notching the centre lamination, so the outer layers could trap the tenon in place.

 

[Adam W.]

Not much love for oscillating tools? /snip

Not really, no.

 

[worn thumbs]

It will look a lot better than the plastic replacement could ever have managed,should somebody be insensitive enough to suggest a modern alternative.Nice work.

 

[Setch]

The last job was some glass bead. I tried to find an off the rack moulding that looked in keeping, eventually going for a 12 x 15 ovolo glass bead.



It's amazing how much material is needed on a design like this - I needed 15 metres to do the interior and exterior beads. I also had to pin the exterior beads with stainless pins, since I'd used accoya for the joinery. Pinning into the original timbers was a breeze, but getting them into the accoya was a huge PITA. They'd hit a bit of hard late-wood and refuse to go in, next time I'll investigate stainless pins for my little nailer. I ended up having to shorten most of the pins into the accoya with side cutters, as it proved impossible to sink a 40mm pin all the way without it buckling.

Anyway, here's how I left it, with the neighbour's original door for reference. Hopefully I'll get some nice pics once the glazier and painter have finished. I don't envy the guy stripping the frame, there's about 6mm of white gloss over original brown graining.

 

[XTiffy]

Well done, great result in this throw away world. One small tip with veneer pins or panel pins, cut the head off one put it in a drill and drill as though it was a "drill", once drilled use a full panel, or veneer pin and they drive in easily (head holds it in). I have fitted hundreds of feet of fine beading in this way. A local gazier would cut the glass to repair cabinets but send the cabinet to me to fit the glass etc. on fragile cabinets with delicate beading.

 

[Setch]

One small tip with veneer pins or panel pins, cut the head off one put it in a drill and drill as though it was a "drill"....

This is a good tip, which I've used in the past. However, I tried it on this job and ended up having to replace the bead in question, as the pin kinked, and mangled the bead.

I think the stainless pins were just a bit too long & bendy. I bought 40mm as I was originally planning on a thicker moulding. With hindsight, 30mm would have been a much better choice.

 

[XTiffy]

The trick here with longer pins is to gradually feed them in the chuck i.e drill a bit the advance the pin etc. Very difficult to control a long thin pin!

 

[thetyreman]

nice! I didn't realise accoya was workable with hand tools.

 

[Setch]

I happened to be in the area of this job yesterday, and managed to get a photo of the door after glazing and painting.

 

[TomGW]

That looks really good. I presume someone had previously 'modernised' it and thought it was a great job.

 

[Setch]

That looks really good. I presume someone had previously 'modernised' it and thought it was a great job.

 

[Setch]

This is a before pic - it was not a thing of beauty!