Three unusual doors.

[Marineboy]

Aha! Great to see the historical connection.

 

[Bm101]

Not Linda and Terry then Mike?
:-"

Looks great btw.
Chris

 

[Marineboy]

I did wonder about that at first. When I retired after my career in children’s social work I toyed with the notion of renaming the house Duncarin. But good taste thankfully prevented me.

 

[Benno]

I'm just at the beginning of this woodworking thing, just doing my first projects and learning the ropes - what an inspiration this thread is.

 

[rafezetter]

Not Linda and Terry then Mike?
:-"

Looks great btw.
Chris

Haha - that's exactly what I thought, but with an added "but the posters name is MikeG... I don't get it....?"

Mike - those doors and WIP are just excellent, the front door especially, I think you do yourself a disservice with the comment on your carving ability as well.

Makes me feel very humble at some of the things I've made - I'm not worthy!

I've BM'd your "saga" on the woodhaven site - if it's as indepth as this WIP it'll keep me busy for some time.

 

[MikeG.]

.........I've BM'd your "saga" on the woodhaven site - if it's as indepth as this WIP it'll keep me busy for some time.

Good luck with that. There are about 120 pages, covering 4 years of work. I reckon you'd do well to read it in under about 50 hours.

 

[MikeG.]

Finally, after a 10 week wait, 4 keyed-alike sash locks arrived, and that triggered a bit of activity at the front door. First of all, we don't have a bell or a knocker.

That's a funny shaped piece of wood, Mike:

The bell pull had to be mounted in an unorthodox way because of the arched braces for the porch canopy, with the top element being rotated 90 degrees from the lower piece. Hence the funny shaped piece of oak:

The bell pull itself is a really nice bit of casting, but the screw thread used to join the two halves of the rod was appalling, and failed immediately. I welded it together instead:

Three metres away, inside, is the bell. There are various pulleys in between:

The awful stretchy nylon cord supplied with the bell will be replaced with some twisted wire cable (actually picture hanging wire) when that arrives.

Now, the lock/ latch. Firstly, the door is an inch thick boarded door, so a sash lock won't work in the ordinary way. A rim lock would be the usual answer, but the other three outer doors need a sash lock, and you can't get a sash lock and a rim lock on the same key without paying many hundreds of pounds so......

I then glued that all up:

Whilst the glue was drying, I decided I needed part of a wheelbarrow for the lock issue:

The following day I cleaned up the lock box, then did some drilling etc:

That's the woodwork done for the box. I set to with a file and hacksaw to sort out the metalwork:

I found a collection of gorgeous square headed black screws:

With a little box for the keep, it was time to screw that lot to the door (with the metalwork just resting in place):

After a bit of tiffling to get everything working smoothly, I obtained some old engine oil from my friendly local garage:

It wasn't really possible to take photos whilst using a blow-torch to get the metal glowing dull red, then plunging it repeatedly into the oil, burning off the excess, and repeating, but I did stop half-way through so that the before and after was obvious:

Once cool, I wiped them off, and screwed them in place:

Unfortunately those were all the screws I had, so I had to shorten some hand-made nails and use them at the ends of the straps:

Ideally, I would have liked a big black doorknob (and separate escutcheon) rather than a monkey-tailed handle, but I couldn't find any big ones with a return spring in them, which was essential for this latch.

 

[Marineboy]

That ironwork is absolutely gorgeous, particularly the bell pull. And what an ingenious solution to fit the lock. Hats off to you.

PS - is tiffling the same as fettling?

 

[AndyT]

Brilliant! =D> =D> =D>

I love the way you mix up the best of the old and new, spending cash where it's necessary and saving it where that's the sensible choice.

 

[MikeG.]

That ironwork is absolutely gorgeous, particularly the bell pull. And what an ingenious solution to fit the lock. Hats off to you.

PS - is tiffling the same as fettling?

I think tiffling involves more time-wasting and bigger hammers than fettling, but requires roughly the same tea consumption.

 

[AES]

I really DO like the metal work, it all fits in (in terms of looks) so well with everything else. Heard about the engine oil/blowlamp idea before, but never tried it. If that's the sort of results it brings I'll have a go at that sometime.

I really love the bell arrangement too. If the nylon cord is too springy and you don't want to wait for the picture wire to arrive, how about "Bowden cable" which doesn't normally stretch much at all - e.g. would be push bike brake cable inner, or moped or lawn mower throttle cable inner, etc, etc. Available here in various lengths over the counter in DIY Emporia, amongst others.

 

[MikeG.]

That was my first thought for cable, but my sources (I'm into cycling, a lot) all sold it in shorter lengths.........or on 100m drums.

Fleabay tell me my wire should be here tomorrow.

 

[pollys13]

Amazing , knocked out, reminds me of that song line, slinky, cool and nobody's fool.

 

[MikeG.]

Thanks, pollys.

Of course, I can't use it yet as we require over-length keys due to the unorthodox arrangements of both front doors. They'll be cut in the next few days.

 

[thetyreman]

great to see some progress mike, it's really looking good now, love the bell great detail

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I like how the straps have turned out with the heat and oil treatment - I hope you avoided the fumes if you were using old engine oil though.

Ideally, I would have liked a big black doorknob (and separate escutcheon) rather than a monkey-tailed handle, but I couldn't find any big ones

Careful choice of Google search terms called for there :lol:

 

[E-wan]

All looking very impressive

Instead of picture why have you considered using spectra/dynema it's available in a multitude of diameters. Has a very high breaking strain, virtually no stretch, will flow more freely through pulleys and won't corrode like a metal cable.

Ewan

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Bm101]

Great read as always. Good to see the new progress
My brother in law has an oak door. And windows. And partition. And chairs, bench and table. All made for the property. You'd like it Mike.
I love his house. You go there and think why does my house not have leaded oak windows and flagstones on the floor.
He's an architect too. Specialises in old buildings, you might even know him.
Only reason I mention it is he has what I know as a zombie bar. Sorry, don't know the real name.
Blacksmith knocked up a couple of brackets and the oak bar sits in it at night. It's solid. Better than any lock. Its medieval tech. Designed for proper assaults on your property. By people with swords and spears and stuff. There's modern equivalents but none stand out from my quick google.
Just a thought. :wink:
Cheers
Chris.

 

[MikeG.]

All looking very impressive

Instead of picture why have you considered using spectra/dynema it's available in a multitude of diameters. Has a very high breaking strain, virtually no stretch, will flow more freely through pulleys and won't corrode like a metal cable............

I had to duckduckgo the stuff because I'd never heard of it. I bought the brass wire because it will be on show, is cheap, and it won't stretch . If it doesn't work as I expect, I'll have a look at your suggestions.

 

[AndyT]

I had to duckduckgo the stuff because I'd never heard of it.

So did I, for the same reason. I don't need any at the moment, but the names are now filed away for when I do. Thanks, E-wan.