Reclaimed Wood Doors

[Maker of Things]

I have been making some cupboard doors for St Nicholas Fields Environment Centre to go under one of their stair cases.

The wood was from Touchwood, the wood recycling arm of Emerge Recycling.

The first two, pictured here in my workshop, were the shorter ones, just simple braced and ledged doors.

[Maker of Things]

Here are the same doors fitted to the cupboards I built earlier.

[Maker of Things]

This is the next door along, taller and a tight fit on my work bench.

Being taller it needed an extra brace and ledge.

Having a 4" belt sander makes light work of sanding the face of the door flat and smooth.

[Maker of Things]

Just one more to make, an even taller one, before I see what timber is left for making the infill panels at each end of the stairs.

The work is simple and basic, but good fun. 

[Maker of Things]

The final door is laid out on my bench.  It will still need adjusting and sorting to find a way for the slightly warped timbers to counter act each other to produce a flat and true door.  Get it wrong and the door could be 'banananananana' shaped, or twisted.  All the forces in the timber need to work as a whole, including those in the warped braces and ledges.

It is sort of a 'black art' reading how the individual timbers will respond to 'coercion' from its neighbours once the cramps are released.

Getting ready to spend the weekend in Whitby for the YACF night ride so back to it next week.

[Maker of Things]

The final door has now been mostly completed.  I will still need to trim it near to size prior to final fitting on site but it is stable, flat and square.

Can't wait to get it fitted, not because it is an enjoyable part of the job, but because these last two doors are taking up a lot of space in my workshop.  Also I will get paid for the job then! 

I have another couple of large jobs to do, a tall garden gate and a book shelf unit so need the bench space back.

[Maker of Things]

These are the last two doors side by side and 2160mm tall.

[Maker of Things]

The doors are finally fitted and out of my way.
The job went well, much easier then the previous doors.  The only change I had to make was with the tall rectangular door.  I had set up the braces of the door, in the workshop, to be hung on the right hand edge.  I had forgotten that there was nothing to hang it from as there is a worktop and a low level cupboard door there.  I could only hang the door on the left side and that would mean the braces would not support the weight of the door and the door will sag.

I decided to change one of the braces around to face the other way by cutting in a second set of mortices in the ledges.  It will work fine that way.

The next stage is to fill in the small triangle, to the left of the doors, and the open ends of the shelves above the work top on the right.  Then some sort of catch will need to devised for the doors.

The 'boss' doesn't like door handles that stick out and wanted something else flush or recessed and also child proof but without requiring a key.  I will need to have a really good think on that.