Oak door frame

[skier-hughes]

tape measure and square?

 

[biffvernon]

Try square

 

[Penners]

A router is certainly useful for forming mouldings, but involves a hefty capital investment. If you do go down that route then spend as much as you can on a decent machine - avoid the cheap DIY rubbish which you can buy in the high street. PG[/img]
More pics on my site.

I don't necessarily agree. If you're going to be making hefty demands on your router - lots of heavy routing jobs over many years, then it's probably worth spending a fair a few hundred pounds on a really good one.

But if you're only going to use it occasionally, personally I wouldn't spend a lot. As Biff has observed above, a cheap one will do reasonable service. Mine cost me £35 eight years ago and is still going strong.

how do I ensure that I have sqaured posts to begin with?

I shouldn't get too worried about this. Door hanging is not microsurgery. Just allow reasonable tolerances on the fit of your door to the frame, and - as Biff said - plant the door stops on last of all. That way, if your frame members are a tiny bit out of square, it won't really matter.

 

[big888]

hi i am about to do a similar operation on the front door of my 17th century cottage as for any beading or general mouldings i am going to use a combination of machine tools to speed the process up for the rough work then any detail and finishing i will use a stanley 45 with relavent cutters you can get them on ebay if your lucky

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Finally the weekend has come to turn this:



plus these:

View attachment 1

into one of these:

View attachment 2

Still not sure how I am going to get square posts - they're very wonky and off-sqaure to start with.

Wish me luck... will feed back later.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Can't, wait for pics later so hurry up. Can we have pics of the prep too?

 

[Cloudscape]

I have similar issues with an external door. Most of my external doorframes are open mortise/tenon, with a peg driven through the joint. I have one, possibly two, doorframes to replace. They are 1980s softwood mishaps that are gradually falling to pieces.

I was thinking of having open mortise/tenon joints with planted stops. Given that the proportions in the following sketch are a bit squiffy, which is better and what are the potential problems with each?

Click pic to enlarge

A = frame, B = stop

The upper drawing would give me the look I prefer outside, but the frame would need to conform to any twisting or warping in the door? The door is heavy. Is it asking a lot to hang the hinges through the planted stop?

In the lower drawing, obviously the stops could be recessed a bit for look, and could be encouraged to follow any out-of-flatness of the door.

 

[Penners]

You'll find the job much easier if you opt for the lower design. It allows you to hang the door first, and then finally plant on the stops to suit the alignment of the door. Much more manageable.

 

[biffvernon]

Definitely.

 

[Cloudscape]

Thanks very much.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

OK, so a great day, learning lots of new things. Specially for 'Marm, some photos:

It was a lovely day, so the workshop was outside. I bought a cheap planer/jointer recently, already had things like an electric mitre saw, and hired a 12" saw table for the weekend:

View attachment 2

I'm not a great one for plans, but here'sthe rough sketch:

View attachment 1

The first stage is to get a flat surface on one of the boards. The planer/jointer is useful here. Once you have made sure that the fence is at right angles, then it is a sinch to get a second perpendicular square edge:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Next I used the table saw to get square edges on the other 2 sides and to cut the posts to size - a quick whizz through the planer got rid of the saw marks.

View attachment 2

Follwoing which I used the suggested tenon and open mortise joint. First time I have ever done anything like this - no dount Biff/Penners/Andrew Bodenham will be wincing, but I think it looks ok and the fit is snug.

View attachment 1



So at the end of day 1 (about 4 hours work) I have 3 squared and planed boards, 1 shouldered tenon joint and 2 open mortises cut. Progess is slower than I thought, but I am learning everything from first principles. Tomorrow I plan to finish the second tenon, and then get on with routing the frame and fixing it to the wall opening.

The door will have to wait for another weekend.

WIsh I had followed Penner's advice and gone for the dowel and lintel joint!

Am bloody chuffed, even if I do say so myself - we are all lucky to get such satisfaction from our period property endeavours when we do something new for the first time.

 

[MdB]

Love these sorts of posts. Keep them coming.

(my job for the day was to box in some waste pipe. Nowhere near as exciting...)

 

[Schoolmarm]

You have NO idea how excited I was looking at those pics and reading how you did it. Thankyou.


Did you buy the planer secondhand or new? How much was it?


That looks pretty damn good to me, I don't think anyone will be wincing as they look at it.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

The planer is a cheapo one from B&Q. It's currently £79.99, and I traded in some Christmas vouchers so cost me £30.

It does the job, but it's not as accurate/sturdy as I imagine the ones selling fora couple of hundred quid. The out table is a little short - fine for the header, but for the door jambs I could have dione with a bit more length (or longer stronger arms!).

B&Q are current selling a MacAllister planer thicknesser for £83. It looks a really good piece of kit.

Anyone got any tips on how to sharpen chisels? I have an electric grinder, but don't seem to have the knack for sharpening. Think sharp chisels are a must do for hardwood like oak!

 

[Schoolmarm]

A whetstone!!!!of course, even laydees like me know that. :lol: :lol:


I am going to look at that planer /thicknesser. I looked in Axminster tools catalogue but thought as a mainly faffing family it wouldn't get used enough to justify the price and quality.

 

[Schoolmarm]

It was 189. 00 quid in the b&q online thing.

 

[ian]

Anyone got any tips on how to sharpen chisels? I have an electric grinder, but don't seem to have the knack for sharpening. Think sharp chisels are a must do for hardwood like oak!

Try http://www.screwfix.com/prods/80823...arpening-Stones/Stanley-Chisel-Sharpening-Kit
Very simple and quick. This will set you at the right angle for the chisel. It is difficult to keep a steady angle freehand. It only needs a few strokes if done often, no need to try and take off too much metal. Also when working with newish oak give them a wipe over with a slightly oily rag occasionally, and especially at the end of the day to reduce the attack from the tannins. I keep two sets of chisels, one for green oak and a scratch set if working on old pieces of wood in case there is a nail left in it. Nothing worse than a notched edge when trying to work new oak.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

It was 189. 00 quid in the b&q online thing.

In the Chester B&Q mothership, they have 2 MacAllister Thicknessers - one for £189 and one on special for £83. From the box I was hard pressed to tell the difference, but they do have different model codes. They look almost identical, so I guess the £83 one is a good deal.

They don't have a fence though, so I guess a thicknesser is good for just that - and not squaring off?

 

[Pford75]

I too love these posts. The addition of pics gives a real feel for what you are doing and hopefully will not only benefit you (in terms of advice), but prove a useful guide for others.

Looking forwards to day 2