I need 3 pocket doors 3-0 x 9-0 and I am considering making them myself, since the cost for a flush luan version is pricey. Are there any simple straight forward methods to making one. Another idea (in terms of design) was to glue up opposing directions of 3/4″ T&G birch – one side horizontal, one side vertical (total door thicknes of 1 1/2″). I am sure I am entertaining a warpage nightmare, but is something like this possible. Any thoughts?
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I'll go first, I guess........and ask if you're talking about trying to use T&G ply or solid flooring.......or other?
What style of door are you after/ would you prefer? Flush, frame and flat panel, frame and raised panel or other.
Is birch your preference?....or just thinking about that because you have some laying about?
Do you have a jointer, planer, mortiser, router, good tablesaw, etc ? Just trying to get an idea of what you have for tools to work with.
Is 1 1/2" thick your preference?
I was thinking of using 1 x 4 birch flooring (or in my case ceiling boards). The design I was envisioning was akin to square edge siding, if not I guess a flush door, but not raised panel or anything like that. As far as tools, my stock is limited, no major bench equipment (planers, joiners). I haven't done it before and know that I am probably out of my league here but thought I would explore it anyway. As far as thickness, I was planning on 1 3/8", the 1 1/2" came from 1x4 stock times 2. I realize the hardware is thickness sensitive, but thought I might be able to eek out an extra 1/8". I have investigated Hafele hardware, serious dollars - $300 per door,(that is what is used often here in NYC), but will probably (definitely) only be able to afford Johnson. I framed the pockets with 1 5/8", 20 GA metal studs, with 1/4" luan on the internal faces, fastened with Duro-rock screws so they would countersink flush into the luan. Just not having much like finding anything affordable that looks decent.
CORRECTION: not birch, but fir. I have been doing that all day, calling fir, birch. Probably because of all the lead in the food chain - no let's not go there again. LOL. More likely due to the aluminum in the pots.I am putting in 1x4 square edge FIR on the ceiling of a 9' high entry hall. The pocket doors are adjacent to this hall. Another thought was using cedar for the ceilings and then maybe the doors,(since I am in the middle of installing 6500 lf of it as siding and am bound to have some left over) but I figured that would be even more unstable than fir.
Edited 3/14/2005 10:53 pm ET by TGNY
Personally, I wouldn't think of making my own doors the way you have described. 9' doors aren't very common. Ordinarily, I would make a frame and skin both sides with 1/4" plywood. The only plywood that I know, that is readily available in 9' is T-111, the siding. The longer sheets are often special order and at a premium price. You could spend a lot of money and end up with a warped door for your trouble.
Unless you have some experience making doors, know how to select stock that is less likely to twist or bow and own a jointer, I would spend the money and let someone else deal with the headaches. Pocket doors need to be straight and flat. That's a challenge even with great stock. The door hardware is sometimes thickness sensitive, for common doors that means either 1 3/8" or 1 3/4".
This company is near you and they make tall doors.
http://www.manhattandoor.com/
You might want to check some Architectural salvage yards too.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Thanks for the link. I did speak to them. They wanted $375 a door - no warranty. You guys have already scared me off this track already. I guess I'll have to bite the bullit and buy, or maybe make them out of wonder board - that shouldn't warp. LOL
Hey, don't let'em scare you off. Made plenty doors out of plywood, even plywood and just 1x4 on one edge, none have warped indoors.
Outdoor ones have not warped either, but used good exterior or marine grade ply on those.
Pix is of D. fir plywood doors. Upholstered the "C" side of the ply.
Hey thanks for the encouragement and pix. How do you keep them from warping? Love the "raised panel" BTW.
There was an article a few months ago in FHB about custom-building doors. The author built two "face frames" that were pocket-hole screwed together, then glued it all up with a plywood core. I can't find the article online, but I've seen a couple different versions of this. I recently tried it myself for a craftsman-style odd-sized door and it came out nice and solid. Maybe a little too solid, since his method results in a 1 3/4" thick door. Seems to me if you had a planer or modified the method slightly, though, you could build a stable 1 1/2" thick door of whatever size you wanted.I can't vouch for warping, mine's only a couple months old, but so far, so good. Still nice and square. I'm about to build a second door using the same method, but this time, I'll try to make it only 1 1/2" thick. An excuse to buy that planer I've wanted? :-)It's doable, and cost-wise, worth considering for a limited number of doors.Enjoy,
-Sean
Thanks Sean, If you do come across that FHB issue number, please let me know. Also do you have any pics of the door you made. I would like to see it.
I couldn't find the original FHB article I was thinking of (maybe it was a different magazine?), but I did find one I had photocopied a while back at the library that took a very similar approach. It was in FHB, Feb/March 2002. "A Different Approach to Frame-and-Panel Doors", by Gary Striegler.Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of the one I did. I took some on film as I was making it, but those pictures aren't developed yet. Here's one before I installed any of the hardware and painted it. I made it out of poplar. Narrow and short for an access door at the bottom of the basement stairs.Enjoy,
-Sean
Don't belive the BS about screwing up the door if you make it yourself. Do you think that the guys that mke doors started out making doors at say the 50th door ? They started with there first door.
Ok use russian,baltic ,swedish,or something simular birch plywood. Thin stuff 1/8 to 1/4 . Glue up a core on a flat table that you have leveled. No twist. Use a veneer plywood of your choise on the outsides of the core. If you want a paneled door mke the core thinner .If flush build up to the thickness you need.
Cut the core to the size less a few inches around the perimeter,if you want a paneled door. Cut a rabit on the inside of your" frame " stile and rail about 1/2 the thickness of your core . glue the two back to back to make a solid frame of the thickness that you need. Yuo don't need a planer but youknow you want one , A table saw with a planer blade will do smooth work . you can thickness the wood by ripping it by cutting 1/2 way through or as deepas the saw will cut then flipping it and cut again . If there is a spline of wood still holding the two together cut with a hand saw.
Go make your doors. So what if you F,itdup Make anouther and it will work. It will still be cheeper than the one you bought and you will have a new skill .
Get a copy of this book - "Doormaking-A Do-it-yourself Guide" by John Birchard, Sterling Publishing Company, ISBN 0-8069-4340-X. You won't regret it.
Best book written about any one aspect of our profession I've seen in the 30 some years I've been studying building. Absolute must for your bookshelf.Free the Sancho!
Thanks for the encouragement Don. Got a quote from my local lumber store, wanted $400 each for flush doors and it will take 7-8 weeks. Might start shopping around for a used planer. Did have a question regarding this comment:'Cut a rabit on the inside of your" frame " stile and rail about 1/2 the thickness of your core . glue the two back to back to make a solid frame of the thickness that you need.'If I understand correctly are the rails and stiles 2 pieces, sandwiching the panels? Is this better/easier than dadoing the rails and stiles and then floating the panels.
Edited 3/15/2005 6:20 pm ET by TGNY
Thats it . Because your core becomes the panels and it is fairly stable, you can glue up the rails and styles.
I have done that several times to make two faced doors. Walnut on one side oak on the other . and like that . The last one I did I cut a birch veneer hollow core in half and made the other side a raised panel catalpa .
Once you start the possibilities are endless.
I've built two hollow core doors with flat plywood surfaces. One is 3-0 x 8-0 with luan on the inside and laminate over fir plywood outside. The other is 3-6 x 7-0, fir plywood both sides.
Be sure to use old wood that has had plenty of time to air dry and choose its final shape. Cut it on a table saw to get the final thickness of door you want. Design it with plenty of internal ribs, both to keep the surface from deflecting, and to resist warping. Make it a tad bit large, so you can trim the edges even. Glue the whole shebang together on an extremely flat surface (I used the shop floor) either well clamped, or with plenty of weight on it (I used weight).
The 3-6 x 7-0 was an ultra-cheap use up the scraps kind of project. It consists of three pieces of 3/8" ply on one side, and two of 1/4" on the other. It's still absolutely flat after 20 - 25 years. The other one we didn't let the wood age long enough, and the top corner warped inward about 3/16".
-- J.S.
My doors are 3'-0" x 9'-0". Would you get 4' x 10' ply to do it?
> My doors are 3'-0" x 9'-0". Would you get 4' x 10' ply to do it?
It depends on how important appearance is, and whether you want to spend the time filling and sanding. The one I made out of little pieces was for a shop, appearance didn't matter. If you need a good looking clear finish, then one big piece is the way to go. That's what we did with the luan. For a solid color exterior, that laminate door worked out very well, looks fine after 20 years.
-- J.S.
He's a long time buddy of ours who apparently said something that offended someone (imagine that) and got banned. I think he's back now but I'm always a little behind everything a few days.
Free speech leads to a free society.
I've been in one of Weyerhaeuser's plants, up in Wisconsin, where they make architectural flush doors, many hundreds per day.
They start with a particleboard core, a perimeter of stiles and rails, a solid block of wood going into a cutout in the core, where the lock hardware will go, then glue, crossband veneer, more glue, finish veneer skins, and the whole thing goes into a big press.
If I thought I had a glue that would work with something like 1" Dow rigid foam, I might try making a flush door by using that as a core, then 1/4" plywood skins. You would want to use the stile, rail, and block approach, then maybe edgeband it to cover the ply edges.
But how to press it? Do you have a dead flat hard floor surface somewhere? Maybe a piece of ply under the sandwich, another on top, then a bunch of 5 gallon pails full of sand.
Who knows? I'm just thinking out loud here.
Interesting... something like a plywood garage door which has a rigid foam core, which I also considered making,(but is being delivered and installed today).