Hey Fellas, What the best way to cut a steel entrance door? I need to take off about 1 inch. ( its a stanley door).
Thanks for the advice, Lou
Hey Fellas, What the best way to cut a steel entrance door? I need to take off about 1 inch. ( its a stanley door).
Thanks for the advice, Lou
The "She Build" initiative is empowering women in Seattle, WA by ensuring they have safe, healthy homes.
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Get home building tips, offers, and expert advice in your inbox
Fine Homebuilding
Get home building tips, offers, and expert advice in your inbox
© 2024 Active Interest Media. All rights reserved.
Get home building tips, offers, and expert advice in your inbox
Become a member and get instant access to thousands of videos, how-tos, tool reviews, and design features.
Start Your Free TrialStart your subscription today and save up to 81%
SubscribeGet complete site access to expert advice, how-to videos, Code Check, and more, plus the print magazine.
Already a member? Log in
Replies
mini-grinder with the appropriate wheel
circular saw with metal carborundum blade
big grinder with grinding disc (slow)
jig saw or recip saw with metal blade, and belt sander to clean up
Be prepared to re-prime any bare metal
That's a nasty job!
The best way I've found is to get two scraps of 1/2" plywood about 6" wide and a few inches longer than your door is wide. Get another strip of the ply about 2" wide and the same length as the others.
Make a sandwich with the two wider pieces of ply on the top and bottom of your cut line and use the 2" piece as a cutting guide for your saw. It would set on top of the top piece of ply and set back the appropriate distance from your cut line.
Starting from the top you would have: 2" saw guide, ply strip, steel door, ply strip.
Clamp it all together with a c-clamp at each end and use a circular saw with a fine tooth carbide blade.
It will cut it easily and keep the metal cuttings from flying at you.
Consider raising the jamb 1".
Many of the steel doors have a 3/4" recess at the bottom with spot welded C section up inside. Cutting 1" off would either run smack into the web of the C section or cut it off, leaving an open bottom that would bend.
Look at your specific door bottom construction ....
Easiest way is to take it to a welding shop. A normal circular saw can do it if you don't mind sacrificing the saw to tool gods. I have used everything from recip saws to band saws and nothing makes it perfect. You can rent a steel cutting saw from a tool rental place also but by the time you pay for the tool a welding shop could have don it for you. If you cut above the 3/4 inch mark on most metal doors you have cut out the c channel and you will need the door to be welded anyway.
I've done it several times with a circular saw. No, it didn't ruin the saw. I used a level clamped in place as a guide. Taped the cut area prior to doing the cut to minimize scaring of the door. Like Junkhound said, there is a piece in the bottom of the door you need to save. It holds the weatherstrip. In the last one I did that piece was just glued in - but that glue had some wicked holding power... I don't think it was spot welded - can't remember. So, I cut the door off and then pealed the waste sheet metal off the bottom piece, and then glued and screwed the bottom piece back in. Then messed with the threashold. Actually came out really good considering it was a double 3'0 door. It was an entrance to a walk in crawl space.
Come to think of it though, if it were a regular entry door, I'd probably change the size of the rough opening if that was in any way possible.
What is the situation? Trying to fit a new door into a old smaller jamb? Rough opening too small for pre-hung unit? Can you do something besides cut the door off?
Edited 4/22/2007 8:05 am ET by Matt
I'm with you on this one. I have cut them easily with a circ saw and a 24 tooth blade., BUT I must confess, it was a temporary deal, not a door I expected to be there for the long haul.
That weather strip deal is a pain to handle.
I have also installed far too many "cat doors" in steel doors, for that, I drill the corners and grab the Jiggy saw, cut close and finish with snips..a propane torch does a sweet job of "finishing" the foam that is exposed...see? I ain't as dumb as I look.Parolee # 40835
If my DW had her way, there would probably be a cat door in 1/2 the doors in our house. Right now, we have zero :-)
I got a big cat..he is like a Maim coon cat ( yes, I said MAIM)...he runs about 22lbs.
So being the rocket scientist I am, I made a cat door from a vinyl truck floor mat...about 11x14"...now the dog gets out in the middle of the night, and is too stupid to re-enter..nuthin like waking up at 330 am and findinga dog barking at cat door.
I have taken to laying chairs in front of that acess, so he can't find his way through, but the cats can.
Border collie/aussy shep is a REALLY smart breed, but when they get dumb..they get really dumb.Parolee # 40835
Yea - we are pet lovers here too... Got a chocolate lab who I thought was real smart :-)... Every spring she runs around in circles on top of the pool cover, sometimes for upwards to an hour. I figured there must be tadpoles or something similar in there... Then the other day I figured it out: When she steps on the translucent cover it makes bubbles out in front of her. She advances and more bubbles out in front of her. So basically she was running around the pool chasing the bubbles that she can never catch up to. I remarked to my wife - "yea - real smart dog. What she is doing is pretty similar to chasing her tail". ;-)
We have a walking machine that we have to plug in and get our exercise on.
Dang thing doesn't even make bubbles to motivate us!
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Man, that is smart and pregnant with a snappy response..i'll defer to my sleepy ego, and let it ride.
Walking machine ..snorkParolee # 40835
We have one of those too. Hummm... Maybe I could take the dog for a walk while watching TV and sitting in an easy chair beside the tread mill. Yea - that's the plan... :-) I wonder how many calaries per hour I would burn? Actually the machine has a meter for that, so I guess all I have to do is look at that.. :-)
One good thing about getting old, you pick your posion....lets see? Stair machine/ ladder. Ladder/stair master?
Now I'd love to see him witha bundle of GAF on that stair stepper.Parolee # 40835
I was hauling GAFs up the ladder a month before the heart procedure.I'll wait to laugh 'till you get my age!;)
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Wife got it for her weight loss regimine and rarely used it just like the three stationary bicycles she has had.When I got out of the hospital from my heart procedure last year, I got on it for the first time a couple days later. In my three months of recovering from that and the shoulder rebuild, I used it a lot more than she has in three years.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
LMAO...I can see it.
My Guy jumps, I mean I am 6'4'' and he can take away my ball cap..an dash thru the yard..mostly in front of the riding mower.Parolee # 40835
"Border collie/aussy shep is a REALLY smart breed, but when they get dumb..they get really dumb."If it is anything like my border collie hybrid the smarter than you or I."now the dog gets out in the middle of the night, and is too stupid to re-enter..nuthin like waking up at 330 am and findinga dog barking at cat door."He has learned that you will get up at 3:30 to let him in..
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Yes, I often wondered who trained who.Parolee # 40835
3:30AM!!!
Whatcha dune sleepin' so late in the morning anyhow? Huh?
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I enjoy sleepsleep is the elexir of lifesleep asks no questionsit gathers dreams
Parolee # 40835
Easy.
I used to use a circ saw with a plywood blade set in backwards to cut roofing metal so that is how I've done the cutting.
be sure to wear eye protection.
Use a guide like with cutting any door. More important here because if hot metal lands on your cheek or hand, you will flinch and mess up the cut.
Thjen gl;ue the insert back in the void. At one inch, you might have some sliver of the pold left. I would take it all the way out,because there is not enough left to bother with.
Use PL Premium to glue the new infill back and clamp it over night.
Then grind smooth and paint, paint, paint before hanging.
I have one I took four inches off back in 2002 a stone's throw from salt water on a shore cabin that is doing fine.
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
its easier if you can take material of the top of the door. Only if its a plain slab, does this work.
We had to cut a few steel doors on one job I had. These were hollow steel with no wood filler. The bottom plate was recessed and spot-welded to the door panels. We drilled out the welds to cut the plate loose and used a metal-cutting composite blade in a circular saw to cut the door to size. We then ground out any imperfections with a grinder and welded the plate back in the bottom. A little Bondo took care of defects.
Many entrance doors have wood cores, however. With this, I would still use a composite blade to cut through the metal, but I would set it just deep enough to go through the skin and take it slow to keep the heat down. After getting through the metal, I'd cut the wood with a regular blade and grind everything flat with a grinder.
Same thing with a foam core, but even slower and lower heat.
George Patterson, Patterson Handyman Service
This job is obviously an excuse to get a new tool. I woud recomend this:
http://www.powertoolservices.com/Tools/6370-20.htm
It can also cut thru angle iron, sheet stock and just about anything else short of harden tool steel.