Replies

1. 
   david_ingle | Oct 14, 1999 02:56am | #2

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   Kerry,
   Here's the way I would do it.
   Take a piece of 3/4" cabinet grade plywood say....8"x36"...glue and pin nail a narrow strip...say 1"x36", as a straight egde along one side(be sure pins don't go through the bigger piece)......with nice new sharp saw blade on your saw.....run saw along straight edge as a guide cutting through the 8x36 piece.....this will make you a nice jig for cutting all doors.......simply clamp jig to door with newly sawn edge right where you want to cut......your saw must be set to cut through 3/4 plus the door thickness......the jig will prevent splintering since the plywood edge is right where the blade runs( an extra measure of safety would be to score door along cut line.....be careful as blade exits the end of the door). I hope I've explained this well enough..if not,just let me know.....it works real good.....

2. 
   david_ingle | Oct 14, 1999 02:58am | #3

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   Oh,and don't use a jig saw....use a circlar saw.

1. 
   Ryan_ | Oct 14, 1999 02:59am | #4

   *If, after all the careful preparation, you still do have small splintering, one pass with a plane will ease the edge and make it all pretty.

3. 
   Guest_ | Oct 14, 1999 04:36am | #5

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   My DIY status doesn't hold much water here, but I've had good luck shortening doors with a handheld power planer. Your 1/4+ cut would only take a couple heavy cuts and a light cleanup cut, if you have a reasonably powerful and well tuned one. Don't do the door in a single direction pass. You'll probably get monstrous chipping at the exit. Go in halfway from each edge. I haven't had side tearout doing this, and would expect it to be pretty fast since there's no setup required.

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 14, 1999 04:49am | #6

   *I'd still pick the circular saw first, use the planer as a backup. It's really pretty easy, and even a sharp 24-tooth is fine, and a guide of any sort is great. Just don't rush the saw. If not, you'll learn pretty quick after the first door. Try a practice cut short of your desired line first.With the planer, remember it's pretty easy to scr*w up at the end -- producing a divot or terrible tearout. An extra piece of wood tacked to the end can take the abuse instead.

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 14, 1999 05:16am | #7

   *This is how it's done,Just as David says......that's the way it's done. We use 1/4" plywood for the base of the "shoot board" as it is known, to facilitate thicker doors. It still won't help with 2 1/4" doors because of the plunge depth of a normal circular saw, but that's the general idea of how it is best done quickly.Ed. Williams

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 14, 1999 06:30am | #8

   *OK, I've been waiting for a chance to gripe about the latest issue, really only one item. That's the tool review of the Festo saw and guide (which would be dandy for this app, if you need more than the shoot board noted above).Here's the gripe; the author makes a big deal about using the setup to trim a door, in front of the customer. Makes the cut, looks down at the door, and the cut under the jig is perfect. Then he looks under the door, expecting to find tearout, and it's perfect, and he's very proud, blah blah. Except, that is the top of the cut, and should be perfect, that's the way circular saws work. The interesting thing to me is that the door under the jig is perfect; that's where you would expect the tearout. Unless I'm missing something, Schleining hasn't done this before, and doesn't know what to expect.I don't normally slag a guy for having a different way of doing things, but this guy is in both FW and FH, and I find myself disagreeing with everything he writes. I was in a tool store with a buddy, one of the two best carpenters I've ever worked with; he came up to me with mag in hand, open to an article on stairbuilding, and said "I thought you said this was a good magasine; look at this guy". I had never said anything to influence him in that direction.This is just venting,feel free to disregard and/or disagree. Kerry, the jig described above is the way to go; the only thing I can add is I use 1/4" MDF as the base as it's flatter and more consistent , and the better contact the jig makes with the face of the door you are looking at as you make the cut, the less tearout.

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 14, 1999 07:26am | #9

   *I had the same thoughts about looking at the underside and being surprised. As the old instructor used to say...the saw base goes on the bad side and the blade cuts nice on the finish side.Same as a table saw 'cept the saw is upside down.Or ...finish side up on a table and finish side down with a circular.

2. 
   Guest_ | Oct 14, 1999 05:41pm | #10

   *Duh, I forgot, I was reading about this just the other day -- Kerry, there was a recent FHB article about a guy who builds kitchen cabinet carcasses on site, and he uses this jig. He claims 1/32" accuracy with a circular saw ... not bad! The folks here really know what they're talking about as well.

3. 
   Guest_ | Oct 15, 1999 07:18am | #11

   *Adrian,Good points. I've been irked by Festo reviews in general. The company clearly makes no effort to conform to American tool standards, like 1/2" shanks for routers, which I think would be a real problem for use in jobsite and shop conditions. Need a new bit RIGHT NOW? Don't count on finding an 8mm shank at HD. OK, the router takes 1/4", but I avoid those whenever possible. Maybe I could get used to metric measurements for this tool, but I'm not going to hassle with metric/english conversions, and I'm not going to sell all my tools and buy all metric ones just because one German tool has a few nice features.I would think this point deserves more mention during tool reviews. In terms of the Festo router review, and some other pieces he's written, Niall Barrett seems to have a strong bias toward European tools that clouds his ability to consider them in the American settings occupied by most of the FHB and FWW readership.Regards,Dave

4. 
   Guest_ | Oct 15, 1999 03:13pm | #12

   *Dave,I have known some great diy's. But do not use a planer to shorten a door. If you come form both directions you can easily gouge out a section where the two cuts meet.Rick Tuk

5. 
   Guest_ | Oct 16, 1999 04:54am | #14

   *A jig is personal choice. I address the splinter issueby scoring 1/32 above cut line with a new utility blade, dress with a belt sander,fine tune my hand.

4. 
   Guest_ | Oct 16, 1999 04:54am | #13

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   I need to take 1/4 inch or more off the bottoms of all my interior doors.
   These are nice oak door and don't want to splinter them. Any suggestion on how to do this using a jig saw or circular saw.

   Should I score the "up cut" of the saw or use tape?

   Thanks

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 14, 1999 01:56am | #1

   *Kerry,I like to put tape on the saw plate,score,then always use a strait edge.tape on the door is not a good idea,and the strait edge is so you can't go over your score mark.hope this helps.ps.Don't forget to seal the bottem of the door again,or you will have problems in the future.