I am building an entry door out of Honduras Mahogany (1 3/4 thick) and have the following questions:
1) The stiles will be 5 1/2″ wide. The bottom rail will be about 11 inches wide, the top about 7″. With the tools available in my shop it looks like I will be using the drill press with a brad point bit and chisels to make mortises deep enough. I plan to make them 1/2″ wide (the biggest bit I have) and about 4″ deep. Is this adequate or should they be wider?; deeper?; are loose tenons a good way to go?
2) There will be two panels in the door about 10″ by 44″ and full thickness. My current thought (as opposed to a solid wood panel or two half-thickness panels back to back) is to make a sandwich of 1″ MDF, put skins of re-sawn 5/16″ Mahogany on each side of that, and finish it of with a fancy store bought veneer of a more figured (and book-matched) mahogany. The reason for the 5/16 layer is to allow a rabbet around the perimeter of the panel as a reveal. I also planned to use two 5″ pieces side by side for the 5’16” layer as opposed to a single 10″ wide piece. I assume if I make the fancy sandwich panel (extra mayo please!) that I can then glue this in instead of having it float.
Any help or hints would be welcome. BTW, there is a glass storm door between the new entry door and the outside world.
Keith
Replies
Why not use some insulation board between the panels. Can you let them all float.
BTW do not use yellow carpenters glue or Elmers white glue for this project, both will slowly creep. I speak from experience, I did not believe a professional door maker and had to try. I had full mortise and tennon joints on the frame. It took about 4 years and the door slowly shifted out of square and required trimming. I finally took it down. Now I just look at the door. I am going to drive some long screws into the joints and see if that will stabilize it.
He recommended a two part or resourceinol (sp?) type.
Curt
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