Doormaking

Strother Purdy

Description

Few pieces of furniture, save perhaps chairs, work as hard as doors. Building them to last, especially exterior doors, takes knowledge and experience that don’t come from making other types of furniture, such as tables and bookcases. Doormaking: Materials, Techniques and Projects for Building Your First Door by woodworker Strother Purdy gathers all the information and guidance that both beginning and intermediate woodworkers need to be successful making their first door.
While covering the construction of the eight most popular doors, Doormaking: Materials, Techniques and Projects for Building Your First Door starts first by addressing the fundamentals: the basics of good design and proper construction technique, the pros-and-cons of common materials including wood and sheet goods, interior and exterior finishes, hardware and the fine points of hanging doors.
Once those key elements are covered, Doormaking: Materials, Techniques and Projects for Building Your First Door offers project chapters that walk the reader step-by-step through the construction of eight essential doors, explaining design and material choices in specific contexts, tool options and other considerations. The first four projects are easily accessible to a beginner while the remaining projects offer up some more challenging details for the intermediate woodworker. Also included are sidebars containing amusing anecdotes and mistake stories – each delivering tips as well as details for hanging a door – and an inspiring gallery of doors that are sure to inspire.
Doormaking: Materials, Techniques and Projects for Building Your First Door is a must for any woodworking hobbyist, professional craftsman, or DIY homeowner.

Sujets

• Artisanat
• Référence
• Woodworking
• Carpentry
• Reference
• Do-It-Yourself
• Crafts
• Hobbies
• hardware
• Woodwork
• Materials

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781610353106
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Doormaking

Materials, Techniques, and Projects for Building Your First Door

Strother Purdy
Doormaking Materials, Techniques, and Projects for Building Your First Door
by Strother Purdy
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Strother Purdy 2017
Cover design: Troy Thorne
Artwork: Jim Goold
Art direction and layout: Maura J. Zimmer
Photography: Strother Purdy except where noted.
ISBN: 978-1-610352-91-8
135798642
Linden Publishing titles may be purchased in quantity at special discounts for educational, business, or promotional use. To inquire about discount pricing, please refer to the contact information below. For permission to use any portion of this book for academic purposes, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at www.copyright.com
Printed in China.
Woodworking is inherently dangerous. Your safety is your responsibility. Neither Linden Publishing nor the author assume any responsibility for any injuries or accidents. Photographs in this book may depict the usage of woodworking machinery where the safety guards have been removed. The guards were removed for clarity. We urge you to utilize all available safety equipment and follow all recommended safety procedures when woodworking.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Purdy, Strother, author.
Title: Doormaking : materials, techniques, and projects for building your first door / Strother Purdy.
Description: Fresno : Linden Publishing, [2017] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017001604 | ISBN 9781610352918 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Wooden doors. | Doors.
Classification: LCC TH2278 .P887 2017 | DDC 694/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017001604
The Woodworker s Library
Linden Publishing, Inc.
2006 S. Mary
Fresno, CA 93721
www.lindenpub.com
Door, noun : A movable barrier of wood or other material, usually turning on hinges or sliding in a groove, and serving to close or open a passage into a building or room. That which the dog is always on the wrong side
- Oxford English Dictionary , mostly.
Dedicated to my children, Josephine and Isaac, for no particular reason other than that I love them very much, perhaps with the hope that they will eventually stop slamming the front door. That door that I made, you know. That s really nice. And shouldn t be slammed so hard. Not while I m in earshot anyway.
Acknowledgments
David Brothers and Rebecca Cheng
Jeff Cook
Barbara Dahl
Bill Duckworth
Andy Engel
Glen Hochstetter
Jon Lindblom
Joseph Manley
Jon Olivieri
Marc Olivieri
Geoffrey Purdy
David and Nancy Sposato
Eric Vikstrom
Laurie Wesley
The Connecticut Office of the State Building Inspector
Conway Hardwoods
Atlantic Plywood
Historic Housefitters
H. H. Taylor s Hardware
Ring s End
Whitechapel, Ltd.

Safety Tip
Have you read those endless pages of safety warnings that come with every new power tool? You know, the ones up front in the user manual that go on and on and on about everything obvious (do not swing running power tool by its cord above your head, etc.) that you re supposed to read thoroughly before taking the tool out of the box? They re written by the underpaid employees of rich lawyers as part of a lucrative settlement when some poor person did swing the tool around and lost an ear thereby winning millions of dollars in court to be given to the lawyer.
Don t be this person, which is to say that keeping your digits attached is much better than spending long hours without them in a courtroom. What s my advice on how to keep all your digits? The lawyer will tell you it s all those safety warnings. I ll add that it s important to listen to your intuition. This is that gut feeling that says this isn t right or I m not sure about this or I hope this works ok. If the tablesaw scares you, it s for a very good reason. Leave it alone and use other tools. If the tool doesn t act the way it should, there s a reason. Stop and ask advice from someone who knows. Learn about the tool or technique and only use it on your own at the point that it no longer scares you.

Contents
Foreword: Then and Now
Introduction: The Basic Challenges of Doormaking
1. Practical Design Principles for Doors
2. Materials
3. Joinery Techniques and Tools
4. Hardware
5. Hanging Doors
Door Projects
6. Board-and-Batten Door
7. Frame-and-Panel Interior Door
8. Construction-Grade Plywood Door
9. Modern Rustic Door
10. Honeycomb Core Door
11. Frame-and-Panel Two-Face Door
12. Interior French Doors
13. Arts-and-Crafts Glass Panel Door
14. Screen Door
Gallery of Various Doors
About the Author
Index
Then and Now
I have a copy of Henley s Twentieth Century Book of Recipes, Formulas and Processes: Containing Nearly Ten Thousand Selected Scientific, Chemical, Technical and Household Recipes, Formulas and Processes for Use in the Laboratory, the Office, the Workshop and in the Home , published in New York in 1907. Intended for the general public, Henley s tells you how to make everything, from your own acid-proof wood finishes to food preservatives, foot powders, even zinc contact silver plating. But in close to eight hundred densely packed pages, there is not a single image or illustration, and there are few how-to instructions. To make the acid-proof wood finish, for example, the book simply tells you to boil copper sulfate and potassium chlorate salts until dissolved.
To many modern Americans, the directions in this book are dangerously incomplete, perhaps criminally. Will boiling these crystals give off noxious fumes? Do you add water? How much? Can they be boiled safely in a steel or aluminum pot? Where can you even buy these crystals? Henley s is mute. While I m sure many readers in 1907 did not know the answers to all these questions, many more did. Henley s was a popular book.
In 2015, we no longer have the same foundation of practical knowledge or hand skills (or understanding of risk) that our ancestors did. The efficiencies of mass manufacturing has allowed each of us to focus on specialized professions-we simply don t need to build or repair our own houses or furniture anymore; there s someone else who specializes in that. Many of us lament this loss, looking back on earlier generations, amazed by their ability to do so much on their own.
But they did not have the internet, heated toilet seats or inexpensive Asian manufacturing integrated with global markets and high volume shipping capacities. With these things, we are far more productive, far less burdened by the work necessary to simply survive, and have far greater freedom to pursue other opportunities. We are now far less independent and far more interdependent. We are not worse off-we are just different.
Today, most people would think it slightly insane to make your own doors when you can buy a manufactured, pre-hung steel and plastic door at Lowe s for $67. That s not much less than three times the cost of this book.
Of course you won t save any money making your own doors, or advance your career in selling widgets. You will, however, create beautiful, unique and useful objects-thereby acquiring the traditional skills of craftsmanship that have shaped our humanity: a main advantage, and consequence of the opposable thumb.
If we share anything with our handier ancestors from 1907, it s the need for understanding and mastery of our daily environment. We may live in a world where merely opening the back of a phone voids the warranty, but we still can find deep satisfaction in creating some of the things we use.
Perhaps you have long experience working with your hands. Then enough said-this book will give you answers to your questions about making a door that won t warp, crack or fail unexpectedly. But perhaps you re new to the idea of making your own things, and a book seems like the right place to start. There are simple doors you can make and you ll find them here, with how-to instructions shown step-by-step to help you make them right the first time.
And if you get a copy of Henley s, you will know how to finish a door so it s acid-proof-perfect for the Zombie Apocalypse, because, as we all know, by next year the TV zombies will know how to spit acid, if they don t know already.
The Basic Challenges of Doormaking: the Origin of Traditions
In caveman times, men sat around playing with the fire while women did all the work. This was noticed, and so the first honey-do project was devised. Some might suggest that project was a table or a stool, or even a bowl. But I think the front door was man s first honey-do project.
The cave is drafty, dear. And bears wander in too often. Why don t you put down that flaming stick and make us a movable barrier that will serve to either open or close the way into our cave.
Durrrrrr, our common ancestor stalled for time to think his way out of this task.
Whatever you want to call it, dear. Just get busy.
Yes dear.
At this moment, the concept of the door was born-at one stroke solving the problems of keeping cold/animals/insects/nosy neighbors out of our homes, and heat/possessions/wandering toddlers/family secrets in our homes.
Now our common ancestor racked his brain to bring this great concept to life. What to use? Straw and animal ski