I decided a good use of my shop time today would be to start working on a replacement screen door for my shop. The finger jointed pine one that I bought a Slowe's about 6 years ago is on it's last leg -
It never really fit well and the screen is coming loose in several areas. This is my only window to the outside world in my shop and it is the most used door, by me, in the house.
I decided I would make it out of Cypress that I got from Ivey. I have never worked with Cypress before and thought that this would be a good opportunity.
I picked out two boards, one that was QS which will be my "stiles" and a flat sawn one that will be the "rails".
I decided to use loose tenon joinery for this project as I have limited experience with using it.
I made up a quick and easy jig to allow me to support my plunge router and use the edge guide to locate the mortises -
Using this jig I was able to gang my "stile" pieces together and use only one set-up for both pieces.
It worked very well -
It also worked excellent for the mortises on the ends of the "rails" -
One added bonus that I didn't even think of was built in end stops. My mortises are 1½" deep, cut in two passes with a carbide up-cut spiral bit. Well the mortise depth was longer than the cutter length. I visually located the ends of the mortises on the first pass when there wasn't too much dust to allow me to see. On the second pass the bit shank contacted the end of the mortises and wouldn't let me go any farther. Resulting in nearly perfect mortises.
The dry fit -
Which turned out to be the biggest mistake I made. Everything fit together so tightly that I couldn't get it back apart to apply the glue without seriously marring the soft Cypress.
So I said screw the glue, clamped it all tight and pinned everything with some 3/8" dowel stock.
The door, ready for the rabbet to be cut to receive the screen, and some final sanding. -
I plan to cut a ½" wide x ¼" deep rabbet to accommodate the screen material and fill it with Walnut strips for a nice contrast.
I can't decide it I want to finish the door or not. It isn't exposed to the weather as it is behind the metal exterior door to my shop. And even when the metal door is open there is a 30" roof overhang that keeps the water away from it. Not finishing it would make my life easier, but is that wrong? Will I wish that I had finished it later :icon_scra:eusa_thin:dontknow::dontknow::dontknow:
Dave
It never really fit well and the screen is coming loose in several areas. This is my only window to the outside world in my shop and it is the most used door, by me, in the house.
I decided I would make it out of Cypress that I got from Ivey. I have never worked with Cypress before and thought that this would be a good opportunity.
I picked out two boards, one that was QS which will be my "stiles" and a flat sawn one that will be the "rails".
I decided to use loose tenon joinery for this project as I have limited experience with using it.
I made up a quick and easy jig to allow me to support my plunge router and use the edge guide to locate the mortises -
Using this jig I was able to gang my "stile" pieces together and use only one set-up for both pieces.
It worked very well -
It also worked excellent for the mortises on the ends of the "rails" -
One added bonus that I didn't even think of was built in end stops. My mortises are 1½" deep, cut in two passes with a carbide up-cut spiral bit. Well the mortise depth was longer than the cutter length. I visually located the ends of the mortises on the first pass when there wasn't too much dust to allow me to see. On the second pass the bit shank contacted the end of the mortises and wouldn't let me go any farther. Resulting in nearly perfect mortises.
The dry fit -
Which turned out to be the biggest mistake I made. Everything fit together so tightly that I couldn't get it back apart to apply the glue without seriously marring the soft Cypress.
So I said screw the glue, clamped it all tight and pinned everything with some 3/8" dowel stock.
The door, ready for the rabbet to be cut to receive the screen, and some final sanding. -
I plan to cut a ½" wide x ¼" deep rabbet to accommodate the screen material and fill it with Walnut strips for a nice contrast.
I can't decide it I want to finish the door or not. It isn't exposed to the weather as it is behind the metal exterior door to my shop. And even when the metal door is open there is a 30" roof overhang that keeps the water away from it. Not finishing it would make my life easier, but is that wrong? Will I wish that I had finished it later :icon_scra:eusa_thin:dontknow::dontknow::dontknow:
Dave