Building a new front door (maybe)

[sumpnz]

Wife hates our front door.  In her defense it went out of fashion ca. 1990 (house was built in 2006, we've owned it since 2010).  She likes the look of alder for the replacement.  Which is handy because that is one species in local abundance.  But the "cheap" ones start at $1000, so not in the budget to just buy one.  So, she wants me to make one.  

Can you fine folks help clue me into good/important design features for security, insulation, and durability I should be thinking about for such a door?  I mean, I get the basics of making a door, but it's one thing to make a bedroom door as that's much lower stakes.  

Obviously for security purposes not having a large glass panel is going to be important.  I'm not paranoid over security (doors mostly get locked so the dogs can't open them than anything else) but might as well make it as secure as reasonable as things could change over the years.

I can mill my own stock.  I assume quarter sawn (maybe rift sawn) is really necessary for minimal weather related movement. 

I would assume a finish like Rubio Monocoat would be a poor choice given the exterior exposure.  But, what do most of you recommend?  I haven't dealt with that kind of factor for a long time and anything I might have used 15 years ago has probably been superseded by something much better.

[Ljohnsaw]

 :P

[Dan_Shade]

Maybe @Texas Ranger  and/or @tule peak timber will chime in. 

I'd design with floating panels and big tenons.  

[rusticretreater]

Mortise and tenon frame, floating panels and if you can, insulation in between.  You also want to build a matching frame for it with heft for a deadbolt lock. Also, incorporate a big ol thick weather stripping for around the door seal.

For finish, a poly urethane most likely as it is a hard finish that wears well.

[firefighter ontheside]

I bought a rail and stile set for building an exterior door or interior door, but haven't used it yet.  I use a smaller set for cabinet doors a lot.  The larger set is along the same line, but larger for larger doors.  Due to the weight of the door compared to a cabinet door, it is recommended to create an extended tenon and mortise for strength.  I think if I were doing an exterior door, I would incorporate insulation sandwiched between two smaller panels to create the panels.  If you don't have a storm door, I would recommend that to help protect the new door.  My first door will be for our master bathroom and will be out of American elm that I have already rough dimensioned.

[Crusarius]

:P

[Texas Ranger]

I bought a rail and stile set for building an exterior door or interior door, but haven't used it yet.  I use a smaller set for cabinet doors a lot.  The larger set is along the same line, but larger for larger doors.  Due to the weight of the door compared to a cabinet door, it is recommended to create an extended tenon and mortise for strength.  I think if I were doing an exterior door, I would incorporate insulation sandwiched between two smaller panels to create the panels.  If you don't have a storm door, I would recommend that to help protect the new door.  My first door will be for our master bathroom and will be out of American elm that I have already rough dimensioned.

Pretty much the way I did it, I oversized the doors some and then finished it out with a power planer.  Took some of the frustration out of the process.  My 8x4 doors have held up well.  On out side doors I used spar varnish, inside what I was told to use by the buyer, if they had a preference.  In Texas an insulated door is not necessary in the south east portion where I live, so no help here.

[tacks Y]

 

 

I made this about 20 year ago. 3 layers of 3/4" oak and it has held up fine, maybe only 2 on the raised panels.

 
The top view of door, just checked it is 2" thick so just over 5/8" boards.

[bluthum]

I've built scores or more of exterior doors over the last 40 years and would like to add some comments at random.

I'd never build another cope and stick door without reinforcing the joints with fasteners or floating tenons[best option]. Dowels in a pinch.

I prefer either square corners with floating tenons or 3 piece sandwich doors. 

I've never had enough suitable quarter sawn material to use and have had no known cases of warping by starting with properly dried straight stock. Nary a call back. Most of the doors I've built have been with softwoods particularly doug fir, er cedar, cypress and shortleaf pine. Yep, shortleaf but it needs to be really good stock but that goes for the other species as well. 

I believe the sandwich construction is most forgivable to marginal wood by which I mean wood less than perfect. 3 layers tend to work together it seems.

Insulation is something I've only done a time or two with sandwich construction, I suspect the gains from insulating only the panels will be marginal. Far, far more important is stopping infiltration same as in a wall assembly. There are several easy ways to make decently tight side stops and I like to make them adjustable, attached with screws and sealed under with silicone so if they need to be repositioned it's easy. Threshold weather stripping is way harder. I've seen lots of issues with sill infiltration with factory set ups as well, just the beast's nature.

And so far as trouble free longevity the absolute most important thing is location, location. A poorly protected door is raw meat to the elements.  A porch is a fine asset to a door design.   . 

[sumpnz]

Thread necro.

Going to be dropping the alders that will provide the stock probably this spring.

Should I do 2" thick stock for the exterior?  I can make any thickness I want so I'm not limited by what commercial mills provide.  For interior doors, I assume something thinner is OK, but what do you all recommend?  I'm chainsaw milling so if under 1.5" is called for I'd prefer 2.5-3" thick and then resaw on my bandsaw after rough cutting to width. 

Sounds like rift/quarter sawn isn't required.  So, I'll probably just flat saw, unless you guys strongly recommend otherwise. 

I'll be air drying for a year or two.  I can cludge up a kiln if really necessary, but obviously would avoid that step if I could. I can bring the stock inside for a couple months to let it equalize before building any doors.

Roughly how many board feet per door should I plan on?  I think all the doors are close enough to call them 7' tall, and the widest door is 32".  Not counting glass, and 2" stock, that's 37.3 bf but I don't know how much waste loss to assume.  Would 50bf per door be a reasonable assumption?

[bluthum]

I suggest a finished thickness of 2", 1 7/8" can work but any less I'd avoid for exterior doors. Given your plan to chainsaw mill I couldn't speculate on the starting thickness, rough. 

I don't much like the bandsaw resaw idea unless you have a top notch resaw set up, plus  when you resaw you can affect the stability. In door making you need a nice flat board especially for the stiles, it's really important. Your boards need to be final dried, milled and still dead flat for best results. If your door doesn't come out flat be prepared to cope via weatherstripping which can be feasible but anything but sandwich construction needs to be flat even to make proper joints, rail and stile speaking.

The flatness thing also will considerably determine your amount of material required, if your boards cure out all wonky you're already up the creek. I've always tried to pick out straight boards air dried rather than mess with the dreaded face jointing operation. Face jointing can also wind up causing new stress not to mention how much thickness you may lose on a 7' board.

Could be KD is a little less important for an exterior door as they are half in the weather anyway but I don't know. I do know I've used boards less than 6-8% for exterior doors with fine results. Straight grain, similar winter and summer rings, the usual suspects for a stable board give me lots of confidence. 

As for interior doors things change, good doors can be made 1 1/2" thick with good stock but it does need to be dried appropriate for your climate, like cabinet wood dry. I wouldn't speculate on how to self dry proper wood in your locale, there are way too many variables. Hereabouts I would not want my trees cut in spring if at all possible, winter is much better but here the trees go on a growth bender starting pretty quick to right now, another source of instability. Your mileage may vary.

[sumpnz]

I could wait for Nov/Dec/Jan to fall at least the trees big enough to mill.  Some scraggly firewood trees I can certainly cut whenever, some of which are in the way. 

I have solar panels I can stack the wood under.  Nice and shady under there, still decent wind flow.  

I'd likely give the wood 1-2 years, but it would probably at equilibrium within 3-6 months, depending on the time of year I cut them.  Alder dries really fast.  Then I'd rough cut the door stock, flatten, then bring inside to let it dry to inside equilibrium for a couple months (got a hallway i could stack and sticker it, and add a fan), then build the doors. I'd do a few interior doors first to get the hang of it.  

I'd probably want at least 1/8" over bandsaw mill thickness in terms or rough sawn thickness, based on what I have milled before. I'd probably go with 9-10/4 rough stock for exterior door stock, 7-8/4 for interior door stock.