You may remember that I originally made a couple of temporary doors to fill the large opening on the left of the building. They are just 4x2s, skinned with 12mm OSB. They've done their job, but are as ugly as sin. So it's time to do the job properly.
I can make them any thickness I want, as the door stops are just planted on and are easily removed. The existing fix is about 65mm thick, and allows for a bit of insulation between the skins. However, if I started with 3" timber and prepped that up, I can foresee some potential problems...
My P/T is a Kity. It's a decent hobby machine, but you couldn't really call it a professional one, the beds are relatively short. This makes planing long boards flat a bit of a challenge. Secondly, even if I did get them flat today, I doubt if they'd still be flat tomorrow. So I have decided to laminate two pieces together, like Glulam. It won't help with the first problem, but it should definitely help with the other.
So a couple of weeks ago I went to the timber yard and bought some wood. I've made a door for Ray's barn, and I'll post some pics of that when we get round to hanging it, but now I have the opportunity to build mine.
I'd expected to get 10" boards, but 9" were the widest they had. It's fine actually. Ripped down, even the boards that were cupped became quite satisfactorily flat and straight.
It goes to show the importance of having a riving knife. This kerf closed up completely.
Another advantage of laminating is that if a board has one clear face and one with knots, the clear faces can go to the outside.
I'm using Cascamite for the glue-up. It is strong, doesn't creep, totally waterproof and has a long open time. I used to have a nice little set of electronic scales which were ideal for weighing out Cascamite, but it's gone, so I'm measuring out by volume, my unit being the Eggcup. 3.5 Es of powder to 1 E of water. It's just the right amount to glue one stile. In this picture, there is a stack of 6 boards, but only the centre two are glued, the others are just acting as pressure pads. The thicker the sandwich, the fewer clamps I need and the more evenly the pressure is spread through the joint.
So I have a few days of gluing up stock before I can get round to doing any actual joinery, but it should make for a topnotch job.