Door Fitting

[Seamaster]

Hello everyone in UKworkshop land.
I have eight panel doors to fit in my home to replace the flush plywood doors that are currently in position.
I have upto 10mm to take off the stiles, 5mm each side and 20mm off the top and bottom rail. (10mm each)
If I was at work I would put the doors through the table saw to rip the stiles and then run the doors through the panel saw to trim the rails.
I have no way to get these doors to and from work.

It is a completely different matter in the newly decorated domestic enviroment.
To trim these doors I could:
Plane by hand
plane by machine
hand held circular saw
set up a router and jig

How would you do this task?

 

[mailee]

Personally I would use the hand held circular saw and a guide to cut them down. :wink:

 

[Paul Chapman]

I would use a router against a straight edge for the top and bottom and a long hand plane for the two sides.

Cheers :ho2

Paul

 

[chippy1970]

You didnt say if they are hollow panel doors or solid.

Anyway I would use a circ saw then finish with electric planer.

If they are hollow beware as these days they are so tight on the batten size for the edges. It means you cant cut too much off without having to remove the battens and re fix them back into the door once cut to size.

 

[paulm]

Circular saw with fence and a swipe or two with hand plane to tidy up if needed.........

Cheers, Paul.

 

[jasonB]

If they are pressed doors then I would go with circ saw and tidy up with hand plane.

If they are veneered as a lot of "real wood" doors are then a router, multitrim bit & straight edge will not rear the veneer particularly on the top/bottom.

Jason

 

[Digit]

Either way, rather you than me! I HATE fitting doors.

Roy.

 

[mel]

id like to meet the guy who set the door frames out in the first place
its a lot to take off , so beware
hollow doors ar'nt as generous as they used to be.
trim with a circular saw and finish with a hand plane
get ready with the glue :shock: if doors are hollow

 

[eggflan]

Buy a cheap roof rack for the car and take them to work :shock:

 

[doorboy]

If I were doing it, I would use a straight edge and a circular saw. You should score any area that you cut cross-grain.
Make sure that the frames are square first. If not, then you might try cutting the door a bit out of square to match the frame. It's sometimes tricky, but the gap around the opening should be about the same as a silver dollar. (about 3cm)

 

[NeilO]

doorboy 3cms :shock: thats one large gap, thats about 1 1/4 inches..... it also appears silver dollars are BIGGER then I ever thought they were.... :lol:

but circular saw, and straight edge is the way i would do it too, then clean up with a plane.....like Mel? said carefully does it doors aint as generous as they used to be....

 

[doorboy]

You're right Neil...I should have kept to what I'm comfortable with (3/32 of an inch)! But it looks like what I meant was really 3MM.
I'll go back to the corner now.

 

[Seamaster]

Thanks for the replies so far, looks like tomorrow I will have a go at fitting them.
The doors are solid and weigh around 25kgs so I will fit three hinges per door.
The house was built in the 60s and while the structure is good the woodwork is not so this will add alittle variety between each door, ie there will be upto 10 mm difference in width between each door!

 

[doorboy]

Another tip on fitting those doors in existing frames--before taking down the old ones, determine if you like the way it fits and if so, use it for a pattern to match. If not, then use it as a guide to make adjustments on the new door.
Good luck.

 

[Woody Alan]

I was faced with a similar problem in my house 13 years ago. Some of the doors frame head height was so low I cut the bottom off the door and went into the door void. I then made a new strip to glue back in. This original poor build has annoyed me so much I am in the process of remedying it by replacing the frames. I am able to gain height as the lintels are high enough (mostly) and knocking out the plaster infill allows the height. Where the doorway is too narrow (all of them) I am sawing down the thermalite wall with an old handsaw. I am fitting the frames with 4" screws and plugs angled in to avoid splitting (as advised) I then used double thin taper wedges to set the frame hinge side perfectly. Using a jig I hang the door with 3 hinges, and then set the rest of the frame to suit. I make the frame 30 and 1/8 wide. Once adjusted I foam it in. I am very pleased with this process, well worth the time involved. I also bought the door linings oversize so I could scribe them in but where the plastework is out I am skimming to the lining.

When the project is finished I will post some pictures, but it has involved wrecking the ground floor of the house as I moved a couple of doorways completely. All started so the cats can see through the lower part of a door and not swing from it to see through the upper glass of the old door.

Alan

 

[Seamaster]

Woodyalan, The price you have to pay for Bengals!

 

[Woody Alan]

The house was built in 1963 along with my next door neighbours by two chaps working for the council as believe it or not ... building inspectors. The one next door was a sensible chap had his plans drawn and employed a builder who had his own men and made a nice job. The guy who built mine drew his own plans and subbed everything. The only trade who was any good was the plasterer who moaned like hell to my next door neighbour about the amount of undercoat he was having to use to pull the walls level as I can now see when cutting down the blocks he had to patch in layers in places. The linings were fitted in winter/wet so in the summere when they dried they shrunk so pulling the architrave inwards and away from the wall so there is about 1/4" filler behind the Architraves. Nothing upright or square some doors had to be wedged open to stop them swinging shut. Getting there now

Your latest job sounds the best by the way

Alan

 

[Digit]

I live in west Wales and all old houses seem to have doors designed for overweight midgets. They seem to average about 3ft 6in wide and 5ft 6ins high, and I'm not exagerating!

Roy.

 

[Streepips]

Going right back to the first post..... 5mm off each side of the door. I was taught that you never remove any material from the hinge side of the door.
Just thought I would mention it.

and for cutting to size I always use my jigsaw on a pencil line, followed up by a skim with a block plane.

 

[andy king]

Personally, having hung hundreds, (if not a couple of thousand or more...) doors over the last 30 years, if the linings are as far out as Seamaster says, then its unlikely they will be straight either, so I wouldn't consider the straight edge and circ saw approach.
I was taught with handplanes, (and have taken 10mm off with them on many occasions before powertools became popular!) and the principle is to shoot the hanging edge in first to ensure the back edge fit is uniform and won't bind, ie. it has to be shot tight to accomodate for bows or hollows, giving a uniform gap once hung. I would use an electric planer, using the same principle as hand planing, so making simple marks to show where the timber needs removing. Once its close, I'll clean up with a handplane (4 or 4.5 smoother is my favourite) to take the planer block ripples out. Do enough of them and you get an eye for how much is needed off, and from where.
The head I always keep full, if it needs timber removed to get over a head thst isn't level/square, then i'll shoot from nothing to the amount needed, set with a bevel, so the majority of the waste is from the bottom, keeping the heads looking as close to each other as possible.
Any cutting for height I'll do from the bottom rail if possible, using a circ saw if there is enough to be removed easily.
Depending on your own experience and ability, you could hang the door and swing it, and let the closing edge clip, strike a pencil up the stile and shoot back in, but I usually try to fit first time :shock: so I have the penny gap all round allowed for, and then hang, hopefully fitting first time once hung, with all screws in on the door stile and a single screw in each hinge leaf on the lining to check. If there is a slight clipping as it closes, this usually solves itself once all the screws are in as the leaves pull back tight to the lining.
Most electric planers can remove 5mm in two passes, far quicker than setting up a saw and guide in my experience. It also allows you to remove more waste in the areas where needed, fine tuning the depth of cut if needed, plus, if you are confident enough, you can also take the back bevels off for closing at the same time.
As for heights of door linings, older houses tend to be little over 6'6in as the floor coverings, if any, were linoleum, or simply waxed boards.
Nowadays, with carpets and underlays, linings can be as much as an inch oversized to allow for it.
Hollow doors are a pain if they have to have too much removed, i've had to re-glue strips back in on many occasions...

Hope this helps rather than confuses...
Andy

Andy