Gunstock door

[johnnyb]

I've started to make the diminished stile door shown in the door and windowmaking book from lost art press. After a full day I've prepped everything to size. Made but not finished the stiles( morticed, grooved the bottom, rebated and moulded the top.) The instructions leave lots to be desired tbh. The rod illustration is to small to read properly. And many many details were seemingly missing or prior knowledge assumed. Anyway I started cautiously and made a few alterations solely to improve the overall strength as I made it in redwood. It's not said but I assume the stiles are 4 inch and they seem to diminish to 2 inch. I beefed them up to 2 3/4 . The bars were 3/4.
The good news is there's only £50 of wood in it! But we don't want to be friendly with Mr cock up.
The hard bit was realising the top and the bottom mortices have to be in different positions on the thickness because the top mortice is sandwiched between the mould and the rebate(both 1/4 deep) and the bottom ones are in a 1/2 inch groove 28mm off the face. I also decided to scribe the shoulders directly off the stiles after fitting the top and bottom rails. I'll get a few snaps tomorrow but I can definitely say its not a walk in the park. I've also decided to make it single glazed as it's for a garage. I'd love to put stained glass in it but it's something I've never dabbled in.

 

[johnnyb]

Here's the main illustration and the really confusing rod drawing. One difficulty was moulding the top section. Can't be done on the spindle due to the gunstock. So I needed to do it with a sash plane or a router. After some searching I realised I don't have a suitable sash plane but I did find a whiteside sash router bit after some chopping and changing( it was a reversible bit) I managed to get the 1/4 lambs tongue on its own and used it to mould the stiles( it was bearing guided) I also rebated it at 1/4 using a bearing guided bit. I used separate routers so I could quickly mould and rebate the rails after tenoning.

 

[johnnyb]

Here's the promised pics. The first 2 are of the door laid out.

 

[johnnyb]

Here's the gunstock before planing/paring

 

[houtslager]

Looking neat, like the upper layout for the glass made a few of these doors in my youth

 

[deema]

You can mould the top section on the spindle, you need to drop it on, but must have proper stops.

 

[johnnyb]

I've made reasonable progress on this having fitted the joints inclhe uding the tricky middle rail. The key I've found is when marking out the mid rail just pretend the moulder/rebated section isn't there(-1/4) that way everything goes well. It's so tempting to just mark the size of the rail on but after it's moulded/rebated it would make the stile angled bit to long by 1/4 inch ruining both stiles. The book makes perfect sense after you've figured it!
Albeit written in ancient english!
I found a good way to make a wedge at the correct angle. It's an old trick but worth repeating. So basically after the top and bottom rails are fitted and scribed it's then possible to mark the angled rail using the door elevated and the shoulders knifed in.
How do we get a perfect wedge to scree to the tenoner fence. First clamp the rail at the approximate angle(I had to transpose the angle closer to the edge using a parallel bit of wood so it cleared the cutters.)
Next stick some blutak to the fixed head with a straightened paper clip and traverse past the stopped cutters, adjust until the wire follows the line. Then you need a template of the wedge mark it using a bit of ply. Cut it and plane it to a perfect fit. Then mark it on an offcut the same thickness as the door. Finally cut a piece of ply wide enough to just clear the wide bit of the wedge. Then line it up with the wedge line and screw it on the offcut finally without moving the saw fence from cutting the ply cut the taper with the ply against the fence(just make sure your screws are away from the sawblade.) Perfect angle. Of course reverse the wedge for the other side.
Another good trick to swap between 2 different mortice positions on one door is to make a suitable packer and keep the machine set up for the bottom and mid rails inserting the packer for the top section.

 

[johnnyb]

Can't see how you use the spindle even a ring fence wouldn't get you as close as the router cutters. You'd end up the width of a fence face plus the angled bit of the stile away from where the mould/rebate needs to be.
I will say mortice the stile at the top after moulding/ rebating with the routers as the bearing will drop into the mortice damhik!

 

[ScottyT]

Good read this

 

[johnnyb]

Did some of those fiddly bits today to try and get it all together. One thing I found was I felt the joints on the middle section glazing bars could be made a bit stronger by using through 1/4 inch mortices instead of 1/2 inch. This left some doff between the rebate and the mortice. It resulted in a cogged sort of a joint that added extra complexity! The outer glazing bars just had 1 inch long tenons 1/2 inch deep

 

[johnnyb]

Just the 2 panels and the glue up ( and paint of course). I'm a sucker for bead flush panels as I think there fairly understated. A plant on panel mould will complete the fancy woodwork.
I can't help but think the next one I do i would approach a bit differently. Any way I may suggest some stained glass gear for my Christmas present. Does any one have any experience with that craft(I certainly dont!) Who can guide me on the essentials.

 

[johnnyb]

The annoying thing is it's far to cold to glue up today. It's really difficult getting glue, door, and air up to temp when it's -4 outside. I don't think it's worth messing it up at the end. No glue can be expected to work with any factor at less than 10c but honestly 12c is safer.

 

[johnnyb]

Overall the addition of a1/4 lambs tongue and rebate seems to add complexity to an already complex thing. Haslucks take on these is have the upper section plain not even a rebate then make a glazed sash that pops in. I've never seen one like that so I'm guessing that wasn't popular. But it does make it a bit easier. He does go on to illustrate a door for a villa residence that is very similar to mine.

 

[johnnyb]

Our town has 6 perfect examples of a villa residence. It was built to house the managers of Robert heaths coal and ironworks in Biddulph. There's 6 all set back from the main road. Very unusual around here. Most have had some plastic encroach on the joinery. They are resplendent in black and white half timber. I have been in one years ago and although grand there not huge inside. Sort of mini villas. Of course with all the fashionable twiddle but there only for managers.

 

[johnnyb]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...oQFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0uZdzjCeRyx9Dq7NY5JDOV

 

[toolsntat]

Looking good Johnny.
Interesting you mentioned that "Villa " door as it doesn't make sense to me to have a removable glazed shutter on the inside and no weather proofing at the lower edge? Could there have been a misinterpretation in preparation of the drawing I wonder?
Cheers, Andy

 

[Adam W.]

Looks good.

 

[johnnyb]

Took me a while to figure out the door with the shutter. It's basically got a square edged hole in the top and the inside has a removable bead butt panel and the outside has a glazed sash it fits into brass stub and plate at the top and screws to the bead butt panel at the bottom. Immensely complex tbh.

 

[johnnyb]

It doesn't seem to say what keeps the bottomvof the panel in but the arrangement seems like the origin of the storm proof sash to me.

 

[johnnyb]

No after getting the magnifying glass out your right the glass is on the inside. Completely baffling tbh.