Thanks in advance for your help. Great client wants this door built. I have my ideas but I thought I'd run it by you guys and see what you had to say. For the record 4/0 x 8/0 door...that width complicates things. How would you build it?

Thanks again-

Been discussed many times here. Usual consensus is veneer if you don't want the door to be swelled shut in the spring, or have wind blowing through in the winter. Solid wood will also blow the sidelights up as well.

rich,
I will play devils advocate. Veneer? veneer what? 2 pieces of birch, doug fir, exterior mdf, mdo? 3 pieces? How about a ladder with foam? Ladder with ply and veneer or T&G applied to ladder?

Glue used? How about the the horizontal seams in the pieces? How is that going to weather? How do you do it with veneer?

4' wide? even a ladder rack or the flattest engineered products on the market are going to have a hard time staying flat?

How are you going to finish it? 2K, Sikkens, Marine poly?

Am I asking the right questions sir? As much as you might disagree the question has been asked a lot but the answers greatly vary.

I'm sure it's Mr. Sochar who has provided the most informative answers in the knowledge base forum and I'd use a ladder and foam but I am not sold on the T&G at 4' wide nor am I fan of the seams horizontally in such a solution. My gut says ladder, with foam, MDO each side, planked veneer (talking client out of horizontal seam) and Sikkens. Still working out the glue and how to clamp/press it. Still 50/50 on finish.

Great client. It's worth picking the great minds here, even if it's been covered a lot.

From the photo, it looks like plastic laminate flooring. If the customer wants it to look and act like plastic laminate flooring, using plastic laminate flooring over a solid substrate ferrous (steel) door might work well for everyone.

I think Harold may have nailed it as far as the photo is concerned. But, that does little for you when the client hands it to you and asks when he can have it.

The thread on How Is This Door Made? is applicable to your questioning many ways.

Ladder cores and T+G faces allow for a small gap between the two pieces of solid wood - .030" or so - down in the bottom of the v-joints. If they expand (most likely in an exterior door), they will close a little or even mash each other in the "crush zone" between half "V's".

I see this as a veneered, modified hollow core door. 1/16" veneer faces, with a 1/16" cross band underneath. Pressed onto 1/4" MDF or flat, no void ply. Then the core, and the exact same on the other side.

This is then lightly pressed onto an egg crate at 1-3/4" thick (for 2-1/4" finished door) with rigid foam in all the voids. Have your solid matching wood edge bands, hinge block and latch blocks located in the egg crate. Turn down the vacuum pressure as you do not what the faces to bow into the voids from the evacuation of air. The foam and egg crate must be the exact same thickness.

The egg crate can be 1/2 x 1-3/4" pieces machined, not ripped, with dadoed at 15/16" deep so things do not bottom out and prevent flatness. 8x8 voids are good, smaller if you have the patience, larger if you like to gamble. Theory says if the foam and crate are exact, there can be no telegraphing of the egg crate to the face. But, if you notice it on a finished door, you are going to sweat.

You can do without the egg crate and use a ladder core, but I think the weight will go up significantly.

We just shipped a 2-1/4" x 60" x 116" Walnut door with a ladder core that weighed in at 325 lbs.

The hardest part is to get this door so you can "start flat, stay flat" (We chant this 30 times to start every day...). We have solid, leveled benches and blocks of uniform sizes so we know that as we assemble a conventional stile and rail door, that it is absolutely flat - and will stay flat. The joinery also helps this. But the type of door that gets its strength from all it parts will conform to a twisted or wavy vacuum surface or bench. You will need to take extreme measures to insure flatness of the door as it is clamped together. Even preliminary pressings of the faces will benefit from flatness. We stretch taut strings from corner to corner and compare the center to insure flatness from corner to corner. The rest is determined with straight edges and eyeballs.

Veneer, custom panel, random match.

Similar concept picture attached, panels are about 60" no planks were used.

Click the link below to download the file included with this post.

DSCF4074_2.pdf

David,
I know we share a totally different take on the world, but I appreciate you taking the time to type that all out Even to help someone I'm sure you consider on the dark side.

I think the problem I have with what you have proposed is that it will feel far to light and not solid enough, no? What are your thoughts on that. 1/2" instead of 1/4" maybe to veneer to?

I'm not a vacuum bag guy. Certainly don't want to start on this. What about a plywood press? Couple sheets of really flat 1" ply top and bottom with 2" x 6" perfectly straight every 8-10" clamping down they plywood the full width of the door on an really flat bench.

My concern on this as you stated is flatness for the long haul. Thanks again.

Perhaps I am missing something, but why not just have regular thickness veneer laid up as sketch faces on regular thickness crossbanded veneer with an exterior glue, and then press that skin using exterior glue onto both sides of a 1-3/4" architectural solid core exterior door slab?

Or for that matter, job it out as such to someone with the equipment to do so, if you are not a "bag man"? They could supply you with matching panels for the door surround, should you need them.

Does there need to be V-grooves in the face, because I don't see any in the photo. And a lot of exterior door hardware will accommodate the thicker door that the added veneer will produce.

A solid core door will have plenty of ass to close with a resounding, client satisfying thud.

Am I missing something?

TonyF

I would and have make thin planks and laminated a slab door to accomplish this exact look. Essentially a wood flooring applied to a slab. Treat the lock and hinge side with a miter as to no see the end of the boards.

Good luck!