Wood Species for Patio Slider Repair

[Ed in Tampa]

Many good responses, thanks all!

This wood door lasted 35 years so I think real wood, painted, will be ok. Heck, I don't intend to be in this house 35 years from now!

Ed, I know zero about that pvc product you mentioned Can it be glued up with regular wood glues and milled without damaging regular wood working tools? I've got to cut some pretty hefty dados in this material.

Yes to all your questions with the exception of Wood glue (Aliphatic resin or yellow glue).
PVC can be glued and almost instantly bonded using PVC glue and it will work with most other wood working glues and silicon. Here is an article on it.
Check it out http://www.workbenchmagazine.com/main/pdf/wb297-pvc.pdf
Here is another site
http://www.thisiscarpentry.com/2012/08/ ... -pvc-trim/


In wet areas I'm sold on the product. Unless you go to pressure treated wood real rot resistance is hard to find in most commercial woods. The old rot resistant trees have been cut and the newer faster grown trees don't seem to have the same quality.

I would say if the original lasted 35 years you are going to be hard pressed to get 10 if replaced with the same wood. Don't know the technical reasons for it but that has been my experience.

I use PCV in any wet outside molding. It works like wood and I haven't noticed any problems with my tools.

[charlese]

What is your concern with redwood and taking paint? I use 1-2 coats of the Zinsser oil-based primer ("cover stain"), which can be top coated with latex paint once dried...never had any problems and I've painted hundreds of square feet of redwood exterior trim and lap siding...

Ah! You caught my older age thinking. Don't think the Zinsser stuff was around when my thinking was formed.

However, still don't know if the softer redwood would hold up as well s White oak on the bottom of an exposed sliding door.

Thanks for you comment/question! Never too old to learn:)

[algale]

A lot is happening in the shop!

My local lumber yard convinced me to try "Spanish Cedar". I brought home a rough board that was 8/4" by 6.5" by 8', which is enough to get the two rails and one stile I need to replace.

Spanish Cedar is a hardwood from South American that is NOT related to either Western Red Cedar or the Eastern aromatic cedar. It has a beautiful redish color (irrelevant since it will be painted) and supposedly has good rot and termite resistance (which is relevant for my application). But the wood is frustrating to work with. It machines beautifully with the grain; any work against the grain results in tear out, fuzz and stringing unlike anything I've ever worked with before.

At 6.5" wide, the rough board I bought was half an inch too wide to face joint on my 6" Grizzly jointer so I edge jointed it first, thinking I'd then rip off the 1/2" and finish jointing it. It was really too large and heavy for me to easily handle on the jointer. In retrospect, I should have snapped a line down the middle and ripped it first free hand on the band saw. Lesson learned. But I somehow got the job done.

After getting the first edge jointed it was time to rip that 1/2" off so I could finish with the dimensioning. Just in time for the project , I had ordered the Kreg Band Saw Fence while it was on sale. It arrived in a couple of days. By the way, when you order the Shopsmith version of the Kreg band saw fence you get a "free" 20" aluminum miter extension because the band saw fence extrusion that comes with Shopsmith version of the Kreg fence is the exact same as the Shopsmith 20" aluminum miter extension p/n 556005. The Shopsmith portion of the manual makes this point. The fence easily installed and was adjusted for the drift of my 5/8" band saw blade. Probably took 30 minutes, tops. Using the newly installed Kreg, I easily riped that half inch off the board. The cut off the blade was excellent and it went like butter through the 8/4" Spanish Cedar. Unfortunately I forgot to document this part of the project. But I used the same set up as in the photos below.

I am really impressed with the Kreg fence, the 5/8" blade and, of course, the Mark V itself. I should say that up until this project, I had mostly used the table saw for ripping and thought the band saw's main function was to cut curves. I may have to rethink that.

After getting the board down to a width that could be managed on my jointer, I face jointed it and then thicknessed it. Again no photos, but I can report that my planer stand, which some thought would be too flimsy, easily handled the load.

Then back to the Mark V to rip it in half (this will allow me to get one stile and two rails out of the board) on the band saw. Here's a couple of after photos of that cut showing the Shopsmith set up. Using both floating tables, the main table and the extension table I had plenty of infeed and outfeed support. Same set up I used to make the first rip (but I forgot to take photos). I can't imagine how I could have done this on any other band saw without a lot of temporary supports and/or helpers. I am really impressed with the accuracy and quality of the cut I got straight off the blade using the Kreg fence.

Sorry for the lousy photos.
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After this, it was time to cross cut one of the long pieces to make the two rails. Similar set up.
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By the way, the barely visible extension of the miter gauge is just a piece of plywood covered in a 3M anti-slip tape. I stated using this stuff a few months ago. Highly recommend the stuff -- it grips much better than sandpaper, which is what I have used in the past. Very helpful especially on the Mark V if you are doing a beveled cross cut. Really reduces the tendency for the main piece and the cut off to want to slide.

That's all for today.

[algale]

After milling the pieces to dimension, the next step was to add some grooves. The original has a bottom groove .910 wide by .450 deep. The top groove is .910 by .750 deep and then has another, narrower groove cut in the center of the top groove. Refer to the bottom photo in this post to see what I'm talking about.

To ensure the groove would be centered in the stock, I decided to cut the groove's width in two passes. This meant setting up the dado blade for half the finished width, running the stock through, rotating the stock 180 degrees and running it through again. I think this ended up being more trouble than it was worth. The Spanish Cedar is so directionally sensitive that one half of the groove would be smooth and the other half with lots of tear out, as seen here:
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The end result was I had to do a lot of hand sanding!

Here's a couple of shots of the set up. The bottom groove has already been milled in these photos and the rails/stile have been flipped to cut the top groove. The blue tape is there to remind me not to further mill the bottom groove as I work on the top grooves. Since they are the same width it would be very easy to lose track of which way is up!
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Thanks for the outfeed table inspiration, Dusty. No way this project is getting done without that!

Here's a side by side showing the old rail and the new rails milled with their top and bottom grooves after sanding to reduce the tear out.
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I still need to add the narrow groove that sits in the middle of the top groove and cut the through mortises (which hold the wheel assemblies), cut the end tenons and cut the decorative bevels on the top edge. Lots left to do and plenty of opportunities to mess up. But I am happy with the progress so far.

That's all for now.

[algale]

More progress. Center groove added.
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The original rails and stile have a beveled edge detail. This was the set up for the bevel, showing the outfeed table and the rip fence extension I use (it also doubles as the fence I used when burying a dado blade, hence the cut out). The fence extension attached with a couple of sliding T-nuts to the top of the fence.
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Here's a couple of photos showing the bevels added. As you can see, I've also cut the tenons. Both the shoulders and the cheeks of the tenon were cut on the band saw. Forgot to take photos. The cheeks were cut using the Kreg fence and a stop block to control the depth. The shoulders, which are at an angle, were cut using the miter gauge.
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That's all for this post. Still need to cut the mortises for the wheel assemblies and few other details.

[algale]

I got pretty anxious so I decided to do a test fit. Also intended to measure the length to cut the stile. I was pleased that everything fit and that everything looks like it will work.
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Here's the joint between the new stile and the old rail (the door is on its side).
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And the joint between the new stile and new rail.
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The black strips in the above photos between the glass and the wood are a rubber-like u-channel weather seal that wraps around the glass.

All good, except one thing. Like a knucklehead, when milling the rails and stiles I didn't stop to think that while the rails had a bottom groove the stile didn't. So, I've got an unnecessary groove in the outside of the stile. I cut some fill pieces on the band saw and glued them in. Once painted, I think it will be a non-issue. Measure twice groove once!

All for know.

[algale]

More progress today. Cut the mortises in the rail for the wheel assemblies. Used a Forstner bit to hog out most of the material and cleaned up with a chisel. Not shown in this photo are the two smaller mortises I had to cut to accet the large square nuts that accept the 1/4-20 x 3.5" flat head machine screws that hold the frame together. I cut those mortises but no photos. I learned I am a lousy at cleaning up a mortise with a chisel. Luckily, this will not be seen when the door is put together.
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A few last details for the stiles. The stiles have a countersunk hole for the machine screws. In addition, there's a half round relief cut at the end. Rather than measuring the position of these, I used the the old stile to line up the Forstner bit (and the 1/4 inch twist bit for the machine screw) and then locked in the position with the miter gauge and rip fence (the stop block is to get get clearance).
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Here's a photo showing the support tables for this set up. For some reason I didn't take photos after I replaced this rotten stile with the one I am building. Oh well.
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From here, I took the pieces up and assembled them for real!!!!:)
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So now it is prime and paint and reinstall the wheel assemblies. But that's for tomorrow (assuming the rain holds off).

[elizabeth2]

There are many types of wood which used for different purposes.But you should get proper information about durable wood before buying any type of furniture or other wooden items.You can get proper information about any type of qualitative wood by vising our site.

[judaspre1982]

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[algale]

Well, it is in and it fits, slides, locks and does everything it is supposed to do. SWMBO is thrilled. The cost to replace this unit would have been over $3,000. I think my tool budget has been justified!

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