Reinforcing oak doors

mountain4don · Post by **mountain4don** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 8:51 pm

I am having trouble with an old oak exterior door on my house splitting apart at the seams. It is 1-3/4" thick and a style and rail setup with floating panels in the bottom and glass in the top. I wedged the separating seams apart as far as I could go to open it up, and then squirted in as much wood glue as I could and then used several bar clamps to clamp it up tight to dry. And that's where I am now. What I would like to do is route a 3/4" x 3/4" slot at the junction of the style and rail on the top and bottom of the door, and insert a piece of oak lumber glued in the slot for extra reinforcement. I thought I would just throw the door up on the Shopsmith and use the Shopsmith 3/4" router bit to route the slots. But since the door is so heavy, I am not sure I can make the sliding smooth enough to get it to work. I do have a hand router and a 1/2" bit but would have to make some sort of frame to guide it. Anybody ever do anything like this and have some ideas for me to try?

forrestb · Post by **forrestb** » Wed Nov 19, 2014 11:27 pm

Don, it sounds like your rails are moving with the humidity/temperature. Is the door exposed to direct sunlight part of the day? How is the door finished? Are the top and bottom of the door finished? How old is the door - curious that it is splitting just now and not in the past? A picture would help us.

If your repair has brought the door back in original dimensions and you want to try routing just use a fence that rides on the door top/bottom (if I understand where your splits are). Stop blocks can control length of rout. I do NOT recommend trying to manhandle an oak door on the SS!

But I think you need to resolve 'why splitting now?' first. Your routed insert will just suffer the same fate someday.

I have a couple of painted fir French doors that suffered the same fate. The painters had not painted the doors tops or bottoms and water was absorbed over time and cause the rails to swell. Mine was easy - shallow rout, fill with architectural epoxy, sand and prime/paint.

Forrest

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:00 am

I haven't done this to a door. BUT I think the 3/4" slot wood be to large. You'd only have 1/2"

wa2crk · Post by **wa2crk** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 9:20 am

Most doors have mortise and tenon joints and that results in a cross grain glue joint which has a tendency to fail. I would try to make some dowels with matching grain and color and peg the joints.
Bill V

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:02 pm

wa2crk wrote:Most doors have mortise and tenon joints and that results in a cross grain glue joint which has a tendency to fail. I would try to make some dowels with matching grain and color and peg the joints.
Bill V

I agree! I do not think a surface treatment at the 'joint' will provide any improvement other than appearance.

wa2crk · Post by **wa2crk** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 5:58 pm

JPG
I agree. My son has a 100+ year old brick Victorian in Pennsylvania. The front door is almost 4' wide and has mortise and tenon joints which have not failed. I think that is because the door is made entirely of quarter saws white oak and probably has another 100 years in it.
Bill

mountain4don · Post by **mountain4don** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 8:35 pm

The door was purchased new about 15 years ago to be placed into a brick wall leading out to a sun porch that hasn't been built yet. Four other doors were purchased from the same company and installed and finished. None of them have failed. This door and frame set was placed in a future living room unfinished and then we moved away and tried to sell the farm. After 7 years we moved back and gave up on that idea. The house was unheated those seven years except for short times we came to visit the old place. Well, now we are trying to finish up the house and install this door through a hole we cut in the exterior brick wall. But all of the unfinished door seams had split open from 1/32" to maybe 3/16" at the four corners and the center cross piece. In the hole drilled for the door knob and lock on the center cross piece I can see a dowel about 3/4" in diameter that has slid back into the hole the same distance as the split between the side and cross piece there in the center. So that is why I couldn't wedge the door completely apart. Evidently there are 3/4" dowels holding the pieces together. And that is why I thought that maybe I could glue a 3/4" x 3/4" x 7" piece of oak wood in a slot across the junction of the side and top/bottom pieces to reinforce the doweling that may not have been glued properly or the glue has failed. Then of course I would put a proper finish on the door to seal it all.

mountain4don · Post by **mountain4don** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 8:43 pm

beeg wrote:I haven't done this to a door. BUT I think the 3/4" slot wood be to large. You'd only have 1/2"

I could route a slot 1/4" deep and 3/4" wide and screw a 1/4" x 3/4" steel bar in place with some flathead wood screws.

john_001 · Post by **john_001** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 3:06 pm

That sounds like the simplest. I should think you wouldn't even need something that thick - just an ordinary 3" x 3/4" galvanized steel "mending plate" let in to the surface. I wouldn't think the wooden floating tenon would work well - straight tenons aren't know for their strength in tension. You'd probably need to use a butterfly joint if you want to stick with wood.

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Reinforcing oak doors

Reinforcing oak doors

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Reinforcing Oak Door