Front Door Refresh

[bainin]

Well-not a Shopsmith project persay...but included some wood and sanding and such.

The wife has been bugging me to do something about the front door which I had labelled as "weathered" which sounds better these days
as that is in vogue...she wasn't buying it though

Taking off kickplate revealed how "weathered" it actually was haha. Had no idea it was such a dark stain .

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Sanding it back took awhile ...and multiple stainings to get it relatively even and touched up here and there with a stainable filler.

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As part of the process, the lady wanted to try 5 different stain colors. We put them on, and let the house vote for their first and second favorites and determined a winner. I went off and bought a couple more small cans of the winner. Well...as I recall the winner had a more yellowish hue to it then what was goin down. Someone had mixed up the cans and the ordering during the voting ! The final stain was "Sedona Red" followed by multiple coats of the Spar Polyurethane.

Anyways-unlike national politics, we decided to hang the door and give it a try-even though it wasn't our first choice. Lo and behold- it don't look bad.

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and finally back in place -

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Maybe this post is telling you why I havent done anything in the shop lately - this project took alot longer than expected and having to every nite rehang the door for security sake got old quick.


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[tkjones63]

looks fantastic, id be proud of that

[HopefulSSer]

Beautiful!

[RFGuy]

Turned out great in my opinion. I did this on my front doors maybe 5 years ago to get some more life out of them. Unfortunately they are starting to check more now and the moldings around the small windows are in really bad shape. My doors are just very old. Also, the doors are south facing and here the desert sun is brutal on wood and wood finishes. Still debating if I want to work on it again or try to build two new doors in my shop, or hand it over to a professional to put new doors in.

[bainin]

Yeah- we got a quote from a "door" installer , actually 2 different ones. Both told us that they don't simply install doors...no they bring in the heavy lifting equipment and replace the entire door/frame and surrounding accent windows etc as a unit. They were ranging in installed costs of $6000-10000 which was way more than I was willing to throw at a door. The argument is its the only way they can ensure their insulation ratings or whatever the that they quote. Uh huh. For that much money I could put up solar panels and run the AC and heat with all the windows and doors wide open

Next time, I will likely look around for a local handyman to simply replace the door and weatherstripping. It was a slow process and I'm an impatient person. Not an easy project for me.

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[twistsol]

Those must have been some expensive doors they were quoting for you because replacing a front door unit like that is about a two hour job for a couple of people even if they're trying to slow walk the process.

By the way, the door looks fantastic, well done.

[RFGuy]

Just wondering if anyone has built their own wood doors for their house before? I have thought about taking it on, but not sure I can get lumber dry & straight enough to attempt it. Anyone have experience with this?

[edma194]

That door came out looking fantastic, well worth restoring. It looks absolutely gorgeous framed in that entryway.

RFGuy, I'd worry a lot about a wood exterior door where I live with constantly changing temperature and humidity. Would it be so much of a problem where you are?

[RFGuy]

RFGuy, I'd worry a lot about a wood exterior door where I live with constantly changing temperature and humidity. Would it be so much of a problem where you are?

Yeah, that is my concern as well. IF the lumber was super dry to begin with I think it would be okay if I can get it straight enough. Of course, I can start with thicker stock and mill it down to try to get it as straight as possible. I just know doors have to be very straight and dry to start with or you'll have problems. I can tolerate some wood movement on furniture and other projects that I build, but doors are more demanding. I have no experience building a house door, but I have built shed doors with Dad in the distant past. This area is drier than other parts of the country, but the humidity does fluctuate throughout the year (see below). Our humidity peaks during the summer monsoon season, but daily humidity can very high when it rains. So, we can have quite large swings in humidity at times. To compound to this is that the humidity inside my house stays a more constant 45-50% humidity all year round, so there is uneven humidity on one side of the door relative to the other side to contend with.

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[edma194]

That chart could represent a typical day in June around here.