# Historic front door refurbishing



## whiteshoecovers (Jun 7, 2015)

I am making some patches in a door frame. This frame had been butchered a couple times to accommodate a variety of lock sets so I am going in and chiseling out a nice section into which I will fit a plug. The images show the section I've chiseled out of the mahogany trim (this is only slightly bigger than the original butchered hole) but I've also now chiseled out a similar sized section of the pine door jam to accept a new pine plug that will have the strike plate and hole for the deadbolt. (I know, not ideal for a strong deadbolt but it's what I've decided to do to best preserve this historic woodwork).

Since I am chiseling these the surfaces they are not perfectly flat though the plugs I am making are perfectly square and flat, and for both the pine door jamb plug and the mahogany trim plug there is more end-grain to be bonded than long grain.

What technique and glue would be best? I have titlebond carpenters glue and hardman's double bubble slow cure epoxy (blue 24hr). I am leaning towards the epoxy since the surfaces are not perfectly matched.

Thanks.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

Epoxy is gap filling, wood glue is not. You can also mix epoxy w/ wood flour to a peanut butter consistency and that will keep it from running out of the space where you want it.


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## Kazooman (Jan 20, 2013)

Not really a glue question. More a joinery question.

I'm no expert at this, but I think you can go a long way towards making the sides of the notch you have chiseled out much closer to square. That will go a long way toward making the repair longer lasting, and much better looking.

The face you can see in the picture is clearly not smooth and probably not perpendicular to the face of the panel. Clamp a guide piece to the work and use it to guide your chisel for a series of cuts that will bring the surface to perpendicular to the surface of the piece and parallel to the edge. That establishes a good reference. Do a similar operation for the ends of the cutout. Only then will you be in a position to cut the piece that will fill the void to size.

I would also take some time to think about the forces that will be invloved as the door is used. You might decide to reinforce the strength of the piece using some dowels, splines, or another method. Simply gluing a block into the opening, even if it is crafted to much tighter tolerances might not be enough.


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## whiteshoecovers (Jun 7, 2015)

@kazooman, thanks for the advice but that was just an in-progress pic, I'm all "squared" away now.


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## barada83 (Feb 25, 2015)

I'd epoxy it with some wood dust mixed in for color, although it might be tough with the upcoming finish match. If I was in your spot, I'd oversize my filler so I could pare it to flush. It would also help with the finish feathering.


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## jerryminer (Jun 15, 2014)

I would go a step further-forget the square corners and cut the top and bottom back at a 45 or so-even steeper is better. Then the joint becomes more of a "scarf joint" and the glue bond is much better. Been there; done that.

The angled cut also blends better visually-no sharp across-the-grain joint lines.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

jerryminer has the right idea, but probably means a more acute angle, not steeper (steeper would put it closer to 90 deg.) This is an old trick in boat building and repair. Such a piece is called a "Dutchman." It will be much stronger, and easier to do than the square cut end joints. I also agree that epoxy with wood flour thickener is the best adhesive. It will fill any imperfections in the joint. It's going to be hard to make that repair invisible, however.


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## whiteshoecovers (Jun 7, 2015)

Thanks for confirming my inclination to use epoxy. I think I will both epoxy the pine door jamb plug, then drill a couple holes and pin it as well.

As for the mahogany trim, I really like the idea of the "Dutchman" for the top and bottom. Here I am not so worried about strength since it is more of an aesthetic piece, but stronger won't hurt. I'll try to post some more pictures of the process and result.

WSCs


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## WoodNSawdust (Mar 7, 2015)

In addition to the good suggestions already offered. I would look at adding a little dye to the epoxy to help it match the finish color.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

And . . .a Dutchman is sometimes called a "graving piece." Just remembered that.


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## whiteshoecovers (Jun 7, 2015)

> And . . .a Dutchman is sometimes called a "graving piece." Just remembered that.
> 
> - runswithscissors


Maybe, but "Dutchman" is such a cooler name, especially considering on what a superior level of cool the Dutch are operating.

So I am still working on chiseling out for my Dutchman (waiting on a new set of chisels) when I decided to pull the "screen" door and refurbish that as well.










Along the way it was converted to have this sliding screen for the top panel and glass for the bottom panels (pic) and I'd like to convert it back to all screen panels. I pulled it and have removed all of the panels and associated moldings….


















When I pulled the moldings I could tell this door has already been through it a couple times with a lot of nail holes in the rails and stiles around each panel. I think I will rabbet out a groove around each panel which should eliminate all the old nail holes, then groove that rabbet to accept a cord or spline to hold each screen taught, and cover with new molding. But now I need to decide what to do with this previous repair job. Looks like the original mortise and tenon began to fail at some point and someone did a decent job with this patch that was screwed into place.










Problem is that it's a little loose again and wouldn't you know it this is the spot where the door sticks in the jamb. So what's the call here? I originally thought I could clamp the joint, drill and dowel the tenon at a couple spots and be good, but then I noticed this patch and when I clamped the joint I did get a more snug fit but their patch started to wedge out of place. I am thinking of removing their patch and creating a template to use with my router to remove a larger section of the stile and replace that with a patch of red oak (the original patch is pine I think) and glue and pin that in place.

Thoughts?


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

I should mention that oak, esp. white oak, is not very compatible with epoxy. Tannins in the wood react with the epoxy somehow. Not sure about red oak, however. The epoxy will cure with no problem, but the joint may eventually fail.


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## whiteshoecovers (Jun 7, 2015)

I was hoping for a little more feedback, maybe over the weekend.

So how about a vote for the door patch. Option 1 is just a replacement of the original approach with hopefully longer lasting results. I plan to make a template for my router to create a nice cavity for the new patch, and then pin the patch to the existing tenon with a couple dowels.









This second approach is a bit more extreme. 









I really welcome votes and alternative suggestions.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

I would vote for the second option, but instead of a tongue and groove on that stile, I'd make a scarf joint, with at least an 8 to one slope. It will be much stronger. I'm also dubious about mixing wood species there.

Cutting the scarf joint should be pretty easy on the new piece, but as for the existing stile, I didn't promise it would be easy. I'd get that made first (plane, hand saw, router jig, etc.) then cut the new piece to fit.


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## whiteshoecovers (Jun 7, 2015)

Awesome, thanks for the input. So you're suggesting something like this:










Oh, and no one is mixing wood here. Oak door, oak patch.


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

Yes


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## jerryminer (Jun 15, 2014)

Call me ornery, but I'd probably do this (I would try to keep the stile full-length, and the grain as continuous as possible)--also easier to do :


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## whiteshoecovers (Jun 7, 2015)

Oh this has turned into an ordeal! I started out trying to do the option jeryminer suggested above, but wasn't happy with how well I was chiseling out the material so I just cut it out to go ahead with a full patch like one of the other options above. That was going ok, but in moving the door in and out of my shop the opposite joint failed. It was all rotted so maybe a blessing that it gave out now. The top rail is salvageable but I am wondering if it wouldn't just be better to replace that too, especially considering I can't find a good match for the wood….

I originally thought I'd use some old red oak I had for the patch and screen covers so I milled some of that up and it didn't look right. So I went and got some white oak and that didn't look right, now I'm on to quarter sawn white and that doesn't look right. My local hardwood center doesn't carry red quarter sawn so I think I am stuck with the white quarter sawn. It might be unrealistic to think I could get the patch to mach well but now that I've stripped the door it doesn't resemble the red or white oak I have.


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