# Making Solid Pine Interiors Doors...



## Garin (Feb 3, 2019)

I'm getting ready to start my first journey into making doors. I haven't settled on the design of the door as of yet, leaning more towards a 3 panel square, no arch. Or whatever my wife decides.

The rails and styles will be made from 2×6 pine.
The styles will be cut down to 5" wide and the height of the top and middle rails will be 4". The bottom rail will be 8" Tall.

I have read many books, articles, blogs, and watched countless videos on making doors. 
So I have hundreds of ways of doing it too choose from. I have decided on doing a Standard mortise and tenon joint, either floating or fixed tenons.

My question is, what length, width and thickness of tenon should I use? What has worked best for you in the past and what should I look out for?


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

Tenons 1-1/2" to 2" long will be plenty. If you use loose tenons, go the same depth into the ends of the rails.

I question your ratios for the rails. Typically, the top rail is the same width as the stiles (stiles, not styles). Your choice of 5" stiles is a good one for a 30" wide door. For 36" I go 5-1/2" and 4-1/2" for a 28" or smaller door.

The lock rail should be wider and the kick rail wider still. My standard dimensions are stile width for the top, 7" for the lock rail and 9" for the kick rail.

Sketch a door to scale with your dimensions and do another one with the ones I've given and see which you like better. If you like yours, fine. The 8" kick rail is good, but the top rail will look odd being narrower than the stiles, and in particular I think a 4" lock rail will look very odd. As with anything, there are exceptions though, so if you and your wife like it, that's all that matters.

I have some doors in my projects, feel free to take a look.


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## Garin (Feb 3, 2019)

Thanks for your guidance. I do remember the variances in the width of the lock and kick rails but didn't remember that. I need you go back to my books.

Most of the door I'm making are 32" so I will up the width of the styles and top rail to 5 1/2".

Ty for your advice
Any other tips from experience that you can give to a first time door maker would be appreciated.


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

I assume you're replacing existing doors. That being the case, you'll want to match the hinge locations and lockset placement. Typically the center of the latch bolt is 44" from the top of an 80" door and the lock rail is centered there as well. Also, your 32" doors are probably 31-3/4 since a 1/8" reveal is common.

You'll want to build jigs for your mortises. If your hinges are 1/4" radius or square at the corner, you can make it yourself since a 1/2" bit will give you a 1/4" radius and if your hinge is square you just chisel it to 90º. If your hinges are 5/8" radius at the corner, you might consider buying one like thishttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TQEJNS. I have that jig and it works well. I'd also recommend getting a drilling jig for installing the lockset. If you have hole cutters already and are good with them you can do it yourself, but the jig makes it foolproof. You'll also want to build a small jig to mortise for the faceplate of the lockset.

One tip that will save you some headache is to hang the hinge stile before you glue up the door. Mark for the hinges, cut your mortise and the hinges to it. It's much easier to manage all that when it's just one board versus an entire door. When you do glue it up, be sure to have a flat surface so your door comes out flat.

Be careful to take accurate measurements off of your existing door for things like hinge setback. It's usually 1/4" for an interior door, but you never know, and getting it wrong relative to your existing hinges will mean the door either won't close, or will stand proud of the door frame.

If you have any questions as you get started, don't hesitate to ask. I'm glad to help.


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

> Sketch a door to scale with your dimensions and do another one with the ones I ve given and see which you like better. If you like yours, fine. The 8" kick rail is good, but the top rail will look odd being narrower than the stiles, and in particular I think a 4" lock rail will look very odd. As with anything, there are exceptions though, so if you and your wife like it, that s all that matters.
> 
> I have some doors in my projects, feel free to take a look.
> 
> - Rich


Not questioning anything you've said, but would add instead of sketching, or in addition to, is to rip the rails on the larger side of the scale and dry assemble, and if you have any scrap, rip a piece to the smaller dimension you had in mind and try that out to visualize. You can always rip smaller, but you can't go back! I did this the first door I made and it really changed my mind on what I had planned once I actually physically saw the scale and proportion.


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