Every time I start a new project be it for the shop or our house… I’ve got to haul a myriad of tools and equipment from all points of the compass. Stuff up at the house and stuff down in the shop needs to be dragged one way or another before I can start the project. Some times this can be up to an hour of set up time and subsequently, an hour of clean up depending on the weather. So that’s up to 2 hours lost each day I work on something. I had left the back of the shop open and vacant as I knew I wanted to create a dedicated space for a small modest wood shop. This spring had me thinking. IT was time! Here’s the back of the shop pre-hole making…
And pre-frame shop too for that matter! Funny looking back on this how far I’ve come.
So the plan was to punch through where a horse stall door had been and take out part of the block foundation to frame it out for a 2nd set of carriage doors. It went relatively smoothly:
With that finished, it was time to assess what kind of material I had on hand and what I needed. The horse stalls used to be lined with massive 2″ x 10″ x 12′ dimensioned lumber so it seemed appropriate to use that for the new set of doors. Measurements taken (and sized off of the 4×4 4-wheeler that needed to fit through that opening!), I made a quick sketch to get the basic idea down and hashed out. Dimensions changed on the fly as I built the doors and the door concept evolved:
The plan was to create long mortises to basically “trap” a 1/2″ sheet of baltic birch plywood. This would allow for a relatively quick build but also create a relatively square platform to build the doors Nothing is square or flat anywhere NEAR the shop with the exception of my alignment table, lathe and bridgeport table… All of which don’t get anywhere near sawdust as a rule. Tenon’s tied the remaining parts together:
With the parts finished up, I ran them through Franky’s planer to roughly dimension them all the same thickness. I wasn’t too concerned with getting everything to a high level of finish. The exterior of the shop is a bit rough when you get up close to everything, so it seemed a bit appropriate to let them live life on the slightly rough side. Here’s one mid-assembly for a dry fit. So important that dry fit. Not only do you figure out process and procedure when it’s time to add glue, but you can also see if anything needs to change. This one needed a little bit more material removed from one of the mortises. Seemed to have a high spot:
With all the parts finished up, I glued them up and waited overnight for each to dry over the course of a weekend (I only have enough clamps to handle 1 door at a time). Here they are all finished up and ready for that first coat of stain:
When I made the first set of carriage doors, I learned a lot and with that previous learning experience under my belt, I changed up how these were built a bit. I kind of overbuilt and over insulated the first set. These are a bit different. I took this weekend to finish staining them, and get them hung. This project got me primed for a bunch of upcoming house projects and it was nice to work in the space to help formulate how I wanted to build it out. I’ve got a plan now and to my surprise and benefit: set up only took about 15 minutes so that meant an addition of 90 minutes of potential ride time. Which I took advantage of this weekend… Here’s the doors all finished up and hung:
Another angle:
I’ll finish up staining the backs of them now that they are hung and create a insert for each door that has a thin sheet of closed cell foam that gets keyed in place in the backs. There’s about a 1/4″ of space all the way around the doors which will be sealed up nicely from behind to prevent drafts. Excited to have these doors in place and be planning on my new modest wood shop which will help me with the remaining additions to the shop and the on-going projects to our house. Till next project, keep the rubber side down and your fingers far from the spinning blade!
Shop Improvements!
Every time I start a new project be it for the shop or our house… I’ve got to haul a myriad of tools and equipment from all points of the compass. Stuff up at the house and stuff down in the shop needs to be dragged one way or another before I can start the project. Some times this can be up to an hour of set up time and subsequently, an hour of clean up depending on the weather. So that’s up to 2 hours lost each day I work on something. I had left the back of the shop open and vacant as I knew I wanted to create a dedicated space for a small modest wood shop. This spring had me thinking. IT was time! Here’s the back of the shop pre-hole making…
And pre-frame shop too for that matter! Funny looking back on this how far I’ve come.
So the plan was to punch through where a horse stall door had been and take out part of the block foundation to frame it out for a 2nd set of carriage doors. It went relatively smoothly:
With that finished, it was time to assess what kind of material I had on hand and what I needed. The horse stalls used to be lined with massive 2″ x 10″ x 12′ dimensioned lumber so it seemed appropriate to use that for the new set of doors. Measurements taken (and sized off of the 4×4 4-wheeler that needed to fit through that opening!), I made a quick sketch to get the basic idea down and hashed out. Dimensions changed on the fly as I built the doors and the door concept evolved:
The plan was to create long mortises to basically “trap” a 1/2″ sheet of baltic birch plywood. This would allow for a relatively quick build but also create a relatively square platform to build the doors Nothing is square or flat anywhere NEAR the shop with the exception of my alignment table, lathe and bridgeport table… All of which don’t get anywhere near sawdust as a rule. Tenon’s tied the remaining parts together:
With the parts finished up, I ran them through Franky’s planer to roughly dimension them all the same thickness. I wasn’t too concerned with getting everything to a high level of finish. The exterior of the shop is a bit rough when you get up close to everything, so it seemed a bit appropriate to let them live life on the slightly rough side. Here’s one mid-assembly for a dry fit. So important that dry fit. Not only do you figure out process and procedure when it’s time to add glue, but you can also see if anything needs to change. This one needed a little bit more material removed from one of the mortises. Seemed to have a high spot:
With all the parts finished up, I glued them up and waited overnight for each to dry over the course of a weekend (I only have enough clamps to handle 1 door at a time). Here they are all finished up and ready for that first coat of stain:
When I made the first set of carriage doors, I learned a lot and with that previous learning experience under my belt, I changed up how these were built a bit. I kind of overbuilt and over insulated the first set. These are a bit different. I took this weekend to finish staining them, and get them hung. This project got me primed for a bunch of upcoming house projects and it was nice to work in the space to help formulate how I wanted to build it out. I’ve got a plan now and to my surprise and benefit: set up only took about 15 minutes so that meant an addition of 90 minutes of potential ride time. Which I took advantage of this weekend… Here’s the doors all finished up and hung:
Another angle:
I’ll finish up staining the backs of them now that they are hung and create a insert for each door that has a thin sheet of closed cell foam that gets keyed in place in the backs. There’s about a 1/4″ of space all the way around the doors which will be sealed up nicely from behind to prevent drafts. Excited to have these doors in place and be planning on my new modest wood shop which will help me with the remaining additions to the shop and the on-going projects to our house. Till next project, keep the rubber side down and your fingers far from the spinning blade!