The Technique of FURNITURE MAKING

Edging shaped doors

Solid wood will not require edgings, but veneeer assemblies will need the usual form of applied edges. In very shallow curves it may be possible to bend the edging to the shape, first saw kerfing the tongues if they are worked in the solid; if not the edging must be machine - moulded or formed with a portable router or scratch stock on a wide board (227:9), with each length of edging cut off as it is worked and the sawn edge reshaped for the next. Grooves in the door will have to be worked with a suitable cutting-gauge with rounded or dowel-stubbed stock (see Hand tools. Chapter 9) or with veneer or plywood assemblies it may be possible to cut and assemble the individual plies so that the groove is formed in the process. The completed assembly should be glue pressed, left under pressure for as long as possible and given plenty of time to set before face veneering. Any assembly which twists during this period should be rejected, for it is never worth the trouble of trying to correct the twist, nor can the edgings, however stiff, be relied upon to pull it back to shape. As the same formers or forms will be used for the face veneering, a centre-line should be drawn on the former (227:10A), and marked on the assembly before it is withdrawn so that it can be accurately repositioned in all subsequent operations.

BARRED GLASS DOORS

Traditional barred doors are illustrated in 229:1-3 and rely for their appeal on the delicacy of their treatment. Contemporary examples sometimes apply a cut-out pattern or jointed face mouldings to a single sheet of glass with Araldite or Durofix cement, but apart from the sham element the glass cannot be replaced without sacrificing the mouldings, and in the best examples the sash-bars are composed of a face moulding and a separate stiffening rib grooved in to form rebates/rabbets for the glass which is beaded or puttied in (229:4, 5, 6). These face mouldings must be of the same shape and section as the moulded edge of the stiles and rails or the mitres will not meet. Various methods of jointing the ribs are practised: veneer keyed with a dovetail joint for curved sections (229:7); straight mortise and tenon (229:8); angle joint in which the third rib is forked over the other two (229:9); two curved ribs spliced together and slotted into the upright (229:10); and a simple halving joint for crossovers (229:11). The mitred junctions of the face mouldings are shown in 229:12-15.