The Technique of FURNITURE MAKING

Door construction

FRAMED DOORS

The various parts of a framed-up door, tenoned or dowelled together and with panels of ply or solid wood, are shown in 221; the horns (221:1 A) are left on while the mortises are being cut to prevent the ends splitting and also to protect the heads from damage until the doors are planed to the openings. Solid panels must not be glued in but must be free to slide in the grooves, and the edges of the corners should be lightly waxed, for even a little strong resin glue squeezed out of the mortises during assembly has been known to lock a panel and split the wood; but ply panels can be glued all round and will stiffen up light frameworks. Rebated/ rabbeted frameworks for panels beaded in from the back require long and short mortise and tenon joints, and if the panels are glass the beads should be pinned only and not glued, while heavy-section glass-panelled doors may require wash-leather strips in the rebates to cushion the glass. Rebates for panels can also be formed with raised bolection mouldings (221:5), or panel mouldings (221:6) and both are glued and pinned to the framework only. Flush panels should be in plywood, but fielded panels require solid wood, while raised panels are usually solid but can be in plywood if the edges are covered and the face veneers carried over the edgings. Screwed panels in solid wood require wood buttons screwed to the back of the panel and sliding in grooves in the framework, but plywood panels can be glued direct if the seating is sufficient. The thickness of all panels entering grooves should be checked before assembly with a mullet, as shown in 222, worked with the same grooving-cutter as for the stiles and rails.

Laying out framed doors

The stiles are first cut full in height, and the rails the full width including the width of the stiles. Assuming that the door is rebated/rabbeted for a panel then the stiles are first gauged from the face edges with the width of the rebate, and on the backs with the depth of the rebate; they are then cramped/clamped together (223:1) and marked in pencil with the actual door height (A), face width of rail (AD), width of haunch (AB), width of tenon (BC) and depth of rebate (CD). They can then be separated, the mortise thickness gauged on, the mortises chiselled out and the rebates worked. The haunch socket sides (223:4) can now be cut with a dovetail-saw and chiselled out, using a piece of wood equal to the thickness of the tenon and the length of the haunch as a trial template. In marking out the rails (223:2), gauge in the rebates using the same setting as for the stiles, cramp together, mark the overall door width less the width of the two stiles on the faces, and outside these mark the rebate depth to give the shoulder size on the backs. The rails can now be separated and the marks squared round with a knife, taking care to mark the short shoulder on the face (223:3) and the long shoulder on the back, after which the tenons can be sawn down, the rebates worked and then the tenon shoulders sawn in. Fitting the joint is shown in 223:4. The tenon is marked for width against the mortise, and the length of the haunch from the depth of the haunch socket. The mortise depth is also checked, and the length of the tenon is marked fractionally short to allow for surplus glue, after which the cuts can be made and the tenon test fitted. If the tenon shoulders do not line up then they must be checked for squareness, also the squareness of the rail with the stile (223:5), and the overall squareness of the frame opening, using a diagonal squaring-rod or long rule. The old carpenters' trick of dry cramping a frame together and getting rid of any shoulder gaps by running a fine saw through the shoulders on either side is certainly efficacious, but hardly to be recommended in fine cabinet-work. Mortise sides which are out of square with the face (223:6) must be trued up with a chisel, badly sawn tenons corrected with a shoulder-plane and thickened up by gluing on a slip of veneer to the side (223:7). The completed joint should be

a smooth, reasonably tight fit not requiring excessive cramping pressure, and should be assembled. on a level surface, checking the completed frame with winding-sticks.