Stave construction for doors

Re: Stave construction for doors

Brian Holcombe

Tom, for cabinet drawers I have veneered shop sawn veneers to birch ply then planed them to thickness by hand.

What is Stave construction ? a flaw in thinking

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

"building house doors ..... But since I don't have a thickness sander "

Don't you see the flaw in this thinking? As woodworkers we dream up stuff to build that requires tools we don' t have so we can justify the tools we want.

On a serious note, now that I have a thickness sander I don't know how I worked without it.

potential challengers

ian neuhaus

knowing where to stop could easily be a challenge with the method you nominate.

You would be thicknessing the entire door without ready access to the remaining thickness of each face of veneer.

I think a better method would be to saw the veneer, temporarily attach it to a MDF carrier and thickness it to a consistent 1/8" or 5/32", or so.

build the door and attach the veneer skins. Then sand the final construction.

When gluing on the skins, you may wish to consider using epoxy thickened with wood flour. With the "right" choice of hardener (and storage post mixing) you should be able to achieve an open time in excess of 60 minutes. For example, SystemThree's general purpose epoxy with SystemThree's slow hardener has an open time of around 1 hour at 75 degrees.

Re: potential challengers

Tom Norton

My thought was to make the individual components, rais and stiles, and thickness these to final dimensions then assemble.

Re: potential challengers

Barry Irby

I pulled the one I have to work with the grain. I was amazed at how easily it cut. It was new when I got it and I did nothing but pick it up and use it. I was stunned at how much easier it cut than my block plane. Back to the sharpening lessons for the plane.

I was taught anything over 3/32"

Dick Coers

Over 3/32" acted like solid wood for movement. 3/32 or less acted like veneer. When manufactured flooring is made, they glue two pieces of substrate to one thickness of solid wood. Then they resaw it and final sand.