Thursday-Doors – Shed-Shed Doors

DIY, Home Repair, Thursday Doors 91 comments
Shed Shed Doors Under the Moon

This is the final D-I-Y doors post for 2017. Regular readers know that this post has been coming because my buddy was picking on me about making these doors when we were at the bar a couple of weeks ago. These doors had to be pressed into service sooner rather than later, because the snow blower is in that shed, and the shed’s doors were failing. They were hard to open, hard to close and they weren’t doing the best job of keeping the weather out.

When you have to kick a door to open it, you’re in trouble. When you’re afraid that kicking the door will break it, you’re in deep trouble.

The main doors (the ones I had to kick) also had two design flaws that had recently become very annoying. First, they didn’t stay open in the wind. That means that when I was trying to get the snow blower in or out, I had to either prop the doors open or do the awkward reach from behind the storm cab to give them a push. The second problem is that the header is too low for the snow blower’s cab to easily fit through the door. That requires me to put the snow blower at its lowest to-the-ground setting and tip it just a bit.

One of these problems was solved by replacing the hinged doors with a sliding door. Sliding doors tend to stay wherever you put them. And because sliding doors hang from a track that is independent of the header, I can relocate the header later, without having to alter or even remove the door. Actually, since I was also able to remove the stop molding (the strip hinged doors close against), the doorway might be tall enough now.

As with previous D-I-Y projects, I’ve included most of the play-by-play in the captions to the photos. If you’re interested, click on the upper left photo to start a slide show that is roughly in the order of the production process.

Of all the doors I’ve built and featured here, these are the simplest. The design was based on the pile of leftover lumber that I was otherwise going to have to find a place for in my garage. This was kind of like those cooking reality shows where contestants are given a few ingredients and have to make something amazing. I was given 65′ of five-quarter pine stock and not quite two sheets of ½” plywood.

The five-quarter pine is the same stock I used to make the doors on the hanging shed and the garage attic. The difference is that with those earlier doors, the pine ended-up behind the scenes. On these doors, the pine frame is exposed and the plywood panels rest inside a slot (dado) that is cut into the edge of the pine. The pine boards are held together with tongue and groove joints, pocket screws and exterior glue. Because there’s very little movement on the boards and plywood (due to temperature and humidity) the panels are also glued into place.

This post is part of the wonderfully fun and addictive blog-hop, Thursday Doors, organized by the world-famous producer, Norm Frampton. Each week, Norm opens the stage doors to a band of walk-ons and extras as he carefully displays their doors for all to see. The door remains open for roughly 55 hours. As you enter, look for the blue frog – that’s the Director. He’ll show you to your dressing room. Be sure to check out Norm’s doors while you’re getting ready.

Tongue and groove joint. The joint provides mechanical strength and lots of glue surface.
Pocket hole joinery is very fast. Drilling all the pockets for one of the doors took about 10 minutes.
Anatomy of a pocket hole joint. The screw whose head you see is where we start. The screw whose threads you see is where it will finish. When all the surface area shown is covered in glue, this joint is amazingly strong.
This is a little confusing, because there are two doors here. The frames are light enough to move easily, so I’m stacking them to conserve space as I dry fit the components.
The pieces-parts go together in a sequence (if I remember what I’m doing). It starts in one corner and works out from there.
The two boards that form the corner go first, then the panel, then the next “stile” – then panel, and so on.
This is the way to do it. The long rail on the left will be the last thing to be attached.
This shouldn’t be happening. the plywood should have gone in before one of the long side rails. Now it has to be pulled into place through a slot that is weeping glue.
The large door is complete. The clamp is holding one of the sides that wanted to be a little bowed.
Second door has been assembled.
Defects repaired
The plywood had a lot of defects. I decided to patch them with body putty. It’s faster, cheaper and more weatherproof than wood filler.
You can’t sand body putty with a woodworking palm sander. The little pneumatic sander works well, but it was slow-going.
Painting.
This door is being supported by those two little “air pillows” – each one can support almost 300 pounds, and the control is very precise, so I can easily level the door.
This door is working. The trim needs to be installed, but I needed to focus on installing the other door.
The door isn’t attached yet. If you look close, there are two “helping hands” holding the track in place. Once level, I could fasten the anchors in place.
I needed to fabricate a roller mechanism to keep the door against the wall as it opens. I’m using chair casters, welded to angle brackets.
I had to cut the posts off with a grinder, or we would have walked into them…I’m sure of that.
Shed Shed Doors Under the Moon

91 comments

    1. Thanks Ruth. I think it might, I haven’t dug it out yet (still dealing with leaves) but the upper stop rail was actually doubled-up. I think I added a strip as the original doors sagged a bit. If not, I can move the header up about 6″ without much trouble.

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    1. Thanks! These were the easiest of the three sets of doors. Having the right tools makes a difference. My wife bought me those “Helping Hands” for my birthday several years ago. They are so handy. I love having all the time I need, as opposed to trying to get something secured so someone can let go.

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  4. I’m always impressed with your projects. These look great.
    Upon first sight, I thought they were screens, and I thought, “Oh no, poor Dan, traveled his brain too far, plumb lost his mind!” But I see they only look like screens from a distance. Very nice — well done!

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    1. Thanks! That’s so funny that you say that. After I hung the first one, I brought my wife out to see. She took one look and said “it looks like a screen door.” And, of course, like someone else we know, she wants a screen door.

      But a sliding screen door wouldn’t ever slam, so…

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    1. Thanks Lois. The squirrels find whatever door the nuts (the adults) come out of. I have lots of pictures of the squirrels coming up to the open garage door and doing that cute little (I’m so hungry” routine. Even though I can see their bellies ;)

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        1. The really bold one is one of the orphans. My wife discovered them next to their mom’s body. (Many tears). She was determined to help them. One moved on after they grew up, but the one we call Sammy has stayed here.

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  7. First, I love the light from the setting sun on the shed in the final photo. What a great shot, Dan.

    Second, sliding barn-style doors … swoon!

    Third, you said these were easy doors to make, but by the time you got to the pocket notches, I was in awe. It seems to me that being a wood-worker is equal parts magician.

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    1. Thanks Joanne. You can thank Maddie for the photo you like, she dragged me outside at that time.

      Maybe “easy” wasn’t the right word, but certainly easier. I’ve been doing woodworking for almost 50 years, and I’ve seen a lot of advancements. Pocket screws, when they won’t be seen or won’t detract, are super fast ways of connecting boards with a very strong joint. That’s the heart of a door. Where these took about 10 minutes to drill, the mortise and tenon joints I cut on those closet doors took several hours. The tools make the magic possible.

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    1. Thanks Janet. Simple, functional and attractive was the goal with these. I mean, it’s a shed. I used the doors on Sunday, while cleaning up leaves, and they are a big improvement over the ones they replaced.

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  10. You are one talented do-it-yourselfer!! Doors look perfect on the shed. I love the way you take us through the process step-by-step. It’s fascinating. No doubt those doors will serve you well for years to come. —-Ginger—-

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    1. Thanks Ginger, The only downside is that I have to keep them painted. But they aren’t too hard to paint, so maybe I’ll be able to keep after them. I do like the way they function.

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  11. Always amazing, Dan. do have one question. i couldn’t tell from the pictures. Did you fill the joiner holes? Your work is always so precise and intriguing. I don’t think I will be doing any joiner holes soon but the question did come up. Thanks.

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    1. Thanks John. I do have the plugs they make to fill the holes, but I didn’t bother with them on these doors. I can always add them later. I was fighting the clock on these. For the most part, the holes aren’t easy to see.

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  12. Is there any concern that a high wind would damage a hanging door? I am considering a slide door for my milkhouse/sauna but worry about the wind. It really gets strong coming off the Minnesota Mosquito Refuge.

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    1. I have a similar door on my workshop, and it’s been hanging for well over 10 years without any issue. I think the key is holding the door to the wall. The workshop door is held from inside (when locked). The shed doors are held at the edge where they close by a pad that they slide under. The bracket with the (caster) wheel on it holds them at the trailing end. There are trim boards under the long sides and weatherstripping behind that, so the wind can’t get behind the door. The smaller door has a weatherstrip threshold and the wider door will have weatherstripping at the bottom.

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  13. Dan, I believe you’re the only Thursday Doors participant who actually MAKES his own doors. And I think that’s pretty cool. If you haven’t been travelling, hey, no problem — whip up an entry without even leaving the house!

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    1. Thanks Norm. I didn’t get to make any furniture this year, so the woodworking behind the hanging shed and all these doors was my shop time. You can probably appreciate how good it feels to use leftover material instead of having to find a place to store it.

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  16. Impressive Dan ! Quite the collection of tools. Almost makes me want to start on my shed door repair. Almost. It will keep till next spring. Though I might take a few pictures. That is if it does not slow me down getting back into the garden. So how many sheds does it take to store all those tools ! ? 8)

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    1. Thanks John. I’ve been collecting the tools over a long period of woodworking. My workshop is 12×16, and I borrow a 10′ section at the back of a 22′ wide garage. I’d love more space, but I’m planning to make the 10′ that I borrow a permanent arrangement. I hope to partition off that portion of the garage so I can keep sawdust in the shop, and so I can afford to heat the shop space.

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  21. Doors that can’t stay closed are a nuisance, especially for one who is familiar with good carpentry work! There are certain things laymen just don’t think about. Showed hubby your earlier doors (I think the ones of last week), and asked him why they were higher than ground level, he looked like he saw water burning. “You can’t open a door when the snow is a foot high!” What a revelation:):)

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  27. That looks so complicated, I think we’ll be buying our doors, Dan. There are some good second-hand ones available – as long as we measure carefully we should find the right one. Thankfully we don’t need snow blowers where we live. :)

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    1. Thanks ! It was easier than the pictures make it look, Jean, but interior (hinged) doors are complex little projects and rarely end up less expensive than buying them. That only makes sense when you have a need for something that’s truly custom.

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  28. such a great resource to add to the blogosphere, Dan.
    and you are right, some of us knew this was coming….
    it looks a little difficult and makes me grateful for door makers…. if that makes sense.

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    1. Thanks Yvette. Most doors today are made in highly automated shops. The makers of reproduction doors and custom doors are still craftsmen (and women). It’s an art form and an engineering problem rolled into one, doors are always under stress.

      These were pretty easy to make, because I had the tools required. I hope they hold up to a New England winter, but I think they will.

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      1. oh I hope they hold up too :)
        and the right tools are key, eh? I have heard some mechanics say this – sometimes a unique fix is needed that is easy – but the tool to do it is really expensive and so it is sometimes better (cheaper and easier) to pay someone to do it because of the needed tool

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  31. Major pat on the back and a job well done, Dan! Fantastic idea and fantastic doors! I hope your wife knows the brilliancy that sits in you. To make these doors out of scrap oh yeah …. inspirational! I need to nudge hubby in this direction to show him what Dan did and how, and um, gee, if he can do it working a full time job, then he can too (who is not working a full time job but always has the “age excuse” to fall back on). If I showed you a pic of all of our scrap wood in the basement and all the repairs we need to do (hubby mostly), you’d get why I would love to have hubby get some inspiration to rub off on him. And oh … now you don’t have to worry about critters getting into your barn. Or snow. Or rain. And you can get your snow blower out with ease. NICE!!!! I’m impressed! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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  33. This is the “purtiest” and most useful shed ever, Dan! I am very pleased you showed us the final sunny, hanging barn doors. Then, the painted white details really show how evenly patterned the lines are. Nicely measured and great presentation!

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      1. They are remarkable doors, Dan. You show why you were able to run and do craftsman quality woodworking when you had that large warehouse space. You can tell you love these hands on projects.

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