Floor to Ceiling Storage

Even though we've been trying to declutter we're always short of storage in our house. 

The old dinning room used to contain a large sideboard against the one wall. But now, with that wall gone, we needed somewhere else to store things. Turns out mainly craft items that the children spend all their time doing! 

So I made some floor to ceiling units from the pine board that I had used to make the kitchen. Really simple construction to make the carcasses, just using dominos (A large dowel type joint), glues and then screws to clamp it together. Makes a really solid unit, far better than an MDF or chipboard one. 

I must confess to it taking a few months to make the doors but it's made such a difference now they're on and everything is hidden away. 

The doors are a simple shaker style made with domino joints in the corners and grooved to accept the ply panel. They're all to have a painted finish. 

I've gone for my black duct tape handles for now but they'll be replaced with leather at a later date!

A New Back Door

Simple job from a regular customer of mine. 

Chang this tired old back door and frame:-

 For this oak one -

The porch is getting rendered as well so it should all look great when it's done!

Making 4 Panel 1950's Doors

I'm managing to find a bit of time to work on the extension at the moment, One thing I wanted to do was to make some doors for the up stairs. 

Now it would be far easier to buy off the shelf ones but I decided that I'd like to have some 1950's door to match the age of the house. I'm not a purest when it comes to these sort of things but I've always liked these utilitarian style of door. Making them myself means they won't cost much money but take a bit of time! 

 I ordered the joinery time on the phone, a little pile like this is enough to make six doors and a few other bits and bobs.

A Pair Of Doors

I recently made and hung a pair of doors for some customers who live in the village. 

The door was built to their proportions and given a clean looks by not adding fussy mouldings. 

I was really pleased with how they turned out. 

Large Door

I fitted this door I made for a very happy customer today.

It's a monster at nearly three foot wide and eight feet tall! 

Altering A Doorway

A couple of weeks ago I had to alter a door way that used to have double doors. 

Since then pipe work has been added either side and a fridge was to be positioned behind, so they decided to have the one half partitioned off and a glazed door ont he other half.

To do the work I first had to build the frame out either side 75mm, I then hung the door and built the partition to suit. Quite a tricky job when you first look at it but when it's broken down into stages it becomes quite straight forward. 

The customer was more than happy and sent me a thank you note when they paid. 

Fitted Oak Cabinets

Last night I completed fitting some oak cabinets. The customers were really pleased with the results and so was I! 

The finished job

The spaces to fill at the start

The left hand-side space, pieps run down the one wall making fixing tricky

They wanted a floating oak mantle piece like the one I fitted for myself last year

the mantle piece with template behind

Fitting the ply template to hold the bolts

Using resin to fix the bolts and make sure they're stuck out the right distance

Template and mantle on the front to make sure the bolts are aligned. 

Mantle piece fixed on

The only fixing holes, to be filled with an oak plug later

Building the cupboards

The top of the left hand cupboard with extra support where the TV is to stand

The pipe work at the back of the right hand cupboard to hide but leave accessible

An oak back fitted in

The cupboard ready for the door, this one is to store their firewood and the little shelf is to hold their stuff for lighting the fire

All ready for the doors

Simple panel doors fitted 

The smaller unit with a pair of doors

All complete ready for some oil

Oiled up

The finished job.

I was really pleased with how this job turned out. 

I've put in some late nights planeing, gluing up boards and making doors.  It can be tricky to fit in work around looking after the children full time but I think I manage to get a good balance and interesting jobs like this maek it really worth while.

The customers told me to put on my website that "It was worth every penny". Made me feel really pleased with the work I'd done.

New Wall In An Office

Not a very interesting post this one I'm afraid as I didn't take many photos but it follows on from the last post about the shop counter. When I'd finished building the counter we all decided that the second office was too big and the space would be better used as somewhere to display items for sale.

 So last week I went back and built a new wall out of 3x2 studding and clad it with MDF (so it was easy to fix things to) with insulation between, I then added a 2'9" door with a large glazed panel. 

Taking the old wall out was easy enough, although I was surprised as the metal studding used was welded together, something I'd never seen before, normally it's just held together with the plasterboard.

I gave it all a lick of paint when I finished and other than a last coat on the door the area is ready to be used. 

Large Wardrobe With Sliding Doors

The last few weekends I've been finishing some wardrobes with a friend of mine.

 They are rather large, measuring 4.5m long with 4 sliding doors and a wardrobe rail that I can do pull ups on!

The sliding door gear we've been using is the best I've come across. I can smoothly slide a 4ftx8ft door with my little finger and they glide across the room. The doors are made from a sheet of MDF wrapped with aluminium channel, this gives the edge a nice finish and also means that the sliding gear can be fixed securely into the of the MDF.

I'll post some more pictures of these wardrobes when they're finished.

Changing Doors

This is a job I've been working on in the evenings and weekends for the last month or so. I've changed most of the doors in the house and the two front doors.

Before

After

 It's amazing the difference changing the front door and painting the windows has made to the front of the house. Certainly improved it's curl appeal!

I changed most of the internal doors for oak as well, and I made a couple on site for the cupboard under the stairs. Architrave and skirtings were also changed for oak in places as well. I treated them all with a coat of Osmo oil before leaving them. 

Hopefully all this work will make the house more appealing to potential customers.

A Pair Of Doors

Last Saturday I fitted a frame and hung a pair of doors on a building we'd been working on.

 When you get to fit the frame as well as the doors its normally makes the job easier, as any twist can be taken out with a small adjustment of the frame. These doors were made bang on so no adjustment needed.

Set up outside on a sunny day

Hinges cut nice and tightly on

The finished pair of doors

A nice job for a sunny day. 

Repairing An Old Door

Repaired an old door today.

Splicing in a lime block

After looking closely at the door I decided that it was lime, there are lime floor boarding the house so that's a clue and I could tell from the close even grain and the way it cut with the chisel. I did think at first it was elm but it was far too soft for that.

The corner had rotted away with woodworm so I chiseled this out and added a block off an old lime floorboard.

Gluing the block on

 

Carving the detail in.

 I then had to carry the moldings on across the new block. I did this with my carving chisels, it's good to use them as not much work calls out for them any more and luckily it's lime as its one of the best woods to carve. I was pleased with the finish and by the time it's oiled up it will look like a quality repair - not hidden from sight though as that's not being true to what you're doing to a three hundred year old door!

Hanging Doors With A Circular Saw

Although I'm ever the traditionalist I do like to try new methods of doing things and seeing what works well. I'm sure the traditional carpenters of "old" would have tried new things if it made their job easier and better.

 So yesterday I had a try at hanging two pairs of door using my festool circular saw and no plane (except to remove any saw marks at the end).

Ever since I brought this plunge saw/guide rail combo I've been thinking that it would be easy to hang certain types of doors with it. In practise I'd go as far as to say it was a brilliant way to hang the doors.

 First of all it's a good clean way to trim the tops and bottoms of the doors so they fit in the hole. Then it also worked really well to get the doors square in the opening, normally this can involve a fair bit of planing if something is out of square. All I had to do here was set the guide rail up and within a few minutes the door was cut perfectly straight.

As these were pairs of doors they needed quite a heavy leading edge, again this was easy done with the saw, just set it on the angle and zipped along the guide rail in a few passes, giving me a perfect leading edge down the length of the door.

Four doors hung!

I'm not sure how many doors I've hung over the years but these are the first ones I've done completely with a circular saw. Although the method would only work for certain types of doors, its a good and accurate way of fitting doors and I'll be trying it again in the future.

Anyone else done it this way?