Question:
I have bought a house and as seems
to be normal, have run out of money before finishing all the work that needs
to be done. I need to replace an old 1930's wooden garage door and have
decided to try to make one myself! Minimal experience, but very keen to
give it a go.
What I am hoping someone can help me with is to try to find a simple plan
for making a wooden door. It is the style that opens in the middle
outwards. About 2/5 of the door at the top is taken up by 6 small panes of
glass and the bottom 3/5 looks like it was made of wood panelling. I would
like to replicate the same style of door, or at least similar.
If anyone could point me in the right direction as to where I could find a
site or book on various styles of wooden garage doors, I would appreciate
it.
Answer:
How about some more information? Are your doors curved at the top, or
simple rectangles? When you say wood panelling, do you mean that there are
vertical "seams" in the surface? Perhaps similar to what T-111 looks like?
How about a picture? Do you have the ability to post a pic on
alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking? If so, post it under an obvious subject
line and advise this group that you posted it in the binaries group. That
might help generate some ideas for you.
I can think of several things I'd consider doing in building a garage door
like yours. Some of them require some fairly special purpose tools, some
require some developed skills and techniques, but none of them are beyond
reasonable finances or typical ability to learn. As one other poster
pointed out, the jointery you select will probably be the biggest skills
challenge to your project. There's enough options in joinery that even the
most basic skills should be able to master it with a little patience.
Also - let us know what part of the country you live in. Materials
selection is affected by your local weather.
Finally, here's one site that I came across doing a simple search for wooden
garage doors. Not completely what you're looking for but it might start
some ideas working...
http://www.mikehowardgaragedoors.com/tips.html
This site just has some design ideas...
http://www.designerdoors.com/Studio/comm/gallery1.htm
