POC Bypass Doors

OK, been a LONG time since my last post, but here goes:

Our new entryway had a gaping unfinished closet doorway that was in dire need of some kind of door. Since the plan was to keep it looking sorta like a typical entryway (genkan) you might see in Japan, I picked out some straight grain Port Orford cedar from the wood shed. As is often the case, a limited supply of material impacted the design.   

The rough opening was unfinished sheetrock and framing that first needed to be trimmed out with POC jambs and casing. Because I did not want nail holes in the side jambs, I took the path rarely traveled and glued the side jambs to the framing. Of course I did my best to flatten and plumb that framing before doing so. I am guessing there is a better way to do this next time. 

The head jamb sits in a 1/8" rabbet atop the side jambs, but was added after the sides had set. I did dry fit everything beforehand and made registration marks to ensure decent fit later. It worked out OK. You could pre-assemble, but it is a bit unwieldly to handle while attempting to glue the sides...

A basic Johnson bypass door kit (big box store special) was used, but I bought a longer kit and cut it down since the rail length was custom. Install the kit track while also shimming the the head jamb to ensure it is straight and well seated on the side jambs. A simple POC trim strip covers the hardware. Screws are OK in the head jamb since they will be hidden by the trim strip. 

Doors: 

OK, so eventually I had the dimensions for the doors. I made them square and straight and made no effort to fit/scribe the doors to the side jamb oddities. 

Stiles were through mortised for the 3 rails, and blind mortised for the lattice support rails (3). The lower panels required stop grooves in the stiles and bottom and mid rails (not yet done in above pic). But the picky part of the project was cutting the lattice rails. These were notched for each of the lattice strips. So 15 strips per door, 2 doors, 3 rails each door = 90 notches. I cut the notch kerfs on the table saw then chiseled out the waste. Carefully. The lattice strips were just glued into these notches (and inserted in the mortises in the mid and top rails during final assembly). 

The lattice parts with tenons.

Rails and panel parts early on.

Another challenge was resawing the lower panel parts from a 6 x 6 chunk of POC on my wimpy 14" bandsaw. Since the final panel thickness was to be 3/8" and I have no jointer and had to manually flatten one face before pushing boards through a planer, it took a while. I did that flattening before I resawed off each piece. Resaw, flatten face of chunk, resaw next, etc.  

Panels were carefully glued up and finish planed to fit the grooves in the stiles and rails. 

2 panels before final trimming.

Dry fit test.

 

Weights press the lattice strips into the notches during gluing.

Frame glue up.

Once the two doors are glued and the excess tenon ends planed off, they were hung in the doorway track per the Johnson instructions and provided hardware. No finish was applied to the finished doors, I just left the hand planed surface. This is typical and allows the aromatic POC to add a pleasant smell to your closet and entryway. A year later and the doors seem to be standing up to the daily traffic and abuse - and they still smell pretty good.