Thursday – Groovin’

I got out to the shop early this morning to make up some of the time lost yesterday, and (so far) I haven’t had so many telephone interruptions as have been the case recently so I’m actually getting quite a lot done.

It’s lunch time now. This morning was spent jointing and gluing up the panels that could not be obtained from a single board’s width, trimming the others to width and I started grooving the rails and stiles to receive these panels. Here a book-matched set are laid out on the tablesaw after jointing to check the seam between them - no glue yet. This one looks good, it should produce a nicely invisible joint.

The stiles have grooves between the mortises, but not through to the ends, so I have to drop the piece into the blade at a specific point and lift it off again at the other end to avoid leaving ugly gaps at the top and bottom of the joint. No, in all likelyhood no one will ever see them, but taht's not the point. The rails are grooved the full length.


When complete, the grooves are supposed to line up perfectly at each corner so the panels will fit snugly with no gaps. Like this!

Next I sand the panels to 150 grit, pre-finish the vertical edges so unfinished strips don’t develop as the panel shrinks, then apply glue to the mortises and tenons and assemble the panels. Instead of pounding the assembly together with a mallet, I use long clamps to draw the pieces together gently yet firmly.

This is a completed door. After the glue sets up overnight I’ll sand the outside faces of the frames and get ready to cut the dadoes and grooves on the inside faces that will allow the parts to lock together as they are assembled.

Doug