BBQ Firewood Cabin Doors

My vacation house's yard was uncared for about two years. One of the first things I was going to clean was the barbecue. The cabin underneath the counter was a big mesh. Except from the long branches I had store, fallen leaves and dirt had gathered. To prevent this and keep the cabin as much clean as possible, I decided to make a couple of barn style doors using pallet wood. I measured the dimensions of the opening and when I came back from summer holidays I started working on the project.

The wood was already apart from a previously dismantled pallet, from which the blocks was used to make the Pallet Block Clock.

Materials:

• Pallet boards
• Lag screws
• M8 bolts
• M8 nuts
• Washers
• Dowels
• Rustic hinges
• Brass screws
• Rustic latch
• Wall plugs
• Black spray paint
• Varnish
• Woodglue

Tools:

• Jigsaw
• Drill
• Concrete drill bit No. 8
• Wood drill bit No. 8
• Palm sander
• 80 grit sandpaper
• Screwdriver
• Wrench
• Clamps
• Paintbrush

I marked the boards and rough cut them to length (door height). In each side of the boards I drilled four holes to put dowels. After that I glued them together to form a panel at the half width of the BBQ cabin opening. To achieve this, I had to rip cut the last board to width. Then, it was time to do a fine cut to the exact length. I also cut three more pieces to form the Z shape for the front of the door.

I usually do the sanding part before any assembling. I sanded the panel and the three pieces individually and after sanding, I glued them all together. The first door was ready and it was time for stain. I did the same things for the other door.

After both doors were ready, I applied two coats of external waterbased wood preserver with light sanding between them. I chose the stain to give a rustic look.

The hardware was painted black except from the hinges, which were already black. I drilled holes at the horizontal boards through the door panels to put the M8 bolts and nuts, with two washers between them and the wood. This was done mainly for decor than to add strength. I also screwed a couple of hinges on each door. The latch will be placed after the doors installment.

To install the doors I had to make two support pieces because I coudn't screw the hinges direct to the concrete. I cut two pieces of wood to the same length. After I sanded and stained them I drilled three holes in each.

When I went to the house for a weekend I had all the pieces with me to do the installation. Firstly, I emptied all the firewood from the cabin and did a good sweeping. Then I marked the holes positions of the supporting pieces on the cabin's frame. I drilled holes in the concrete, put in the wall plugs and screwed the two boards in place. It was time to install the doors and put the firewood back in. But this is not the end yet...

After the installment I encountered two major problems. The first was that the doors sides were touching cabin's inside walls and they didn't close properly. To fix this, I had to increase the thickness of the support pieces, so I made another one pair of them. I glued them to the old ones and screwed them from behind for extra strength. I put them back in their places and install the doors on. The fisrt problem was done.

The second one and most important was that the doors didn't fully open. Although the dimension measuring was right, the ground in front of the cabin was not even. I unmounted the doors again and grabed my rasp. I trimmed the bottom sides a bit and did a test fit. I did this several times until the doors can open all the way out. After the final trimming I applied two coats of stain to every trimmed spot and finally I could install them back permanently, resulting a small gap underneath.

The last thing to do was to screw the latch in the right position. Now the project came to the end!

After a few months I noticed that the doors tended to open, but fortunately the latch hold them closed. The reason for this was that the wood maybe had expanded because of humidity and the doors were very close to their supportings. This was a minor problem and as the doors stay closed, I don't care to fix it.

I hope you like the Instructable and got someone inspired to make something similar and post a picture. If you like it, please vote.