How to Make a Wooden Door in 5 Minutes

Bismillah.

Hi. In this instructable I will explain how to make a simple wooden door. This simple wooden door is made from plywood. I used to manufacture these wooden doors until the price of Plywood increased to such an extent that it was not feasible. This wooden door takes about 5 minutes to assemble - just 5 minutes to make a wooden door. That's what I liked about this way of making doors, its very quick, simple and cost effective.

Drilling machine

12 X100mm or bigger C-Clamps

Belt sanding machine (This will be used to sand the door down for smoother finish after it is assembled. You will also need 120 grit sandpaper)

- Wood glue

- Dust masks

- Gloves

• - 3.5 X 30mm wood screws. Try he Eureka brand(Here in South Africa). Purchase the ones with the square head as this will easily drill into the wood.
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- Wood filler (pine color)

- Paint brush, 75mm to 100mm wide

- Varnish or any paint that you would prefer (on average 1 litre will be sufficient for 2 coats of paint per door)

Plywood is thin pieces of wood which are glued together with the grain running in different directions. This makes the wood more stable and stronger. The advantages of using plywood is that there is a less chance of it bending, splitting or warping. The main disadvantage of plywood is the possibility of it delaminating, which is the layers of wood opening up.

The different grades of Plywood.

Plywood normally comes in 4 grades; viz A, B , C and D grade.

'A grade" is basically clear wood which doesn’t have any knots (round bark like pieces) on them. In contrast, B grade has a few small knots.

C grade has more knots and blemishes and

D many knots and sometimes there is visible blemishes and knots which have fallen out.

Any grade will work since the strength for all is about the same. The grade of wood that you use will depend on the application and color of varnish that you will use. If you are using a darker color varnish, it will cover the knots so you will not need a better grade wood. Make sure you purchase plywood that is almost flat, if you see that the wood is bent or warped significantly, you would most likely have a problem with the door after it is assembled. When purchasing for the first time, make sure that the plywood is almost flat, and as you make more doors you will know what is most suitable. You can turn the wood vertically and look down the length(edge) to see if the wood is bend or warped.

Cutting lists.

A cutting list is a list of sizes you will give the board and timber company.

This one is for an 18mm board to cut a single door. Basically the main piece of the door is 2032mm x 813mm, the outside 'Frame' pieces are 100mm wide, so the other pieces will be 100mmx2032mm (2 of them) and 100mmx613mm(2 of them)

The extra pieces can be cut into smaller pieces and used for the design.

To assemble you could work on a table or you can even work on the floor. The procedure is very simple. The 4 pieces are glued on the big flat piece using glue and/or screws. You can also put glue and then clamp the 4 small pieces to the big piece until it dries

When using the glue make sure to spread it out properly and also make sure the door is clamped properly as this creates a stronger bond and gives better strength.

The more clamps you use the better, since wood that is tightly clamped after being glued will be much stronger than wood that is not properly clamped.

If you are using screws make sure they are not where the lock will go as this will damage the drill bit when the lock is being installed

Also make sure that the screws are not too close to the edges all round since the doors are normally trimmed to fit onto the doorframe

Once the glue is dry, remove the clamps and check for any places where you need to use filler. Fill the gaps. If you are using an A or B grade plywood then there shouldn’t be a need to fill and sand however but if you are using a C grade plywood then there will be a need to fill and sand the wood for a more smooth finish. Normally 100 or 120 grit sandpaper will be suitable. Remember to use a dust mask and gloves when sanding.

And that's the door assembled.....

Edging

This is not totally necessary, but will give the door a neater finish

Edging is a thin strip of wood that can be found at a board and timber company. Ask for 0.4mm pine edging.

It can be used for 2 reasons

1. To prevent the wood from delaminating
2. To give a neater finish so that the plywood layers will not be visible on the sides.

Once the door is assembled, the designs need to be glued on.

There are two types of designs that you can have:

1) Square, rectangle and diamond design

These you can have cut from the 12mm board. This will save you lots of time and effort as you can include the sizes into the sheets being cut and varnish and glue them on

Below are two examples of doors made using square designs

2) The other method is to create your own designs, make a master set from the left over pieces of plywood. Then keep this master set to use to make more of them by tracing out the design. You will have to buy a jigsaw to cut the designs out.

Below are a few ideas of cut out designs

There are more pictures above

The varnish you use will depend on the finish you want. The price of varnish varies from about R230(15 dollars) upwards per 5 litre. Approximately half a liter needs to be used per coat for both sides of the door. This all depends on the market you want to target. There are more expensive varnishes but this will add significantly to your costs.

You could also use solid enamel colors, or even matt enamel that is used for steel, the matt color is nice because it hides all the imperfections

As I had stated above, I did manufacture the doors before until the price of plywood almost doubled.

This is my first instructable and I might have left out a few important points so please let me know your thoughts in the comments below, I can then update the instuctable. Insha Allah.