I like to do the miters of the sticking as I set it; I use a sponge soaked in primer, dabbing each miter as I go.

Once the sticking has Been set, I wipe off any squeeze-out with a rag.  Care at this stage of the work pays dividends in the longevity of the door.

Let’s talk glass.  The glazing system works much the same as the panels, splines fit into dados plowed into the stiles, rails, and muntins. The blue tape is double sided neoprene glazing tape; the blue is the backing and is removed when setting the glass. Here I am checking the thickness of the glass with the tape on both sides to determine the dimension of the tongue of the glazing spline.

Fitting the splines.

Let’s run the glazing bead. Here is the bevel cut. If anyone knows a good way to remove those big stupid labels all over my saw, please speak up!

The second Pass gives us this. From here, we simply strip it up.

Fitting the glazing bead.

As with the panel system, back prime, back prime, back prime! Here the bead is all fit and ready for the ends to be primed and set in place.  It goes without saying that I always use stainless steel brads to set all components.

I then flip the door and get ready to set the glass. First, the glazing tape is applied to the back of the glazing bead that has been installed.  The blue backing gets removed and the glass is then set into place using firm pressure to ensure the proper adhesion of the glass and tape.

Wash, rinse, repeat!

The glazing bead has been fit and back primed.  I like apply the glazing tape to the bead to assure adequate space for a bead of caulking around each lite.

Glazing bead Set and Nailed.

Set, primed, and puttied.

Ok.  Next post will be hardware, I promise!

Out of the clamps and ready to smooth things up.

Once things are smoothed up, I cut the slab to the desired size.

It’s high time we fit the panel splines.  When I build a door that has panel sticking rather than a profile milled into the edge of the door members, I always opt for using panel splines.  The beauty of the system resides in the ease of replacability (Ta-Da, I just coined a new term!).  All vanity aside, this is such a great way to tackle door panels, especially when a customer gets a new cat and wants a “Kitty Door!”  It will all make perfect sense once we get there.

Splines in situ.

Let’s size the panels…..

And then move onto the sticking.

Here’s a close-up of the profile.

Here we are, preparing the second pass through the shaper.

Part of what makes sticking work best is the back bevel.  It inherently creates a tight pressure-fit as it is pushed into place.

I left the miter saw in the dust long ago where applies to final fitting, long ago.  I cut the miters “kinda-close” before getting them more than, “kinda-exact,” by way of a miter jig on my disc sander.

Sticking fit and in place.

Let’s flip the door over and move on.  The panels are in place, the sticking has been fit and back-primed.

The sticking has been set.

Well, we didn’t quite get to hardware, so you can chalk that up to me playing hard-to-get….

Unfortunately, I didn’t take as many photos as I should’ve.  Nonetheless, lets discuss the tenons.

We commence marking out the tenons in the same manner as the mortises, transferring the joinery marking onto the rails.  The wider rails receive double tenons; we can discuss the theory behind this in another post dedicated to mortise and tenon joinery.

I like to cut my shoulders with the miter gauge, and then cut the cheeks, passing the rails vertically through the saw.  I really don’t care for the tenoning jigs available as I am a big believer that simple is better.  I like to put a taller fence on the saw and go that way.

Beginning the dry-fit.

The dry-fit is one of the most important tasks. Fitting joints with epoxy on them does not a fun time make! Ive seen so many cabinet makers shoot themselves in the foot this way.

She’s ready for the epoxy.

No this isn’t a plug for West System.

The slab is in the clamps.

Stay tuned……..

Next: Panels, Sticking, and Hardware.

Once everything has been made straight, parallel, and square, it’s time to machine the panel dados (grooves). When I have cause to machine a centered dado, I always use a smaller width blade set up in the saw.  This allows the dado to be referenced from both faces of the workpiece, as well as allowing the width of the dado to be customized to any dimension of existing tooling, or members to be received in it.  Below I am sizing the dado to my hollow chisel mortising bit; the 3/8″ dado head on my saw is visible.  It is a 5/8″ dado and we’ll touch on that later.

With the dados run in the members of the door, we can then begin transferring lay-out marks onto them. I lay 1 of each component on the lay-out and then transfer the line onto the component.  I have found that my Planer and Shaper Gage works perfectly.

Here’s a photo in its kit form.

In practice, upper section of gage removed.

Stiles clamped and mortise lines being carried across them.

Here are a couple of mortises laid-out.  Solid lines are shoulder locations, and dotted lines represent the mortise itself.

Let’s get mortising.  Mise en place for set up.

Square holes!

The stiles with mortises complete.

Next up, Tenons!

Cheers!

-MP

Cheers!

-MP

Stiles and rails have been dadoed and mortises laid out.

Mortising a stile.

Panel sticking as it emerges from the shaper.

Here are the shutters after glue up.  The panels are of MDF which is great for opaque paint finishes.

The leaves have been rabbeted and are ready for hinge installation.

I like to screw hinges into place for marking with a knife.

After marking hinge locations with a knife, I use a chisel to incise just within the perimeter of each hinge mortise.

When I have only a few hinges to mortise, I find a butt-mortise plane makes for quick and quiet work.

Once the hinges have been mortised, it is time to install the sticking.

3 down, 9 to go.

This is the interior face of the shutters showing the hinges installed.

This is the exterior face, with the sticking applied.

I will post photos of the shutters installed and painted once they are.

Sample.

Scribing and grinding the knife were performed in the same manner shown in my previous post.

With the tooling on the spindle to size the  Sacrificial Throat Plate.

Sacrificial Throat in place.

Sacrificial Throat and Fence plunged and ready to set up the Stock Feeder.  Mouldings sure do love sacrifices!

Emerging Scotia.

Finis!

I have just begun a small moulding project that seems to be the ideal springboard for getting my feet wet blogging.

I received an order for 32 linear feet of an interior casing band mould in Eastern White Pine, for an opaque finish.

Here it is………

Scribing the profile.

Will grind.

Grind.

Ground.

Cheers!

-MP