builderbill

How to fix a twisted door

A question and thoughts on a twisted door.


Hi mate - love your site!
I have 6 old stile & rail silky oak doors (my fav timber) that I rescued from a demolition near my dad's house in Goondiwindi.  After stripping off 50+ years of paint they have come up a real treat.  The one I want to use for the kid's bathroom has about an inch wind in it - it sits proud of the jamb at the bottom on the lock side.  I haven't put the stops on the jamb as yet & I have put a temp wedge at the bottom of the door & put a brace at the top effectively twisting the door against the wind.  Is this likely to be effective?   Is there a method that you can suggest?
Thanks mate.
Mark A  Canberra

Mark, With a door that old I don't think you have a lot of chance pulling it back. Obviously you try what you are doing, it's easy and it may improve things.

You could disassemble the door if it is showing signs of looseness in the joints that makes you think it would come apart easily.   Then you adjust the tenons so that it sits true again.   Assemble with a gap filling glue (epoxy) and re-wedge.   A lot of work.

More than likely you will have to settle for what you've got.

So its a bit if compromise all round.   Kick your top hinge out 6mm, and you bottom in 6mm.  That will give you an average of 6mm in and out on both edges, course you could do it all on the hinge side if you wants.

When you fit the stops and the latch, make it so that you have to press the door a touch to make it catch. That could give you a touch more also.

All this will still better than going to Bunnings though, eh!

Salvaged doors.
I once made about 10 hardwood louvre doors for an ANZ bank accommodation unit we built years ago.
Old style traditional work, made to last.
I saw them at our local dump shop about 10 years later and at the time I didn't even know that they'd knocked the building down, the bastards.
Inner city land too valuable and all that.
I was shitty for a week after that and I nearly went back to buy the things myself to stop somebody using them for a chook shed or something!

Mark is using the correct (or old term) when he says "an inch wind in it".   Wind (pronounced as in "to wind up a clock") means the surface is twisted.  Say if you have a piece of timber that you want to check if it is true, that is in wind or out of wind, you lay a batten of straight timber on each end and sight down them.  If your timber is true then the two battens will appear parallel, if not, then the battens will multiply the amount of out of wind (twist) to make it easier to see.

This technique is used all the time when setting up benches for making things.  if your bench is twisted to start with you can only make things worse.





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