Ripping Door For Narrower Opening

basswood

Today I had to reduce the width of a door and decided that instead of routing new hinge mortises... I would rip the old edge with mortises off the door, then rip another strip off the edge of the door & then put the original door edge with mortises back on the door.

I used a rail guided saw (mine is a Makita 8-1/4" on an EZ Guide). Glued and clamped the door edge back on. This not only saved mortising hinges, but also staining and finishing the door edge. You can't even tell I did it.

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genecarp

VERY INTERESTING......The hinge screws also help to secure the edge in place....the verticle seam may be noticeable with certain doors.

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basswood

Good Point. Might not be the best choice in all situations. This was just an old cheap hollow flush walnut stained door.

MALCO.New.York

Well........

Most doors have a Coupla inches of Solidity along all edges.............

I woulda' Re-Mortised with single cuts on both sides.

Yer way is complex and yet works.........That is of course iffinya plans to do some neat filling and sanding and paintin'!

There is the Theory of K.I.S.S.!!

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m1911

Why not just use the strip that you ripped as a story pole to mark and route out the mortises?
It seems like more trouble to glue back the strip, plus you have a visible glue line.
I guess to each his own...

irockwithdirt

Reminds me of the time I cut the middle pannels out of a 6 pannel hollow core colonist door for a closet under a set of stairs LOL. Joined it back together with a ripped 2x4 block, lots of glue, and some pins. Turned out better than I thought it would...........couldn't tell after it was painted!

basswood

Well, no messing with stain and finishing. I think it saved me some time. The glueline was really invisible (though it does show in the photo).

Just offering up another way to do a routine task. I've done it the other way countless times... thought I'd try another approach.

All the best,

Bass

m1911

Oh I missed part about the stain...

basswood

I don't think single cuts on both sides would work (ripping off the edge with the knobset would mess up the backset), and on a flush door--no need to keep stile widths the same--no rails or stiles.

Anyway, I don't consider this a better method, just a different option...

No filling and sanding needed with the cut quality of a rail saw. Here is a close up of the cut (rail has an anti-clip edge and saw has a 40 tooth Freud blade--cut quality is equal to a Festool or the Unisaw in my shop with a Glueline Rip Blade). One advantage of using a Makita saw vs. Festool is blade price--I ran into three nails ripping the edge off this door. After hitting this nail, there are some very minor blade marks, but they did not effect the glue up:

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m1911

That's a nice splinter free cut.

I'm hoping that a big job will come around soon so I can have an excuse to buy a Festool saw and rail!