Manual of Purpose-Made Woodworking Joinery

Flush doors 87

FLUSH DOORS

Nowadays, because of sophisticated and cost-

effective manufacturing techniques, flush doors are

not usually made by individual joiners and joinery

workshops unless a customer wants an odd non-

standard- size door made to measure. The problem

is the absence of an industrial- type press for cramp-

ing the outer skins of plywood (or hardboard) to

the glued skeletal frame of the door – and having to

resort to using contact adhesives with a grab capa-

bility, requiring only hand- pressure (which should

be applied with a semi- hard rubber veneer roller,

or a veneer hammer). Apart from Bostik’s Evo- Stik

Impact Instant- Contact Adhesive, which I have used

for making flush doors for fitted wardrobes, there are

a number of modern grab- adhesives that might do

the job for interior- and exterior- door skins. One is

called Sticks Like Sh- t (Serious Stuff is its dual name),

another, just marketed, is Serious Glue Liquid, both

types by Bostik. Another exterior type worth con-

sidering is Apollo’s A26 General Purpose Contact

Adhesive.

Skeletal framework

Figure 5.12(a)(b): For purpose- made flush doors, a

lightweight frame of, say 34 × 28mm par, is used for

the stiles, top and bottom rails and the intermedi-

ate rails. Usually a lock- block is integrated on one or

both sides, as shown in Figure 5.12(a). The jointing

of the framing consists of a continuous 10 × 10mm

groove on the inner edges of the stiles with the short

stub- tenoned ends of all the rails glued into them.

The rails, as illustrated at (b), should have a 4 × 4mm

notch or a 5mm diameter hole made in them to

inhibit trapped air causing distortion to the door-

skins and to allow the trapped air to equalize with

the external air. The hanging- edge and the lock- edge

of the door are lipped with 10mm- thick lipping –

which is glued and cramped on after the slightly-

overhanging ply- or hardboard- skin faces have been

cleaned off.

Figure 5.11 (c) Part horizontal section through an L&B
door, showing clench- nailing into a ledge- rail and alterna-
tive screwed- end methods: The ledge- ends on the left side
are only set back by 4mm for ‘shooting- in’ the door on
site. This method should always be used if the Tee hinges
are to be fixed on the face of the ledges and can also be
used if the hinges are to be fixed on the boarded face,
except that the hinge- side door- stop would then require
notching out to accommodate the three ledges. The
ledges on the right- hand side are set back by 16mm; this
is 4mm for shooting- in and 12mm for an un- notched door-
stop. The left- hand method at each end would be stronger.

Figure 5.11 (d) Part rear elevation of L&B door, showing
the screw fixings and the staggered clench- nailing bent
over in the grain- direction of the ledge and brace.

(e) (f)

Figures 5.11 (e) and (f) are Part horizontal section views

of alternative jointing for L&B doors: (e) is T&G bead

jointing; and (f) is T&G lamb’s tongue jointing. The 3- ply

tongue (which can be of hardwood) must be glued in one

groove only.

described), then the cramped assembly is carefully
turned over and the boards are clench- nailed to the
ledges in a staggered nailing pattern. Next, the braces
are fitted and are also fixed with clenched cut- clasp
nails, as indicated at (c) and (d) below.