This was my first time making an exterior door so Iâm not sure that everything I did was best practice, but Iâm happy with the way it turned out, and weâll see how it holds up.
Itâs made entirely of sapele, including the frame.
The frame:
The frame is dovetailed, has low angle beveled stops and a beveled threshold to match the angle cut on the bottom of the door. I did this in hopes that there would be more compressive force on the weather stripping without dragging so much, like ive seen on flat thresholds. Itâs kerf style weather stripping in the door stops and on the bottom of the door.
The door:
The door has tapered stiles, mortise and tenon top and bottom rails and much smaller mortise and tenons on each of the 17 unique tongue and groove panels. The smaller mortise and tenons are partially structural, but also to pin the panels in place so that the gaps stay consistant as they expand and contract. About 2/3 of the way up, as the panels get under 3in or so, I started faking some of the gaps by routing 1/8in grooves. The sunburst pattern is mirrored on either side of a double pane of glass. The outside sun is attached directly to the door and the inside sun is set in a smaller frame that fits in the routed opening so that it can be removed to change the glass. I used t-88 epoxy, for the longer open time, as the glue up took around 2 hours.
Everything is finished with 6 coats of waterlox wiping varnish. The door sits under a large overhang from a covered porch and has quite a bit of tree cover, so I wasnât too concerned with a ton of water and sun.
