Shortround, to be honest I've only used a router once, about 20 years ago. That being said, on this particular door I think it might tear the glue joints on the stiffeners. I had to VERY gently apply light pressure and rock the cutting edge back and forth. If not the glue would pop and the end of the stiffener would vibrate back and forth and get kind of fluffy like a cattail head. I was trying to keep the cut end of the stiffener solid so it would make a good glue joint on the back of the filler piece. I think a router might work well on a cardboard honeycomb filled door. I've stripped the skin off a few of them and needed to use a sharp chisel as a scrapper to break the glue joint.
You may be right. It just I do have one, bites and was wondering how you got the ends square for the glue joint. I have one with a punched hole through and one that had weight on it and got damp. So it collapsed (dented). If I need to make one smaller I may use those. Both are the larger sizes I have. How to make them square?
Shortround, Thanks, I'm glad you asked that before the glue set. My rip cut is not parallel to the layout edge. Since the track was already laid, I cut along the edge of the Kato road bed on the other layout section not in the above photo. My plan was to use these clamps to square up the filler pieces until your post just reminded me nothing should be square. Thanks again. I'll get back to you in a little while.
I use a router to do hinge mortising, but I end up having to build a special jig every time. The effort takes forever and is always fraught with uncertainty. I admire your skills with a chisel @logging loco . It'd look terrible if I were to try such a thing.
Shortround, when you asked about making square, are you asking about the rip cut or the end of the stiffeners? I'm not going to worry about the end of the stiffeners too much. As long as my little improvised clearance gauge/block tells me they are cut back far enough I'll be happy. Im thinking on final glue up I'll just put a gob of tube type silicone adhesive on the end of each stiffener. Excess silicone adhesive will be captured inside the door so I'm not worrying about it being neat.
I will be patiently waiting for morning to see how you do this. It should be very interesting. I may have it fingered out but will wait an see. For hinges I used the same method he showed earlier. That's how Gandpa showed me. (it's spelled the way I called him back then)
Thanks Hardcoaler! First time for me. I have to give credit to Paul Sellers and Rex Krueger. I've been watching and learning from their Youtube channels.
Tried it this morning and it worked great. After gluing in the dowel and carefully marking the point where I wanted to re-drill, I spent quite a while stacking things atop my portable Workmate bench (I see you have one too) so that I could keep the end of the leg even with the height of the drill press table. This helped to assure the bore would be perpendicular to the leg's length. You can see the dowel in the bottom photo. A little touch-up paint and I'll be ready to move ahead.
I'm glad drilling your leg turned out well. A little paint and it will never show. The Workmate in the photo is steel, has a Masonite like top and rubber pads both the feet and "knees". When in the lower position, resting on the knees, it makes a great saw bench. I also have my late father's Workmate. It is the early model with cast aluminum frame, 12 ply wood top and threaded leveler feet. The knees have threaded holes requiring the threaded feet to be swapped back and forth. I'm actually looking for a seconded cast aluminum model. By the time I try to true and level my old bench, I'm thinking it may be faster and cheaper to bolt two of these to the floor and put a solid core door across them. It would be easier to move also.
Mine was my Dad's and dates from the '60s maybe, or perhaps the '70s? Its made of stamped steel, its feet are not adjustable and it has the 12-Ply tops. I just found a photo of the aluminum model like yours and it looks pretty cool. I also have his Workmate 35" Model 79-035 Type 2. The photo below isn't of mine, but this is what it looks like. I don't use it often because its very heavy and takes a while to set up and take down.
I've never seen that model before. I notice it doesn't have the footboard. Does it move around much when handsawing? My aluminum model has issues with the flat steel springs that hold the legs open. If I pick it up with the legs open, the lower part of the legs fold in. When set back down it lands on the edge of the adjustable feet. I then have tilt the thing and walk around kicking the feet out. It usually takes a couple times around to get even weight distribution. The newer steel (model unknown) has plastic clips that work well. I can pick it up one handed leaning it on my hip and the legs stay fully opened.
Shortround, Below is a view of the stiffeners after trimming. They are fairly square. You can see the broken glue joints. I'm going to take a syringe and put some carpenters glue along this joint then put weight on the layout at final glue up. The glue on the cleats for the second filler pieces are drying. I believe I'm ready for final glue up after that.
Thanks Loggin Loco. I have used those tables owned by others. Mine are more like saw horses and have a vise like top with some holes and movable stops. There out in the warehouse so haven't seen them for some time.
I've got everything dry fitted and tacked in place with fish nails and screws. My phone was charging when I did the fit up. I only got this picture afterwards. I'll take some more detailed photos during glue up. Hopefully later today.
Hope so. I still haven't fingered out how you did what I may have to do later. It looks like you leave the wiring on top of the door and make paths in the foam as I've seen some years ago. I think I would like that idea. No crawling under for this old man.
I'll see if I can explain what I've done. Like my disclaimer says "I'm not suggesting you following my building techniques". LOL. There are probably easier ways to do this but so far this is working out. I highly recommend any door modifications be done to a bare door, before anything is glued glued to it. First off, I already see I missed a couple photos that would really help. I'll try to sketch on some photos to explain. Sorry the picture is upside down. I took it with my phone. It won't rotate. To the right you can see one of two filler pieces with cleats attached. This piece will eventually slide into the ripped length of the door. This is supposed to show how put the two filler pieces back to back. I aligned them, flush to each other them clamped them together back to back. While they were back to back I drilled three holes through the long piece, centered top to bottom, approximately equally spaced. I used a bit sized to fit the threads on 2ΒΌ" long round head wood screws I had. Next I unclamped the pieces. I checked the pointed end of a screw in my drill. I then used a file and the drill to file off the sides of the screw until I had a dowel with a wood screw end. I did this to two more screws. I screwed these dowels into one of the filler pieces. On the other filler piece I enlarged the three holes just enough that the dowel end of the screw would fit in snugly.
This photo shows the dowels when the filler piece was dry fit into the narrow section of the layout. This piece isn't yet glued in. I'll try to remember to get better pictures before final glue. This picture shows the corresponding holes in the other filler piece.
Once again sorry about inverted photos. The next series of photos will show how the filler pieces are installed. Some pictures are from the dry fit. If the caption says glue was applied and you don't see any just use your imagination . First glue is applied to the bottom of the filler piece. Next glue is applied to the top of the filler piece. After glue is spread evenly, the filler piece is aligned with the void in the door. and gently started into the door. Keep in mind I did all this dry, without glue to make sure everything fit snugly without forcing anything into place.
