I’m planning on building a set of carriage doors based on the article in Fine Homebuilding #226, for a 10′ x 16′ shed in my yard. I’ve made furniture but not a building before. As the doors are 3″ thick I’m unsure how much space I need between the two doors to allow them to open and close freely. Based on the picture on page 51 I’m guessing between 3/8″ and 4/8″. Any help would be appreciated!
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Replies
The edge of the door needs to be beveled slightly, based on the squaw on the hippopotamus thing.
But your main problem is accounting for sag. It, like sith, happens, and you need to allow for some of it (and then have a way to adjust the door and hinges to correct for the sag). If you have good sag correcting mechanisms (eg, turnbuckles on both the door and upper hinge) then the gap can be minimal. Without that you need at least a half inch.
Gap?
The gap can be very small, but like Dan mentions-it must be beveled.
And, the degree of bevel changes with each pair of doors-Larger bevel for narrow door panels-not so large-2-3 degrees- for wider panels.
The problem arises when one panel is fixed and the other tries to close to it. Often, you can "force" the pair to close by doing them together.
The thicker the door, usually the greater the bevel and the need to make that healthy.
Re the bevel, imagine if you were to do a "plan" (looking straight down) drawing of the door, including the hinge. To get the right bevel, take a drafting compass, put the point right on the hinge pin, and start an arc from the outside edge of the "latch" side. The arc will "cut off" some of the door edge towards the inward side. It's not much, but it's critical.
nr
An astrigal will cover any gap and keep out the weather. One with a compressable weatherstrip will do wonders.
You could also rabbit the edges of these to panels-opposing rabbits so one nests inside (over) the other.
Depends on what level of finish you wish.
Thanks for the advice. A bevel it is. There will be an astragal and one was shown in the magazine plans, along with appropriate weatherstripping.
carriage doors
My shed and doors are done. One side bevelled and they come together and open beautifully. Many hours (but I'm not fast) and getting an entry set for a thick door ,(2 3/4") that wasn't several hundred dollars was a challenge. I scored an emtek on ebay for about $90 and an emtek conversion kit was another $20.