Making new windows and doors

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Anyone have any worthwhile tips, when making new windows and doors?
I've made several doors in the past, from pine, new oak and old oak.
Just boards with the usual braces.
Invariably they twist a bit.
I ensure that the timber is flat, straight and true. I have a decent table saw, and a planer thicknesser, so I can usually manage to get the timber straight and true to start with.

I've used dowels, and more recently biscuits, but I haven't tried T & G. I do have a table router.
It is possible that I didn't use enough dowels or biscuits. I spaced them about every 300mm.
The latest one, it was more the ends of the boards that warped. Perhaps I should have placed biscuits nearer the ends.

I clamp the glued, and assembled door to a flat bed, while it cures, old flush doors or pieces of decent plyboard.
I alternate each board, grain up, grain down, etc.
Yet I still end up with a twisted door. Some times the twist is very noticeable, other times it's not so bad, but it's still there.

Any tips?

I have a couple of new sliding doors to make. They're sliding doors on a barn. The rails and other hardware is already available.
One is about 1.2 meters, by about 2 meters, currently using a rusted corrugated iron door, which needs replacing.
The other is about 2 meters high by about 3 meters long, currently missing, but the sliding rail is there, and the stops and locking bar.
Both doors will be in oak, new oak I suspect, because trying to find enough suitable old oak might be problematic, not to mention the machining of old oak, and the wear and tear on my machines.

 

[JohnD]

Have a look at the end grain in your boards. If you see it curving, especially in a semicircle, it will warp with changes in moisture content. You should try to season it to the same moisture content it will have in service before machining it.

Plain-sawn timber is pretty certain to warp or cup, unless you are lucky enough to get the central boards. Most likely some other savvy buyer has already taken the best stuff.

https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2018/07/10/quartersawn-wood-rift-sawn-wood-explained

I have a friend who's built a stacking lean-to where he stores timber for a year or so before use. he's lucky enough to mostly get it from sawmills.

 

[foxhole]

I try and acclimatise the timber in the room to be used, used t&g floorboards

9C02651C-D5BD-44AC-BD6A-D0002D963D86

• foxhole
• 1 Oct 2017

Sliding door

for my sliding door.

 

[mrrusty]

I've been making my own windows and external doors using Accoya. Yes, it's expensive, but it machines well (although is brittle and spelches badly if given a chance) and as far as my experience goes is totally stable. Bought as sawn it's pretty straight already and a few passes through a thicknesser is all it needs. I use dominos and PU glue on the structural joints.