trimming oak veneered doors

[rojaca]

hello all. I have some lovely oak (machined) doors. I've got to trim around 5-6mm off the top and bottom and have put a lovely new blade in my circular saw and have clamped wood to either side to stop and damage as saw comes out sideways to grain, but the fekkin thing seems to insist on tearing at the grain on the face edge of the stiles (think thems the stiles-the outside vertical columns on the doors?)
Any tips would be well aappreciated
cheers all

 

[ladylola]

Mark and cut your line with a sharp stanley knife and then cut a couple of mm on the waste side and finish off with a plane. It may also be an idea to start and finish the cut with a panel saw, or even for that matter do the lot by hand

 

[rojaca]

thanks lola, was thinking of the plane but again was worried about planing across the end grain.
Panel saw? is this essentially a wood saw with more TPI for better finish.
Cheers for taking time to reply.

 

[foxhole]

Power plane will take off 5-6mm very quickly no need for saw.

 

[rojaca]

thanks LL and foxhole. The stanley trick worked wonders. Scored all the weay around and cut on both sides so no break out on the opposite side to cutting. Tried to finish with my hand plane but wood too hard, but the electric did the trick.

Have to say though I'm not very chuffed with the overall construction of the door set. Its a three fold door kit by XL joinery. The margins at the top and buttom for the runners are shocking. I cut a floor plate out of some oaK flooring to hide the floor running guide but their is still well over 1/4-1/2" gap at the bottom and what must be nearly 3/4" to 1" at the top.

This isn't down to my measurements btw. I had to loose 14mm of the doors as the hieght of the opening was 14mm less than what it should have been.

xl joinery I'm not impressed!

 

[ladylola]

Way of the world I'm afraid, everythings built down to a price nowadays and if they can get away with smaller sections then that's what will happen
On the plus side I'm glad we werre able to help and you've got your doors done.

 

[rojaca]

yes thanks all. I've eventually adjusted the doors up so that the gap between the top pf the doors and the frame head is only now 5mm. This has meant packing the wooden floor plate up by about 6-8mm but this still leaves a substantial gap between the bottom of the door and this.

Moral of the story. (apart from getting a good chippy in) is if your fitting any XL Joinery products, double check the dimensions they're giving you against what you think is acceptable.

 

[maltaron]

Ladylola, how pleasant to find i'm not the only one who still uses proper saws (all mine are Disston originals) and planes. How anyone thinks they can get a good finish with only power tools amazes me.

 

[ladylola]

Funny you should mention that, yesterday I was on a site to protect some new stone panels and the other carpenters on site were doing the shuttering for concrete. I started to cut up some lenghts of 3x2 with a handsaw, nothing special just an Irwin hardpoint, when one of the shutters called his mate over saying-
"look at that I've not seen anyone use one of them in ages!"


Just the same with a rebate plane or an axe for that matter

 

[chappers]

5mm at the head is still really 3mm to much.
It is true that a hand plane will give a better finish in the right hands and if sharp then a power plane but we don't all have the time for this.
I always trim veneered doors with a skill saw, just do a 1mm deep back cut first before going all the way through forwards

 

[foxhole]

Are these external patio doors, the head gap is 5-7mm and the bottom 10mm or so for a reason the seals and door brushes use this space and allow for expansion.Don't see how you can reduce the door heights and not increase the gap?

 

[sweetnlow]

Have to say though I'm not very chuffed with the overall construction of the door set. Its a three fold door kit by XL joinery. The margins at the top and buttom for the runners are shocking. I cut a floor plate out of some oaK flooring to hide the floor running guide but their is still well over 1/4-1/2" gap at the bottom and what must be nearly 3/4" to 1" at the top.

xl joinery I'm not impressed!

In the above earlier posting you mentioned a 3 fold door kit. I presume this is work done in your own home. We had a 4 fold door kit fitted by a joiner back in June and we are experiencing a great deal of trouble with some of the components. We were wondering if you have had any problems or if you know of anyone with problems, only XLs response has been appalling