UpdateIf anyone is interested, this is the starting point of getting a custom spindle moulder cutter made. The design is very similar to that found on modern doors but I asked for the curve to me more ovolo than the modern (and boring) arc. My drawings were sent to Whitehill who produced this.
I review, approve and sign in blood. Two cutters - scribe and profile. And this is what it produces..M&T purists should look away now.
Yup, that's a Domino (too small on this prototype)
None of the doors have the same dimensions and I spent a long, long time measuring up, checking and re-measuring which were then copied into a simple spreadsheet. Why ? Well, if you notice the moulding profile loses 13mm in the length (or requires 13mm adding) and so when measuring the width of the rails and the length of the centre stile pieces, one has to factor this in. The simple spreadsheet was the easiest way to do this. That then gave me the lengths that I needed for the rails and centre stiles.
I then made a checklist and assigned my timber to see what to cut where and labelled the ends of each piece. Double-checked. Triple-checked. Crossed off on the checklist.
But with all these pieces I knew I would still make a cock-up and so I thicknessed up some spare timber.
Checking measurements yet again, bit the bullet and ended up with seven sets of rails
and seven sets of centre stiles
At this point, I realised that I'd made a slight cock-up as the original spreadsheet had the actual size of the frame but I'd not factored in cutting a bit off top and bottom to give the door (a) clearance and (b) trimming at an angle if (when) the frame was out of square. I'd gone through the spreadsheet adjusting the length of the outer stiles but not factored that through to the length required for the centre stiles. So....
...painstakingly marked out the 13mm offsets required, laid the centre stiles down, marked off where the bottom stile was too long (usually only 5mm or so) and trimmed it.
When I made the first couple of doors, one thing I learnt very quickly was that, due to the profile of the cutter and using domino's, dimensioning and machining had to be spot on. First thing was to thickness all the timber in one pass. Not go back and forth adjusting the thicknesser for other tasks as I'd done before. Also precision in domino machining paramount.
The other point to note is that, again, due to the offset from the cutter profile, I need to have an extra depth cut into the scribed ends. This time I'm using 12mm x 100mm dominos and so the settings on the D700 was 50mm and 65mm. And so many hours later, everything domino cut.
Notice that on those components that only have the profile moulded on one edge (outside stiles, top and bottom rails) I will mark up which edge it is using chalk.
Time to mould the profiles and scribes ? Not quite. I find it much easier to cut the slots for the hinges and the holes for the door latch while the stiles are 'au naturel'.
TBC
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.