Prepping the Doors

     This type of work is not what I usually blog about but it's the project I'm getting ever deeper into.  Usually I share the hand cut joinery or smooth planed surfaces of some type of exotic or domestic wood species but this, it's different!  Diane and I have decided that since our original retirement plan of selling and downsizing our house has been scraped because of the economy we would just upgrade and repurpose the house we have.  Great neighborhood and neighbors so, why leave?  If you've been following along you know the first step was to get rid of the double tiered, fluorescent light box.  This was replaced with LED recessed lighting and the drywall will be re-installed and textured this Sunday.
     In the meantime, I've started removing the doors and prepping them for painting.  Something about those open cupboards that Ali just can't resist:

Just Checking Things Out!

 

     Sometimes you can hear her trying to work the door open which wasn't too hard with the old hinges.  Now there's no door but she's starting to lose interest, guess that like me she enjoyed the challenge.



   
     I won't get into the details of how I know this but I'm thankful for 3/16" dowels that are capable of plugging holes drilled in the wrong place!  I've decided to break the door prepping into manageable bites of 7 doors at a time.  I remove them, stamp a letter near the upper hinge position to know where they belong and then put a piece of masking tape on the corner that needs to be drilled for the handle.  Well, in the process it could hypothetically happen that you would drill the hole on the horizontal member instead of the vertical member of the door where it should be.  Remember the 3/16" dowel?  I decided there had to be a better way to mark them so my aging, sanding dust addled mind wouldn't make a mistake.  Just like so many other things in woodworking a simple jig was all that was required:

Marking Handle Position

     What this is is a two sided jig which should insure that the handles will be on the proper door member and at the same location.  Before removing the door I simply hook the jig over the top then use a scratch awl to center punch the location.  Easy now to drill a nice, straight hole on the drill press.  As of now, half of the 28 doors are ready to go and the rest will be completed tomorrow.  I'd really like to start the gesso process on the frame I carved in the workshop with Ian Agrell and I plan to fit that into my schedule.  Wouldn't you know that it's supposed to be windy most of this week and then there's a good chance of rain during the weekend.  That's going to make it difficult to spray the doors and drawers outside so I may have to start brushing the face frames and cabinet sides indoors.  I'll keep you posted.