The Doors

NO!   Not the rock group from my youth, but we’ll return to the post heading later.  First task for the day was to use the can of expanding insulation foam purchased from ScrewFix yesterday.  My expectation was the contents of the can would be sufficient to insulate all three Houdini hatches.  Alas I was too optimistic!
We really want Waiouru to be warm.  Moreover I want to eliminate cold spots which will create condensation during winter.  The area underneath the Houdini hatches appears to be a prime example of an area where condensation is likely to form.  You can see what I mean in the following photo.  Notice the spray foam doesn’t extend to the edge of the opening.

A quick squirt around the inside of the hatch opening this morning with the foam and…….. whilst the foam expanded there was still a gap.  So I gave it a second squirt all the way around.  Then the can was empty and I still had two hatch opening requiring foam.  There wasn’t much more that could be done about the situation so I departed for the workshop.
Whilst climbing back into Waiouru later in the morning I happened to notice the foam had continued rising in my absence.

OK….. it’s obvious only half the amount of foam should have been applied!  Well you learn from your mistakes.  Obviously only half the can was needed.  But at least only one more can is required to insulated the other two hatch openings.
Richard’s first job for the day was to fit the architrave around the exterior of the front cabin door frame.

We then made a start on the actual doors.  Richard did all the technical stuff whilst I just held onto the ends of bits of timber, swept the floor and generally attempted to either make myself useful or not get in the way.
His method is to make a two dimensional template of the doors.  This enables him to gain a physical picture of how the doors will interact with each other.  To make the doors water resistant there is a vertical overlap where they meet in the middle of the opening.  The right door will close over the left (both are rebated).  However they will be stable doors which requires the upper doors to close over the tops of the lower doors.  This means four different rebated overlaps.  The horizontal join will have a 1mm gap and the vertical a 2mm gap.  All of this is marked out on the template.  A cutting list is then produced from the information on the template.
Richard has decided to make the doors from European Oak rather than American as he believes the former is superior in quality and therefore more suitable for exterior doors.  The first task was to cut the timber for the frames.  Then strips of 35mm wide oak were cut and planed.  These were to be tongue & grooved to make an infill panel for the bottom doors.  Richard routered the tongue & groove before I cut the long strips of timber down to shorter pieces for the panelling.  Whilst I completed this Richard routered a groove around the inside of the lower door frame. The infill T&G panelling will be held in place by this groove.  He also chamfered the internal edges of the doors with the router.  By the end of the day the doors looked like this………

It has yet to be mortise joined and glued together.  Actually the T&G panels in the lower doors will never be glued.  This will enable them to “move” with the change in the climate.  The upper section of the doors will be glazed with 6mm glass.
Unfortunately Darren was ill today and as a consequence there was no progress with the painting.