Well it did not take long for me to get knocked off course on the tansu project early in the year. A screen door on our front porch has been something that we have wanted almost since when we first moved in over 30 years ago. The complication is that the door has a round top, so it will take a bit more effort. Still, that is no excuse for a 30 year delay!
Anyways it turned out that spring 2025 was the time. I figured I could have it done by summer and get back to the tansu. Nope. End of summer? Nope. End of fall? Nope? End of the year? Almost!
So while I was diverted off the tansu onto the screen door, I got further diverted to other projects. The back door needed refinishing. I wanted to make some stands for a few bonsai I have. The shop air filter packed it in and had to be repaired. I bought a fixture plate for the horizontal mortiser to assist with work holding. I bought an X-Y table for my drill press to also assist with work holding. And so on.
I acquired some sapele and got to work. The first task was to match the curved top of the existing door frame. I made a cardboard template, then bandsawed out four pieces to make the curve, then cleaned them up with a spokeshave.
Next was to connect them all with floating mortise and tenon joints. This is where I had the fixture plate diversion on the horizontal mortiser. It worked well for the repeatability of multiple mortises, as well as holding everything securely.
Two of the curved pieces I had somehow cut too short so had to remake them. 'Measure once and cut twice', that seems to be my motto sometimes. Once I redid them, I did a test fit with a couple stiles. Everything fit pretty well and a minimal amount of tweaking was required.
It was right around this point that my shop dust filter died. I initially assumed it was the capacitor, so I bought a new one and and installed it, but no joy. I wound up having to tear the whole **** thing apart. I eventually figured out that the circuit board had packed it in. Unobtanium. So I just bypassed it with a three position switch to give me the speed control. I lost the fancy pushbutton membrane keyboard and the shut off delay timer, but who cares? Not me apparently.
Next was to glue up the curved top. It was a bit more difficult than I anticipated and a couple of the joints are not as tight as they should be. Although the floating tenons were easy to do on the curved pieces, in retrospect I should have used an overlapping joint for better strength.
Then the back door refinishing diversion popped up. I had refinished it a few years ago, but it faces south and is not well protected from the rain. So it definitely needed redoing. Which took a ton of work to sand off the old finish without sanding through the veneer, then applying bleach to the dark areas, then staining, then a couple coats of clear on top. It took weeks and was kind of a ho-hum job, but at least it is done and I can ignore it for a couple more years!
So it was back to the screen door. With the frame itself completed, although not glued up, I needed a way to attach the screen. After all, it is to be a screen door! I decided to route a 1/8" deep groove all around the inside edge of the door, and use staples to affix the screen into the groove, then cover up the groove with strips of sapele.
Naturally this pretty much tripled the amount of work in the project, but I blithely carried on as the summer and fall ticked away. Despite the fact that I despise using the router, it was the right tool for this job and it worked well.
Here is a shot before the final glue up of all the parts. The top curve is already glued, but the floating tenons to connect it to the stiles are visible, as well as all of the thin strips of wood to cover up the staples. You can also see that I applied some stain to the rails in a rather unsuccessful attempt to get them to better match the stiles. A cardboard template is also visible, along with some laundry!
One last test fit before installing the screen and the hinges. Fits well into the opening, but I needed a bit more space for the hinges so further tweaking was in order.
And here it is in the garage with the hinges and screen installed. I used some nice copper nails to attach the staple cover strips, this is a 'back' view.
I have a piston damper that I will attach to it when I install the door in the frame, this will prevent it slamming shut. I also need a couple handles, one for each side, as well as a latch of some sort. Now that everything is complete, I am thinking I'll wait for the spring before I install it. Basically a year late! Back to the tansu future now!
