Pocketless Door Experiment (Part 3 of 3) :: Shut Down

click to see part 1 of this post
click to see part 2 of this post

. . . Now, don’t get me wrong. . .

I do know who I really work for. I told my wife what I was going to try. We discussed pros and cons, and I did get approval.

As I have hinted at this several times previously, I am really not sure if this kind of set up has ever been attempted. So picking up where I left off, I am standing and staring at it a little. Will this work out?

Header trim mimics exterior elements

I knew going in there was going to be a second area of difficulty, the plinth blocks. In my bathroom, again 5/4 board, routered with a forty-five degree on three sides. The variation in depth here not only adds visual interest, but also makes the wood’s tendency to expand and contract over the years a lot less noticeable.

But there you have it, another 3/8 inch protrusion at the door frame. What could I do? I could rip out the plinth blocks and alter the trim, I could add a 3/8 inch edge to all but the lower inches of the door panel, or I could try for something a little different.

. . . The power of visualization

I start by the cutting the door to the correct height and set it in place. I then swing my rollers over to the top of the door. I notice that I am going to have an issue with what I have done already; I was not going to be able to mount my pivoting assembly to the top the door. The height of things wouldn’t allow for it.

I didn’t kick myself too much, though, for not selecting a wider header or for cutting the door down this early in the process. I knew beforehand I would be adding some girth to the door panel. You see, I was going to have to swing my rollers to the far side of the door.

. . . Again with the impulse

Not liking the options as they presented themselves, I remembered what my co-worker said, and the impulse came again. Could I make this thing slip down into the opening? What would I have to do to make this happen? Cut the door down to fit into the opening, of course. Since it involved a cut, I marinated on it a little.

I mean, what could it hurt? What is my back up plan? Well, in this case, even though I have time invested and a built-up header screwed to the wall, my secondary options continued to be the more traditional, hinged installation. For these, I’d have to cut the door down anyway, so I did.

The next decision that needed to be made: how exactly I was going to attach my rig to the door. Based on the way that everything was falling in line, I knew I was going to have to mount the plates on the far side, or the inside, of the door. There were issues however with the frame of my rigs; it couldn’t reach too far over the door’s top edge. Time and space wouldn’t allow it.

With some very exacting eyeballed measurements, I determined I needed a block that was approximately 2 ½ thick. But what kind of stock could give me that kind of thickness?

I checked both major home centers, and it would figure the one farthest away had the goods. A 3x3x36 (actually 2 ½ by 2 ½) piece of poplar was perfect, and I grabbed a handful of carriage bolts. I mean, I was going to attach this block to the door to pad it out, and if I did – it was going live there forever.

. . . Hanging the door

I started by attaching the bottom of my rig to the far outside edge of my block (I had since bolted the poplar block to the door panel). It required a little strength, a steady hand, and pre-drilled holes. I made sure not to fill all the holes in the bracket, just in case I needed to make an adjustment. Then, there it was, hanging. I slid the entire assembly down toward the door opening. Wow, it is operating very smoothly.

I notice very quickly that my cap molding, detailed in the last post, is acting as a built-in guide. But having attached the brackets to the far side of the door, it had become tilted out of balance. It was pitching inward toward the bath just that slightly.

The cap on my wall treatment pushed the door out

The door was no longer centered directly below the rollers. Some adjustments were in order. I had to un-hang my hung door.

. . . Equal and opposite

One thing you learn rather quickly when working with doors is that it seems you often end up doing the opposite of what you are trying to accomplish. What I mean is, say for example you have a hinged door and you are setting it in an opening, and you want the door to move up; well, then you have to move the hinges down.

The law of gravity

I want the door to hang perfectly perpendicular to the floor, so what do I need to do if the door is tilting inward into the bath? The answer: move the rollers back toward the wall. As a little added insurance, I also picked up a flat bar. I cut down a 2-inch wide piece of galvanized steel and screwed it to the outside of the door. It helped balance things out just that much more.

I reassembled the set-up and now it hung again, but this time perfectly.

. . . Operating the door

With everything back together, I tested it some more. I slid it back and forth to and from the opening. Looking pretty good, but I did not notice it wasn’t quite squared up with the wall along which it hung.

Working it back and forth like a bobsled team getting ready to begin their run, I then slid it down to the opening, and dropped in it. Whoa! The base of the door is kicking back into the bath pretty good. This is going to be problem. Nonetheless, I push it down into the opening. Pretty good fit, but the one side is not sitting quite flush.

To fix this, and again the equal and opposite law of doors applies, I moved my mounting brackets back and forth by fractions of inches to ensure that everything was right in alignment. To be honest, this process did take much more time than I would have hoped. But with everything in order and hanging just as I wanted, I took another stab at dropping it into the opening. Perfect.

If I give it a little push at the bottom with my foot and tug at the brackets at the top, success. I know; that is a little troubling.

Nonetheless, I have a few ideas.

. . . Inspections

At this point, I had been in the cat bathroom (as my girls sometimes call it) a good part of that Saturday. What did they think? Cool they said, as they slid the door back and forth on its track. They liked it. Great.

But we all know, their inspection really doesn’t account for much. Shortly behind came the big boss, my wife. She stepped into the bathroom and with one look, there it was a look on her face I knew — she hated it. So I said, What? You knew I was going to do this.

So after of a few seconds of hesitation, she let it fly. I hate it. My response, Why?

Then she continued, Because it doesn’t fit. It looks like something you’d find in an auto body shop. I mean at this point I couldn’t stop her, You took my dainty little bathroom, and you add this big, industrial looking thing in it. I don’t like it. It doesn’t fit. Why didn’t you just do a normal door? This is something you would see in a

The wife called my rig industrial and clunky -- maybe she was right

row home in Canton. Not here; this house is Victorian.

After it was all out, I got some words in, But . . . we discussed this; I told you I thought if I could pull it off. It really would be pretty different and cool. . . .Something to write about.

. . . What’s next?

Now this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to me.

Not only did I have a few challenges to overcome. But we, wife and I, were at an impasse. By my wife’s account, I am not moving any more forward with this.

Plus, I needed my swiveling rigs to pivot when I wanted them to pivot. I needed to have some way to push and/or pull on the bottom of the door. (Yeah, I was a little concerned about how the track and rollers would hold up against this unnatural lateral movement. But believe it or not, they seemed to be working perfectly under these newly added stresses.) And . . . I needed a way to latch the door into its place.

What do you do when this happens? For me, I have learned. At this point, it is an easy decision. Let it sit. And move onto the next project.

. . . Not the last you will hear from me on this

I have some ideas. I am convinced that this set up is going to work (I won’t tell you because I don’t want to blow all the suspense at this point).

I did wake up this morning with a few new thoughts in my head. I’d probably need to provide instructions with the operation of this door. And you know what? It will probably be difficult for my young daughters to operate. Yikes!

I could always roll back, pad the door, and allow it to hang simply over the opening. I could scrap the whole thing and return to my original plan, and do a mini-French set-up.

I don’t know, my point is – for everyone’s sake, it is time to let it sit. My feeling with this is, and it may sound a little corny, but only time will tell me my best course of action moving forward.

But I won’t dwell on it. I didn’t make any mistakes; I just tried something a little outside the box. Would you have?

And I am not the only one in my house I need to please. So, with that said, I move onto some drywall work as I wait for the gods of home improvement to point the way.

I will follow-up with you on this when I know more.