On 3/17/14, 11:20 AM, Nova wrote:
On Mon, 17 Mar 2014 00:29:51 -0500, -MIKE-
wrote:

On 3/16/14, 10:56 PM, Ivan Vegvary wrote:
Want to install bi-fold doors (4 panels total) on a closet 4 feet
wide but only 59 inches high. Standard doors are all 80 inches.
While I've taken off a few inches off the width in the past, I've
never removed 20 inches from the height.

Does anybody make shorter doors? Do I have to make my own? Rental
unit so style not that important.

Ivan Vegvary

(Cross posted to alt.home repair)

If you're talking about those cheap, light, luan, hollow doors with the
cardboard torsion box interior, then yes, it's pretty easy. I've done
this a few times.

They have a pine frame around the perimeter made of what could best be
explained as a 2x4 ripped in half. There will some more blocking of the
same material where the door handles go. The rest of the interior is a
honeycomb torsion box of cardboard.

If you want to keep the door handles where they normal would be, then
cut the 21" off the top of the doors. Luan is nasty, messy stuff that
puts long painful splinters in your hands, so I recommend gloves. You
can do it two ways. Make your final clean cut at 59" using proper
techniques to avoid splintering/tear-out. Or make a cut a blade width
long and clean it up later, once you glue the frame back in the bottom.
On to that...

Once you cut the 21" off the top, you can start to remove the top
horizontal part of the frame from the luan veneer. You don't have to be
gentle. Scrape all the excess glue off the pine frame piece so it will
slide in the hollow, cut end of the other section of door.

Clean out enough of the cardboard torsion box so that the pine frame
section can slide up into it. The cardboard will scrape right off the
luan with a putty knife. You may have to cut the pine frame piece to a
shorter length if it ran the entire width of the door. It doesn't have
to me exact. In fact, cut it a little shy to make it easier to cram
back between the veneers. Glue the inside of the veneers and the pine
frame piece, cram it in there and clamp for an hour.

If you cut the door to 59" exact, you're done. If not, now cut the door
to it the final 59" length, again, using proper techniques to avoid
splintering and tear-out.

I've done a number of doors recently as part of a basement remodeling
job. The new inexpensive doors no longer have a pine frame. They now
have a pressed cardboard frame that's only about 1.5" in height.
Mike's instructions still work fine though.


Wow! Don't let those suckers get wet.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

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