I got my hands on 30 finished solid core doors including hinges and
Schlage locks. They are mortised and drilled. No Jams! I could buy
pine and make the jams, but I really don't like pine. Birch would go
with the remainder of the woodwork in the house, but at $3 - $4 a
board foot for rough cut in varying widths, and all the work in
preparation, it will cost a fortune and take forever.

Would birch ply be strong enough, and hard enough, to withstand the
wear and tear of daily living? The surface that shows would be
hardwood. Very little of the edges show and could easily be finished
with 1/4 inch strips of real birch.

Len

wrote:
I got my hands on 30 finished solid core doors including hinges and
Schlage locks. They are mortised and drilled. No Jams! I could buy
pine and make the jams, but I really don't like pine. Birch would go
with the remainder of the woodwork in the house, but at $3 - $4 a
board foot for rough cut in varying widths, and all the work in
preparation, it will cost a fortune and take forever.

Would birch ply be strong enough, and hard enough, to withstand the
wear and tear of daily living? The surface that shows would be
hardwood. Very little of the edges show and could easily be finished
with 1/4 inch strips of real birch.

Len

considering that most doors these days have particleboard jambs,
plywood is certainly strong enough. you'll need to shim behind the
hinges, and remove one of the hinge screws on the top hinge and replace
it with a long screw into the framing.

On 8 Aug 2006 18:50:47 -0700, "marson" wrote:

Would birch ply be strong enough, and hard enough, to withstand the
wear and tear of daily living? The surface that shows would be
hardwood. Very little of the edges show and could easily be finished
with 1/4 inch strips of real birch.


Birch ply would probably be strong enough.
You might check with your local lumber yard or BORG to see if they
might have veneered jambs available. You should be able to find a
maple veneered jamb that would be quite a bit less money than solid
stock but probably still a little higher than plywood.

Mike O.

Mike O. wrote:
On 8 Aug 2006 18:50:47 -0700, "marson" wrote:

Would birch ply be strong enough, and hard enough, to withstand the
wear and tear of daily living? The surface that shows would be
hardwood. Very little of the edges show and could easily be finished
with 1/4 inch strips of real birch.


Birch ply would probably be strong enough.
You might check with your local lumber yard or BORG to see if they
might have veneered jambs available. You should be able to find a
maple veneered jamb that would be quite a bit less money than solid
stock but probably still a little higher than plywood.

Mike O.

I hope you are able to buy better ply than I can. I would be too
worried about voids under the hinge mortise, or voids where the screws
would bite.

Are you staining or painting these?

Robert

wrote in message
oups.com...

I hope you are able to buy better ply than I can. I would be too
worried about voids under the hinge mortise, or voids where the screws
would bite.

Are you staining or painting these?

Robert

Robert, do you see particle or plywood joor jams these days?

Leon wrote:

Robert, do you see particle or plywood joor jams these days?

I really on see wood. Mostly some kind of Chilean cousin of pine that
is hard as a rock. I am doing a lot of installs and finishing of
interior and exterior doors of a local lumberyard and I have steered
them away from particle board and anything else.

By the time they figured out the price between the mystery South
American hardwood and the particle board it wasn't that great, and if
the mystery wood is to painted (like you would MDF) they use the cheap
finger jointed stuff anyway.

The custom doors they make or sell have hardwood jambs to match the
doors, but that has gotten so expensive due to the cost of solid jamb
material that most people opt out and just get paint grade frames.

I hate the MDF frames as it almost double the amount of shims I have to
put in. That stuff is so limber and moves so much (even with one coat
of primer and two coats finish) that you really have to secure it. It
is hard to get and keep the margins really straight.

So I charge enough extra on the installation of MDF frames to make it
worthwhile for their customers to pick the wood frames. Kinda helps
things go in the right direction.

Robert

wrote in message
ups.com...
I got my hands on 30 finished solid core doors including hinges and
Schlage locks. They are mortised and drilled. No Jams! I could buy
pine and make the jams, but I really don't like pine. Birch would go
with the remainder of the woodwork in the house, but at $3 - $4 a
board foot for rough cut in varying widths, and all the work in
preparation, it will cost a fortune and take forever.

Would birch ply be strong enough, and hard enough, to withstand the
wear and tear of daily living? The surface that shows would be
hardwood. Very little of the edges show and could easily be finished
with 1/4 inch strips of real birch.

Len

I would not consider anything but solid wood, especially for heavy doors.
IMHO until you get into the plywood's that cost about the same as solid
wood, plywood looks like plywood regardless of whether you hide the edges or
not.

wrote in message
ups.com...
I got my hands on 30 finished solid core doors including hinges and
Schlage locks. They are mortised and drilled. No Jams! I could buy
pine and make the jams, but I really don't like pine. Birch would go
with the remainder of the woodwork in the house, but at $3 - $4 a
board foot for rough cut in varying widths, and all the work in
preparation, it will cost a fortune and take forever.

Would birch ply be strong enough, and hard enough, to withstand the
wear and tear of daily living? The surface that shows would be
hardwood. Very little of the edges show and could easily be finished
with 1/4 inch strips of real birch.

Len


I would never consider plywood for a door jam. If the surface needs to be a
hardwood finish, then get the birch, maple, beech or even alder or pine if
money is that tight. Go cheap now and regret it later.

Dave




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