I have yet another dumb question.

I had a sticky door. I planed it down a little. Success!

I happened to be using some poly on another project and decided it would
be convenient to seal the planed area of the door with the same brush.
Can you guess? It started to stick again.

I planed it down a tad more. Once again, success!

Is there anything I can use to seal it against moisture without the
sealer itself swelling the wood? It's a solid-core door, old. If anyone
is wondering why it stuck in the first place, I think the settling of
the house has put the frame a tiny bit out of square.

Greg Guarino

Greg Guarino wrote:
I have yet another dumb question.

I had a sticky door. I planed it down a little. Success!

I happened to be using some poly on another project and decided it
would be convenient to seal the planed area of the door with the same
brush. Can you guess? It started to stick again.

I planed it down a tad more. Once again, success!

Is there anything I can use to seal it against moisture without the
sealer itself swelling the wood? It's a solid-core door, old. If
anyone is wondering why it stuck in the first place, I think the
settling of the house has put the frame a tiny bit out of square.


Clearly, your first pass with the plane did not take enough off, and the
anticipated swelling or build up of the poly resulted in the rub again. You
may be past that now, with the additional planing. If not, I would suggest
taking a look at the source of the problem before planing down any more.
Pull the trim and see if the door frame needs to be slightly driven up/in a
whisker. I'm not sure either approach is really any better than the other,
it's just that I prefer to address the underlying reason for problems, than
to address the symptoms. In this case, that may be overkill.

--

-Mike-

Water based or Oil based poly?

Oil based generally doesn't swell the wood.
I use shellac for sealing. It's fast easy, dries quickly.
I would use zinser sealcoat cut 50% w/alcohol

On 9/8/2011 9:42 AM, Greg Guarino wrote:
I have yet another dumb question.

I had a sticky door. I planed it down a little. Success!

I happened to be using some poly on another project and decided it would
be convenient to seal the planed area of the door with the same brush.
Can you guess? It started to stick again.

I planed it down a tad more. Once again, success!

Is there anything I can use to seal it against moisture without the
sealer itself swelling the wood? It's a solid-core door, old. If anyone
is wondering why it stuck in the first place, I think the settling of
the house has put the frame a tiny bit out of square.

Greg Guarino

On Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:42:32 -0400, Greg Guarino wrote:

Is there anything I can use to seal it against moisture without the
sealer itself swelling the wood? It's a solid-core door, old.

dewaxed shellac.


--
Intelligence is an experiment that failed - G. B. Shaw

On Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:42:32 -0400, Greg Guarino
wrote:

I have yet another dumb question.

I had a sticky door. I planed it down a little. Success!

I happened to be using some poly on another project and decided it would
be convenient to seal the planed area of the door with the same brush.
Can you guess? It started to stick again.

I planed it down a tad more. Once again, success!

Is there anything I can use to seal it against moisture without the
sealer itself swelling the wood? It's a solid-core door, old. If anyone
is wondering why it stuck in the first place, I think the settling of
the house has put the frame a tiny bit out of square.

Oh, grasshopper. Why have you not yet learned that finish both expands
the wood -and- adds a layer of finish which is not zero thickness?

Once you learn that, you plane a couple/three more strokes which makes
up for the added thickness and the door doesn't stick any longer.

Later that year, you learn that wood swells/narrows in summer/winter,
so you plane it more to make up for that change, too. Both doors if
they're paired.

We all go through these learning stages. Have fun!


P.S: Stain and poly are their own punishment.

--
That's the thing about needs. Sometimes, when you get them met,
you don't need them anymore. -- Michael Patrick King

On 9/8/2011 6:42 AM, Greg Guarino wrote:
I have yet another dumb question.

I had a sticky door. I planed it down a little. Success!

I happened to be using some poly on another project and decided it would
be convenient to seal the planed area of the door with the same brush.
Can you guess? It started to stick again.

I planed it down a tad more. Once again, success!

Is there anything I can use to seal it against moisture without the
sealer itself swelling the wood? It's a solid-core door, old. If anyone
is wondering why it stuck in the first place, I think the settling of
the house has put the frame a tiny bit out of square.

Greg Guarino

Water based poly will raise the grain slighty but not near enough to
make the door not fit. A coat of poly has thickness. If the fit was so
close that a coat of poly was enough to make it stick, it is to close.
Also, a fit that close will cause problems as the weather changes. Open
it up and be sure to taper the inside edge. Doors don't open straight.

On Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:33:42 -0700, CW
wrote:
Also, a fit that close will cause problems as the weather changes. Open
it up and be sure to taper the inside edge. Doors don't open straight.

Might be prudent for him to leave the proper fitting of the door until
summer when wood expands because of the humidity.

On Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:58:49 -0400, Dave wrote:

Might be prudent for him to leave the proper fitting of the door until
summer when wood expands because of the humidity.

If he lives *east* of the Rockies!

OK, I'm overreacting. But living in Washington, and previously in Idaho
and California, I get a little tired of the assumption than everyone has
the same weather.

For that matter, not everyone in this group lives in the US - for all I
know their weather may follow yet another pattern.

--
Intelligence is an experiment that failed - G. B. Shaw

On Thu, 8 Sep 2011 23:53:31 +0000 (UTC), Larry Blanchard
wrote:

On Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:58:49 -0400, Dave wrote:

Might be prudent for him to leave the proper fitting of the door until
summer when wood expands because of the humidity.

If he lives *east* of the Rockies!

Um, why doesn't Dave know that September 7th IS summer, and will be
for over 2 more weeks? sigh


OK, I'm overreacting. But living in Washington, and previously in Idaho
and California, I get a little tired of the assumption than everyone has
the same weather.

For that matter, not everyone in this group lives in the US - for all I
know their weather may follow yet another pattern.

Yeah, you don't -have- summer in Warshington, do you?

--
That's the thing about needs. Sometimes, when you get them met,
you don't need them anymore. -- Michael Patrick King

On 9/8/2011 5:58 PM, Dave wrote:
On Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:33:42 -0700,
wrote:
Also, a fit that close will cause problems as the weather changes. Open
it up and be sure to taper the inside edge. Doors don't open straight.

Might be prudent for him to leave the proper fitting of the door until
summer when wood expands because of the humidity.

We live in NY City, so humidity is a factor. This did indeed happen in
the summer. But that can be tricky, as the indoor environment in my home
is probably quite a bit less humid than outdoors. Air conditioner run
when we are home, and the windows are (mostly) closed when we are not.

I think that perhaps I had cut it a little too fine on the first go, and
the poly was enough to make it stick again, although not as much as it
had originally. I understand that shellac has a shelf life, and I only
need about a brushful. So maybe I'll take my chances with some poly
again. I probably have a can of non-water base around.

We agree that sealing it with *something* is a good idea, don't we?

Greg Guarino wrote:
On 9/8/2011 5:58 PM, Dave wrote:
On Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:33:42 -0700,
wrote:
Also, a fit that close will cause problems as the weather changes.
Open it up and be sure to taper the inside edge. Doors don't open
straight.

Might be prudent for him to leave the proper fitting of the door
until summer when wood expands because of the humidity.

We live in NY City, so humidity is a factor. This did indeed happen in
the summer. But that can be tricky, as the indoor environment in my
home is probably quite a bit less humid than outdoors. Air
conditioner run when we are home, and the windows are (mostly) closed
when we are not.
I think that perhaps I had cut it a little too fine on the first go,
and the poly was enough to make it stick again, although not as much
as it had originally. I understand that shellac has a shelf life, and
I only need about a brushful. So maybe I'll take my chances with some
poly again. I probably have a can of non-water base around.

We agree that sealing it with *something* is a good idea, don't we?

Yes - sealing it with "something" is a good idea - almost in the category of
a necessary idea. That said - go ahead and shave a bit more off and
re-seal.

--

-Mike-