Making arched top doors - part four - shaping and fitting

The next day, I unclamped the first door and prepared to do the final shaping. I rigged a cart in my shop with a drywall mud bucket, I know, this looks sort of crude. But in lieu of a shop helper, a sliding cart system like this really helps with cutting or sanding large pieces like this.

Trimming the curve on the bandsaw is simple, just make sure you stay outside the pencil line. Then make the long cut on the tablesaw, ripping the door to it's final width.

Once again, my cart system comes in handy for sanding the radius on my sander. With a fairly coarse belt, sanding this curve is simple and quick.


My first finished door. With the door propped in place, I can tell the curve of the door perfectly matches the curve of the jamb.


Sweet.

OK - did you get all that? Then do it again, making the second door! The only thing that is slightly different is that I put the two doors side by side, marking the height of the finished door onto the door that still needs to be cut down.


This way, they will both end up exactly the same height. Back to the woodshop, to repeat this whole process. With proper tools and working fairly quickly, I made both these doors in roughly 5 hours. This doesn't include the time it took the glue to dry, just actual work in the woodshop.

Here are both doors propped into place. And a crooked picture.

I must have bumped it when jockeying the doors into place.



They still need painted and hung, but you can see they're going to fit quite nicely.