Always number the panels before removing them. If pieces are stuck together with paint, you can use a blade to clean some of the paint out of the joint, being careful not to damage the edges of the wood. This method also can be used to remove blind dowels or pegs that can’t be driven out.Īfter you remove the stiles, the panels, rails, and mullions should separate without much effort, as long as they weren’t glued in place. Inserting a screw into a wedge offers leverage for extracting stubborn non-glued tenon wedges with a nail puller. If the stile seems stubborn, check for anything you might have missed, like glue or brads that may have been used in an attempt to tighten up the door. ![]() After the glue sets, pry the wedge out with a claw hammer or nail puller.Īfter removing any pegs and wedges, place a softwood block (shaped to avoid damaging the finished edge of the stile) against the inside of the stile, and gently tap it to push the stile off the tenons. If you can’t get a wedge out with small needle-nose pliers or a thin blade, try this technique: Drill a small hole in the wedge, put a dab of glue on a small machine screw (using a wood screw may expand the wedge, making it harder to remove), and slide it into the hole. Number the old wedges before removing them in case they are reusable, since each one is nearly always unique. Heat and moisture can soften animal glue, while modern glue might require drilling. If a peg is very stubborn, it may have been glued. If the peg is tapered, strike it from the small end to avoid damaging surrounding wood, and always use a punch that’s smaller in diameter than the peg. Pegs usually can be driven out with a pin punch. This typically involves removing the pegs and tenon wedges, then carefully separating the stiles and the rest of the components. Loose joints, cracks, rotted areas, and rodent damage often require partial or complete disassembly in order to access the damaged areas and fix the problems. Repairs often require disassembling and reassembling the door. Always number parts when taking apart a door to avoid problems later. ![]() Being handmade, these parts are rarely interchangeable, even within the same door. Each of our doors has 56 separate parts, counting the various pegs and wedges that secure joints, and all of them must function in concert with one another. Wood pegs often were incorporated, too, driven through slightly offset holes to draw the joint tightly together and secure it in what’s called a drawbored joint.ĭespite their deceptively simple appearance, frame-and-panel doors are fairly complex. The design’s success also hinged on the fine, durable joinery used-most commonly mortise-and-tenon joints with wedges to tighten the tenons in their mortises. The grain runs lengthwise in each frame member, which means that the frame contributes little to the door’s overall expansion, while the panels float freely in grooves, allowing them to expand and contract as necessary without distorting the door or altering its dimensions. ![]() Because wood expands more across the grain than with it, the frame design minimizes the effect of expansion and contraction upon the door’s overall dimensions. (Photo: Brian Vanden Brink)įrame-and-panel (or rail-and-stile) doors became popular in the early 1700s due, at least in part, to the design’s clever solution for dealing with dimensional wood changes caused by fluctuating temperature and humidity. Six-panel doors are common on Federal, Georgian, and Colonial Revival houses, such as this 1938 Colonial Revival on Cape Cod.
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