The Lotus Entry Door

This is The Lotus Door Entry
It is made from one plank of Ribbon Grain Mahogany
It is 36" x 80" x 1-3/4"
The panels are old growth Redwood burl and curly grain
It has a beautiful Lotus stained glass by Dragon Eye Glass

Here is the proposed Door drawing

How'd I do ? Here is the completed door

A close-up of the top portion of the door

Another view

Click on Any Image to Enlarge

Here is a backlit view of the stained glass

This Entire door, dentil shelf, and dentil posts came from
this ONE slab of Mahogany ..... amazing wood

The dentil shelf is attached with stainless steel screws, capped with CocoBolo square caps

The panels are bookmatched Old Growth Redwood Burl on the out side

and Old Growth Curly Redwood for the center panels

Here is a closer view

The dentil shelf and posts came from the same plank used in making the door

Click Here to View the making of The Lotus Glass

Here is the History of how this door was constructed

Here are the "ruffed" out pieces allowed to settle down before machining

Here are some of the pieces after being joined flat and then rough planed

Then All of the pieces have to be dimensionally sanded because the grain is so figured (ribbon grain) it has to be sanded to thickness

The the machining begins

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Door Gallery

Here I cut the arch for the window

........ and the plane it to a perfect arch with an antique Compass Plane

Then we start gluing and "build" the door from the inside out

Here is the door being turned to clean the other side

Click on Any Image to Enlarge

......... just look at the figured "ribbon grain"

Here the door will stay in clamps for at least 3 days

Here is the door fresh out of clamps

Here I am making the ply template for DragonEye to use to make the beautiful stained glass window

The entire door is the machine sanded to a furniture finish

Here are the panel blanks .... All bookmatched Old Growth Redwood Burl

Here is the panel sub straight. It is marine grade plywood, edged with old growth Redwood

Here are some of the figured center wood in clamps

Here are the panel blanks coming out of "speedy" my sander .... "speedy" is very slow ..... but does a wonderful job

Here the chamfered raised panel is hand sanded

Here are the oiled panels .... they will have 4 coats of varnish oil before they are installed

Here is the dentil shelf ....... from the same plank at the top of the page

Since I make all my doors oversize, I then have to re-cut the door to the correct length and width

After planing the edges ..... I mortise for the hinges

Here is a mortised bronze ball bearing hinge and my "signature" on the door

All of the molded edges are hand sanded to a 220 grit finish

Then the door is varnish-oiled for 4 coats

Look at the magnificent grain

It is called "ribbon grain"

The door cures at least 3-4 days between all four coats of varnish-oil

Here are all the stops cut

and then the stops are installed with stainless steel fasteners and the excess caulk is cleaned up

Here is the finished product

Here we are making our custom jambs. they are made by laminating two 3/4" pieces of Mahogany ...... this makes for an extremely stable jamb

Here they are being oiled (on all sides) with our varnish~oil

Here are the dentil posts being oiled ..... 4 times

Here I am laying out the dentil post placement

And then they are clamped in unison to the door

How'd I do ??

I then layout the placement of square pins that will attach the shelf to the posts

Phew ......... it fits !!

Here we "bed" the class and cut and install the Mahogany stops.

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Door Gallery