Rod-Steve...any suggestions?

I was considering building my own door(s) from my control room to my vocal booth. I will have double wall consruction, so I will need 2 doors (1 for each wall construction) The doors would be consructed like french doors where there's glass covering about 70-80% of the door. I would like to have doors that will give excellent, or at least very GOOD sound isolation. If my understanding is correct, each door would need 1 pane of glass. This is what I need to know... 1.) Are ther any links on here or other web sites anyone knows of that tell you how to construct a door (mainly a french door) from scratch? 2.) What is the best wood type and thickness of wood to get? 3.) What is the best thickness of glass to get and is there a certain "type" of glass that's better? 4.) Suggestions on the door frame? Below is a pic of basically how I'd like for it to look. Thanx!

Are you wanting just a single door between the booth and CR, or two for better iso? Steve

My design is set up for 2 doors. (By the way, I changed the pic up above) Another question...If I were to get a pre-constructed French door, what specs (door size, window thickness etc) would you recommend?

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Well your doors should atleast compliment your walls in mass. You might add sheets of gypsum or MDF to the wood part of the door if necessary. Glass is about 3 times bigger in mass than gypsum. So when having a leaf of 3x12mm gypsum the glass in the door should be about 12mm. Such thick glass comes as laminated (2 panes of glas with shield between). It'll cost ya a buck or two. for the door you show you prolly need about 60cmx120cm which will be about 150/200 buckaroons. Add the glass like you would add a window .

Stan, sorry about the lack of response; this isn't an easy project IMO, there are two ways I might approach it - one is to buy this http://www.grizzly.com/products/G4792 or the next larger one, and one of these sets http://www.amanatool.com/shaper/sc580.html and build my own door that would look exactly like the one in your pic; in your case, this would make your doors cost about $600 each plus glass :? - in my case, I wouldn't care because I'm a "tool-aholic" :lol: Perhaps another way, although I've not done it - buy two sheets of 1/8" furniture grade veneer plywood and two sheets of 3/4" MDF and three 8' KD fir 2x4's, and make a laminated door that has double MDF center with 1/8" veneer ply skins, and do open mortise corners on the 2x4's (laid flat) - these would be your perimeter frame, rabbeted and glued into the MDF core; then you would cut out the amount you want for window, making one side of the cutout "blind" so your glass would have a stop - the other side would use caulked molding to hold the glass in place. I'm not going into a lot of detail on either of these because you would be ahead to try and find an already made door if possible; either method would take a serious effort and cost to pull off, and you still would be unlikely to be happy with the result; glass is very heavy in the thicknesses we require for isolation, so it puts more strain on everything INCLUDING a home-built door that only has maybe 8" perimeter stiles and rails. If you were to disect an exterior slab type door, you'd find that the perimeter is solid wood, the main part is MDF or particle board, and the entire thing is "skinned" with thin veneer. This is done so the hinges and lockset have something to attach to besides particle board, which has a lot less holding power for screws. This is basically what I was describing in the previous paragraph, and the links show the type of tools it takes to build the OTHER type of door. Those two cutters work together to form a "long glue line" joint that's much stronger than just butting two pieces of wood together, and the one cutter also makes a groove for whatever center panel (in your case, glass) you plan to use. As to glass, yes you want SINGLE panes in each of two doors - m-a-m isn't going to look the other way just because you want to SEE through it :wink: - glass weighs a bit more than three TIMES what gypsum weighs, so to maintain mass in a partition the glass should be at least 1/3 the thickness of the TOTAL amount of gypsum in THAT LEAF. For studio doors, laminated safety glass is the best because it's safe, and because the layer of plastic between the two glasses acts as a constrained layer damping (think "Green Glue") - if the door is in a double gyp layer leaf, you'd have 1-1/4" of gypsum each side so the glass should be at least 1/3 of that, or minimum of 3/8" one side; the other side should be different but not less, so 1/2" would be needed. Just as in walls, the wider the air gap between these two doors the better. If you still, after all this discouragement, want to build your own doors, I'll try to help; but it ain't gonna be pretty; I've only scratched the surface of what's involved so far... Steve

Just found this; http://www.ptreeusa.com/raiStile_Sets.htm so with a $200 router table and a $200 router and a $200 bit set, you might make your own stile/rail doors; but I wouldn't attempt it without quite a bit of wood-working experience and quite a few tools... Steve

knightfly: I've done some routing in the past and normally found it pretty easy, but I had a look at the link you just provided and those mortise/tennon joins wow are certainly something it would take me two tries to get right. Talk about perfect cuts. http://www.ptreeusa.com/EDMS-Instructions.pdf

Heh -- and I was nervous about the skills I'd need to develop for framing! :lol: Bob, that's an awesome how-to document. But, yeah, definitely very skill intensive. Only two tries to get it right? I'd need twenty -- and even then, it might resemble a door!! :lol: --Keith :mrgreen:

Saw that link, but figured that if anyone was masochistic enough NOT to be dissuaded they'd go there anyway :? Guess "Database Bob" proved my point :wink: Bob, by the time you're finished with your project you will DEFINITELY have a "backup" vocation as an HT consultant, if you're not ALREADY doing it - no criticism, just raw ENVY... Steve Only two tries??!? Really? Damn...

Wow...that's a project to really think about "taking on" Steve! I've got a router and table, but I'm just a "basic" beginner using it. That last thread with the kit looked pretty promising. You know, it's one of those things where I'd like to, but the time it would take...however, I'll review what Steve wrote (about 10 more times!) and talk to some guys on my job who do a LOT of woodworking/building then decide whether to try my hand at this, get them to build it, or buy a French door already made. Bob...that was a great link. Like Keith said, seems like you need "skillz" to take on a project like that! I marked that page for future reference though. Thanks for the help guys...

Stan, if your router isn't already at least 2 HP, 1/2" shank, and variable speed, you'll need one for the large, heavy bits used in panel door stile/rail kits - these are heavy and large bits, and some are only rated to 10,000 RPM for that reason. This could get to be an interesting thread :wink: ... Steve