Making Energy Efficient Garage (Shop) Doors

	Do you know the old joke: the physics professor asked for thoughts on the world's most important inventions? After the usual "fire", "wheel",   "television"responses, one student answered "the Thermos." The Instructor  acknowledged that the Thermos was important, but why did the student think it was one of the world's most important inventions. The student said: "it keeps hot things hot and cold things cold!" The professor nodded in agreement but still asked why that made the Thermos so outstanding. The student replied "it knows when to do which."    Which brings me to the current project — building energy efficient doors for my new shop. [Is that a stretch or what?]
I know that may be a little obtuse, but do you recall all my complaints about the freezing temperatures all winter long...and then how hot it got in April (not to mention this past week)? The answer is not a Thermos but a garage/shop that keeps the cold(hot) out and the comfortable in.    The usual roll-down garage doors don't do that, I don't care how well they are insulated. When you can take delivery of your new bandsaw blades by reaching through the cracks... you get my drift (or draft)? [The photo is only for illustration effect; I do know that I can set the jams and weather-strip better.]
	So, faced with a new shop (a 24' X 26' new addition) I decided to make swing-out doors that would be tight and thick with as much r-value as I could squeeze into them.    The "art" at the left is my rough drawings of how I will make these doors. These represent two doors that would occupy one garage door opening and since I have two, there will be four doors — two sets.
Now, I have no (zero) knowledge about making heavy, insulated doors but they can't be that difficult, can they?    My plan is to make the frame out of 2 X 4's laid flat and double them to have 3" cavity for dense foam insulation. I will cover this frame with OSB on both sides for structural strength — I guess they become torsion boxes at that point.    Then, to make them "pretty", I will dress them with the mahogany decking, the same that I used last year for the Adirondack chairs. And there is a lot more in the details, so enjoy the pages — maybe you will want to add these to your garage workshop.
	I will start with making the frame. The drawing at the left shows a "1" and "2" frame. They will be the exact same dimensions and will be sandwiched — one fastened on top the other.    Note, that they are similar except for the lengths of the stiles and rails. They are cut so that, when sandwiched, they will give me corners with the equivalent of half-lapped joints.
While the half-lapped design will give a lot of strength, the main  structure will come from the loose tenons. I will use 1/2" beadLOCK loose tenons at all the intersections.
	I will start by making just one of the frame members. I begin on the #1 above — this is somewhat arbitrary, but this would be the more common rail and stile construction.    My contractor has said that the final door opening will be 8' wide by 7' high. I plan to add a 2 X 4 (or 6) jam on both sides and the top so the 1/2-doors will be made 46 1/2" wide. This is will allow me about 1/4" of final trim when I fit the doors in the frame.
Before I cut the cross-member (rail) I want to get a square edge where the rail will tie in. The construction lumber has rounded edges that I could butt, but I think that would look poor, so I will square the stock first.    And since these are construction grade 2 X 4's, I will start by making one edge true.
	I have a 6' jointer, but I think I will use the long, 8-foot JointAbility to square the 8-foot 2 X 4's.    I have a lot of them (24 or so) so I am going to make a lot of sawdust before I have good edges.
I have the long JointAbility clamped to two horses and have lined up the edge of the 2 X 4.    The insert shows how I am lining up the lumber. The router will trim right to the edge of the white top board, so I move the 2 X 4 out until the rounded over part is exposed.   Just look at the board clamped and ready to cut — it is so untrue that the one end sticks out about 3/4" and the other end is out almost an inch and the middle is just showing. This would be a difficult 2 X 4 to joint any other way.
	There are a lot of 2 X 4's I want to joint and they are hard to line up in the JointAbility. When you push one end where you want it, the other comes out.    So I made two little positioning devices. They are nothing more than some of my "engineered" stock that I have ripped to the exact thickness of the 2 X 4.
Then I drilled a hole and inserted a T-nut and installed the threaded eye-bolt with another T-nut on the end — that will be the "bumper" to push the stock.    You can see in the picture above that I have added two screws to each to hold them in place. They can be removed easily for normal jointing use.
	Now I just add a few turns of the eye-bolt, and I can nudge the 2 X 4 to where I want to cut and route. This will make the task much easier. If you recall, the router is set so that the base runs against the heavy steel bar and cuts exactly where the edge of white board is. I use my eyes and "touch" to line up the 2 X 4 so that it is just out from this white edge.
I simply let the router do the work. All I have to do is keep the base flat on the JointAbility and against the steel bar. I have installed a 3/4" by 2" spiral flute straight bit that makes this operation real simple.
	I sight down the finished 2 X 4. In a matter of minutes, I have a very straight and squared edge piece of lumber — 15 to go.