Genocache: Screen door for the house

1 March 2022

I've lived in my house for nigh 32 years. My screen door I bought in the 90's and it's past its due date, I've moved the hinges on it once, it is just a cheap door, but it worked. Now it has to go. I decided this a couple of weeks ago and one of my neighbors is selling his place and moving so he gave me a bunch of rectangular tubing which he used for wood racks.

So I decided I could make a new screen door pretty easily......I was wrong.

Well the fab part wasn't so hard it was getting a design and materials. From another neighbor who is replacing part of his deck I got some scrap mahogany for a kick plate.

I used the old door for a template and just winged it. Here is the basic frame;

Next I designed some hinges, These had to be stout as I figured the door would be heavy. I used some 1" steel spacers with a 3/8" hole. Made the base of the hinge out of some 1/8 x 2" flat bar. I had to make them in a set to keep the size and shape the same. I required 3 hinges.

I did all this with a vise, vise grips, an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel, angle grinder with a sanding flap disc, file, welder and a drill press. It took 2 days to make the hinges.

I needed to make the mahogany fit the bottom opening, it took 6 pieces. I borrowed my neighbors biscuit joiner, something I had never even seen used before and cut a groove in the wood.

Once they were all grooved, 2 pieces of 3 boards were biscuited and glued so I could test fit;

Then it was put in the biscuits and glue for the center section and clamp tight .

A couple of days later I took it to my neighbors and we ran it through his planer, another tool I have never seen or used, and slimmed it down to fit the door thickness while carefully keeping the biscuits in the center. Once home I sanded it down.

At this point I was not sure how I was going to keep the wood from falling out. Maybe a strap across the back with screws into the wood? I figured that the wood would eventually fall out if someone kicked it too often. I settled on making some tabs and running some machine screws all the way through the wood.

I needed to make tabs.......12 of them........all the same......

Starting with 1/8 x 3/4" flat bar I measured and cut clamped them up and shaped them and drilled the 1/4" hole for a plug weld. Then with the wood in I fitted them and welded in place.

Next up was the screens themselves. The top one would be easy, he said, 8 more tabs and screw the screen frame to those.

Now I evenly spaced the tabs around the top opening and welded them on. Next up was to get a screen kit and make one to fit my opening, well the doors opening that is. It took me 2 kits...I made the last piece 3/4" too short somehow and I was very careful.

With the screen frame made I taped it to the door frame and drilled 1/16" holes for the location of the screws and screw holes.

The holes in the tabs were drilled out to 3/16" and countersunk for the screws.

In went the screen into the frame, only my second time ever doing this! There is a learning curve, go slow don't use too much force.

Now I'm a week into this thing and haven't figured out the lower section. I wanted to put something like expanded steel in front and screen behind to keep kids and pets from running through the screen. I couldn't figure out how to attach both or find cheap expanded steel.

Soooooooooooo....8 more tabs.........