Art Deco Door

[xyster101]

I bought a house last year and the master bath is also the first floor bath. Not normally a problem with just the wife and I, but if people visit or stay over, then they are looking into our bedroom while doing business. Time to build a door.



Options are short with a 66" wide opening, radius corners, and electric in the wall. So a pocket door is out. I decided to go with a barn door design with a nautical/Industrial theme. Sketchup Design #1



The wife did not like it and found this online:



So I made this Sketchup Design #2:

 

[xyster101]

The original plan was to make it out of plywood and wood painted silver. I did a mock up:



Wife did not like that and wanted metal. I had never really welded before so I made this mock up out of 1" angle and flat bar. Then ground it all and coated it:



We both liked the metal much better. Back in April I built this table and laid it all out. I'm a shop teacher so I did the welding at work.



Complete with real portholes from bigshipsalvage.com and the flat bar welding up.



Test fitting it into place



Found these rollers at an antique shop for $30. Mocked up with rollers:



Cut the plywood, routered the edges (angle iron is not a crisp interior corner) and cut out the port holes.



After drilling holes all over, breaking 6 drill bits and burning up a drill I have the holes done. Special PEX red depth gauge, custom.

 

[xyster101]

Test fitting the rivets in the holes. These will get glued in with Gorilla Glue which takes about 20lbs of force to remove a rivet (did a test). I tried epoxy and it held better, but a pain to work with. I also tried silicon, but that did not hold worth ****. With so many, it will stay together with gorilla glue.







I am stuck now. I want to replace the glass with a specialty glass, like a dark blue. I can't get the rings off that hold the glass in. It is aluminum and with 30+ years being on the ocean, it is corroded in place. I even made a special tool to remove them, heated it, iced it, PB blaster, nothing works. Ideas?

 

[Kevin54]

All I can say is....that's a fricking HUGE bathroom, and no wonder people want to check out the other rooms.

If you don't want people looking into the other room through the glass, see about getting is soda blasted to give it a frosting. Or get a blue tinted clear paint and spray the glass.

BTW.....That is a super cool door

 

[Colin HD]

Longshot, but if you breakout the old glass, it 'might' loosen up the ring.

 

[mike13u]

What about having someone tint the glass a specialty tint instead of removing

 

[-Brent-]

5-star thread, for sure!

 

[WarrenP]

That door is awesome! The rollers really bring the whole thing together.

And I'm a sucker for art deco.

Great work!

 

[RivennHewn]

Love it.

Looking forward to seeing it complete!

 

[Chicago_one]

Wow...that is a great looking door. Good job with the welding too.
As for the glass... maybe a vinyl tint?
Juts clean the glass really well, apply the tint, heat to fit and cut the access.

Automotive tints can come in all colors...even frosted (which might look great)

 

[tarbellb]

You can hit the glass with sand blast/soda blast, or clear frosted vinyl, or just tinted vinyl. I would definitely stay away from trying to replace the glass itself.

Nice project, looks like fun.

 

[spotco2]

I vote tinting the existing glass.

Awesome door BTW....are you going to put rollers and a rub rail on the wall for it to slide against? It's going to hit that wall as it rolls.

I've never understood people that built bathrooms with no doors. I have seen 2 locally. One was just a tub, shower, vanity and toilet in the corner of a huge master bedroom along with a couple of sofa's and recliners. I've gotta have some privacy and honestly there's just some things I don't want to see my wife or anybody else doing.

 

[kazlx]

I would also go with just masking off the frame and sandblasting the glass. You can also etch with hydroflouric acid

 

[xyster101]

I'm liking the tint ideas. I ordered some samples online and I will take the portholes to a tint shop next week.
Today I put a coat of poly on one side of the wood panels.

 

[nine4gmc]

Great job, the door is killer!

 

[MDSPHOTO]

Absolutely beautiful, would love something like that in my home!

 

[metalhead212121]

subscribing!

 

[Bronson]

Soda blast the glass, as suggested above.
You GOTTA buck those rivets!!
Awesome door!!

 

[Amitygravel]

Very cool xyster !

Where did you find the rivets ?

 

[Startrekpleasures]

Wow your wife sounds like a real princess. What a pain in the ***!

 

[NUTTSGT]

That has some serious cool factor going on.

Was that a room that was converted into a bathroom at one point ?

 

[Mavawreck]

Cool project - will the door clear the switches to the right of the doorway?

 

[xyster101]

I'm moving 1 switch, getting rid of one and the last one is a flush rocker type that will clear it.

 

[xyster101]

Not as exciting, but I moved the switches from behind where the door will be and patched a few of the holes. Also took a brass wire wheel to the portholes, they are aluminum. One on the right is brushed, left is not done yet.

 

[Beemer533]

Very cool project! Looking forward to seeing it installed.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Wow your wife sounds like a real princess. What a pain in the ***!

MANCARD VIOLATION!

You do NOT address another man's beloved in a disparaging manner, even if he does. He married her, his opinion is the only one that counts.

"Bailiff, whack his pee pee!"

 

[Kevin54]

Not as exciting, but I moved the switches from behind where the door will be and patched a few of the holes. Also took a brass wire wheel to the portholes, they are aluminum. One on the right is brushed, left is not done yet.

If you have an area around you that does soda blasting, get the window frames done. It makes a very nice, uniform look to the aluminum. Then I would take a satin clear over the top of the aluminum to keep any fingerprints from showing up.

Just a suggestion, but loving your project

 

[ClintNZ]

Cool!

I have a big old brass porthole that I'm going to use in my bathroom as an extra window. Like with yours the rings holding the glass in were not moving anywhere. I used a stainless steel wire cup brush on the angle grinder to give the scratched & discoloured glass an even frosted look.

Cheers
Clint

 

[xyster101]

Stained and poly'd the plywood. Then drilled holes and glued the rivets in. I still have to clean up some of the glue that expanded out.
I like the idea of wire brushing the glass. I'm going to try to get some scrap glass today to play with.

 

[John Timmins]

You can buy a can of this aerosol stuff that you spray on glass and it dries looking frosted. You also might tris gettig those portholes clear power coated. That's what I did for my stair rail.

Another idea...make a circle smaller diameter than the port hole glass out of thin wood or maybe construction paper. Go to a glass shop and see if they have nay tinted glass you like. Place the circle you made on the glass and trace the glass with the glass cutter- scribe thingy with the small wheel on it. The glass cutters make popping that circle look easy after that scribe it ! Then place the tinted circle OVER your glass.

 

[bluebolt]

Cool idea!

 

[xyster101]

Had some minor set backs recently. I used Gorilla Glue to install the rivets and some expanded out of the holes. Not a big deal, just took an hour to clean up all the areas (about 10 total).



Took the portholes to a local glass shop. Wife and I choose this color. We are just going to have them cut and installed inside the exisiting glass since we can't get it out. I tried some tint and did not like it. I bought stuff to etch the glass and paint it, but we like this better.

 

[Lippyp]

You'd have loved where I was on Saturday, stall after stall crammed with genuine art deco furniture and fittings, lighting etc.

 

[xyster101]

My dad helped to carry the door in from the garage. I took the portholes to a stain glass guy in Woodstock NY and he was able to get the rings that secure the glass out. So I will be picking those up this weekend. It rolls great considering it weighs around 100 pounds. There is a flat spot in the wheels, but they are 50+ years old and were $30.

 

[Zick]

Wow, nice job so far!

 

[saceone]

As a Carpenter and notsoextraordinaire apprentice welder I am digging this, a lot!!

 

[xyster101]

Oh my, she is done! Amazing how the last little bit just takes so much time. So lagged the track I welded to the wall and the door runs on these antique barn door rollers I picked up and sandblasted. The door weighs around 130 pounds and rolls really easily.




I ended up going to Woodstock NY to a stain glass shop there to pick up the glass. The guy had such a great selection, PLUS he was able to get the spin rings out.




Here is a shot of the door closed from the bedroom. That opening was into the bathroom from our bedroom all located on the first floor as a main bathroom.





Just in case you forgot about the before shot:









The portholes open too.



It took a few hours to get the portholes mounted up. They have some hidden screws and then the rivets are epoxied into the wood and the frame is siliconed to the door.

 

[Kevin54]

Now that door is just sweet!!!!! Fantastic work on it for sure.

I do see though that you are now going to have to remodel the bathroom into a more of a Steampunk themed room.

First off, you need some of these:

Maybe something along the way of Steampunk themed lighting

And some other accessories

It's endless as to what you can do now to turn the bathroom into a one of a kind super cool bathroom to make people want to just sit and take it all in.



`

 

[bluebolt]

That door is awesome xyster! Quit giving me more ideas for projects!

 

[Hot Chop shop]

Wow that door turned out awesome! It's like you stole a door from captain Nemo's ship.