u/asp821

I recently posted here asking for advice on finishing my door. I just wanted to thank everyone that chimed in and gave advice, opinions, and compliments. I really appreciate the help you all gave me.

- Write up -

I’ve spent the last few weeks putting together this mahogany screen door for my home. It’s almost impossible to find an arched screen door, and those that do exist cost a small fortune. So I built one. For way more than I expected to spend on this project. As is tradition.

There are many, many imperfections, and probably a few genuine mistakes, but I’m pretty happy with it. This is only the 5th woodworking project that I’ve ever done, so it was a good chance to try a lot of techniques that I’ve never done before. I got to try using dowels, using my table saw as a jointer, using a Japanese pull saw, belt sander, etc.

Stiles and rails:
The stiles and rails are doweled and glued together. Nothing very fancy there.

The arch:
The arch was 4 or 5 pieces of 1x6 doweled and glued along the edge grain. I then drove a screw into my workbench, centered it along the width of the boards, attached a wire to it and then the other end to a pencil. This allowed me to trace a decent arch shape onto the wood.

I then used a jigsaw to rough-cut the arch before using a belt sander to get closer to the line and shape the arch. It’s a little janky in a couple of spots, but sometimes you waste so much time being frustrated and trying to make it perfect that you just have to move on when it’s close enough.

Probably would’ve been much easier to use a router and a circle jig, but I didn’t have the jig or know how to make one. If there’s ever a next time that’ll probably be the way I do it.

Someone in another sub told me that my arch is going to fail because of the exposed end grain at the top, someone else told me that it’ll probably be fine, but even if it fails, it’ll be a good learning experience as to why. I chose to go that route. I can always cut the top off and rebuild the arch, and build it better, if I need to in the future.

The bottom half:
All of the angled pieces at the bottom were just trial and error. I wish I was better at finding angles or knew some kinda hack on how to get them perfect, so please chime in if you have suggestions.

Regrets:
My biggest regret with it is probably not spending more time finding matching mahogany, but since this all came from Menards, I’m lucky that I was able to even get wood this good.

What I learned:
Besides learning how to use the various tools and techniques that I’ve never used before, the most important thing I learned is just how tight dowel joints can be. I know they say to use 5/8” dowels for a 5/8” hole, but trying to get it fit, especially with glue, was a nightmare. Literally tore the skin from my hand trying to hammer it together for so long.

After that, I ended up widening the holes a little bit, but even then that wasn’t enough. In the future, I will probably use slightly smaller dowels or sand down the ones I do use rather than widening the holes. Wish I realized that was an option while I was building this.

Finishing:
Used a card scraper and chisel to clean up and glue squeeze-out that I didn’t catch. Rounded over a few areas with the chisel to account for some of the inconsistencies before sanding the entire thing.

Staining:
Stained it with General Finishes Outdoor Oil. A lot of people suggested Penofin or spar varnish, or a million other options, and quite frankly, there are almost too many options. Makes it hard to know what’s best for your project.

I didn’t want anything that would be super difficult to maintain or another new technique that I would need to learn in order to apply it, so I went with what I know.

I recently used General Finishes Gel Stain on a bookcase that I built and I really liked it, so I decided to go with them again. We shall see how it holds up to Ohio weather.

Nothing like building a screen door as fall is starting and giving yourself about 2 weeks to enjoy it before it’s finally too cold.

Also, shout out to Rex Krueger for giving me great advice and an incredibly meaningful compliment as a new woodworker. The dude is so incredibly nice. Should definitely check out his YouTube channel if you haven’t.

I’ve spent the last few weeks putting together this mahogany screen door for my home. It’s almost impossible to find an arched screen door, and those that do exist cost a small fortune. So I built one. For way more than I expected to spend on this project. As is tradition.

There are many, many imperfections, and probably a few genuine mistakes, but I’m pretty happy with it. This is only the 5th woodworking project that I’ve ever done, so it was a good chance to try a lot of techniques that I’ve never done before. I got to try using dowels, using my table saw as a jointer, using a Japanese pull saw, belt sander, etc.

Stiles and rails:
The stiles and rails are doweled and glued together. Nothing very fancy there.

The arch:
The arch was 4 or 5 pieces of 1x6 doweled and glued along the edge grain. I then drove a screw into my workbench, centered it along the width of the boards, attached a wire to it and then the other end to a pencil. This allowed me to trace a decent arch shape onto the wood.

I then used a jigsaw to rough-cut the arch before using a belt sander to get closer to the line and shape the arch. It’s a little janky in a couple of spots, but sometimes you waste so much time being frustrated and trying to make it perfect that you just have to move on when it’s close enough.

Probably would’ve been much easier to use a router and a circle jig, but I didn’t have the jig or know how to make one. If there’s ever a next time that’ll probably be the way I do it.

Someone in another sub told me that my arch is going to fail because of the exposed end grain at the top, someone else told me that it’ll probably be fine, but even if it fails, it’ll be a good learning experience as to why. I chose to go that route. I can always cut the top off and rebuild the arch, and build it better, if I need to in the future.

The bottom half:
All of the angled pieces at the bottom were just trial and error. I wish I was better at finding angles or knew some kinda hack on how to get them perfect, so please chime in if you have suggestions.

Regrets:
My biggest regret with it is probably not spending more time finding matching mahogany, but since this all came from Menards, I’m lucky that I was able to even get wood this good.

What I learned:
Besides learning how to use the various tools and techniques that I’ve never used before, the most important thing I learned is just how tight dowel joints can be. I know they say to use 5/8” dowels for a 5/8” hole, but trying to get it fit, especially with glue, was a nightmare. Literally tore the skin from my hand trying to hammer it together for so long.

After that, I ended up widening the holes a little bit, but even then that wasn’t enough. In the future, I will probably use slightly smaller dowels or sand down the ones I do use rather than widening the holes. Wish I realized that was an option while I was building this.

Finishing:
Used a card scraper and chisel to clean up and glue squeeze-out that I didn’t catch. Rounded over a few areas with the chisel to account for some of the inconsistencies before sanding the entire thing.

Staining:
Stained it with General Finishes Outdoor Oil. A lot of people suggested Penofin or spar varnish, or a million other options, and quite frankly, there are almost too many options. Makes it hard to know what’s best for your project.

I didn’t want anything that would be super difficult to maintain or another new technique that I would need to learn in order to apply it, so I went with what I know.

I recently used General Finishes Gel Stain on a bookcase that I built and I really liked it, so I decided to go with them again. We shall see how it holds up to Ohio weather.

Nothing like building a screen door as fall is starting and giving yourself about 2 weeks to enjoy it before it’s finally too cold.

Also, shout out to Rex Krueger for giving me great advice and an incredibly meaningful compliment as a new woodworker. The dude is so incredibly nice. Should definitely check out his YouTube channel if you haven’t.

Does anyone have recommendations on what kind of finish to put on the mahogany screen door I’m building? I need something that can handle the rain, snow, and summers of Northeast Ohio.

The first image is after I sanded it with 80-grit sandpaper. The second photo is from when I test-fitted the door before any sanding occurred. I really like the “rose gold” colors of it before I sanded it. What’s the best finish to keep those natural colors but make them pop a bit more while protecting the door?

Appreciate the help!

Does anyone have recommendations on what kind of finish to put on the mahogany screen door I’m building? I need something that can handle the rain, snow, and summers of Northeast Ohio.

The first image is after I sanded it with 80-grit sandpaper. The second photo is from when I test-fitted the door before any sanding occurred. I really like the “rose gold” colors of it before I sanded it. What’s the best finish to keep those natural colors but make them pop a bit more while protecting the door?

Appreciate the help!

After spending the last 1,000 days learning German (and a little Japanese), I’m throwing in the towel with Duolingo.

I actually do enjoy Duolingo and have found it’s been easier to learn with it than the language classes I took in high school and college. However, about 2 months ago, they changed my lessons and completely fucked up my progress.

Now I have lessons that claim I’ve finished them in legendary even though I’ve never taken them, I’ve jumped 4 or 5 lessons ahead and the app assumes I know all of these different words and phrases that I’ve never learned, and overall, I’m just completely lost.

The worst part is that there’s no way for me to go back and reset these lessons to start over and learn what I’ve missed; I can only restart the entire section. It’s just not worth it to do that.

Not sure who at Duolingo thought doing shit like this was a smart idea, but you’ve lost a long-time user/customer because of it.

I made a few mistakes here and there, and it could use a little cleaning up, but I’m very happy with how it turned out.

If you knew how unhandy I am you’d understand why this is a huge deal for me considering it’s only the second woodworking project that I’ve done.

Maybe the thing I like most about woodworking isn’t just how things turn out, but the confidence it gives you to try building new things. I’m already looking at things around my house to start working on next.

Probably made 30-40 pierogis from half the recipe. Filled most of them with mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, and Monterey cheese. The rest are just cheese and potatoes. Came out amazing. Really makes me miss the old place.