I put in an outside storm door last summer. It never closed quite right. Here is the problem.
The vertical part of the doorjamb that the door closes and touches, is just a wee bit warped. So, the door closes almost all the way but does not latch, because the nice white aluminum edge bar that I screwed in as a part of the door assembly, catches the entire length of the door.
It’s SO close that I can tug it close, and the latch catches. Problem is: Bugs, and 4 indoor cats. I have to get that vertical wooden piece of the doorjamb shaved down some, almost it’s entire length. That way, when I screw the aluminum frame strip back in, it will be “set back” just enough to allow the door to close freely. I’ll have to drill new holes for it, since the existing ones will pull the wood screws back into the old unacceptable alignment.
Here’s the question. How do I go about taking about 1/16th of an inch off of a strip of wood that’s 7 feet long and 3 inches wide? It’s part and parcel of the doorjamb, so pulling it out and somehow reducing it and replacing it is not an option, I’m unwilling to break it away that way.
Thoughts? I fear that it’s SO close a fit that a plane won’t work, the setback on either side of the razor in the plane would not make it worth trying. Grinders? Sanding disks? Any ideas? I wish for it to be a clean line down, not a gouged out hack job.
A plane? IANA Carpenter but you might have some luck using a plane plus some good old fashion hand sanding. Although, if you have a funny edge on that 3" wide strip a plane may not fit in correctly.
We’re talkin’ a LOT of hand sanding. I found an extremely sharp chisel, a wood chisel of course. Marked the line maybe 1/16th to 1/8th in from the edge, and very slowly started chiselling.
I chiselled and I chiselled and I chiselled and I chiselled and I chiselled and I chiselled and I chiselled and I chiselled and I chiselled and now by gum, that door swings closed and latches like nobody’s biznez.
I used a power planer to do that a few weeks ago. It was fast, and gave a nice edge. I’ve also done it with a belt sander, which always seems to leave some gouges when you work on narrow pieces of wood. I don’t trust myself to do such long pieces with a chisel, but a properly rigged eouter setup might do the job neatly.
