Having sealed the MDF door panels I completed a number of coats of white satin emulsion over all surfaces over the last week or so. This meant the door was ready to hang by the weekend - which was the task I set myself. In the meantime the compression latches arrived as scheduled. I was considering a number of methods to attach the silicone p-section seal to the inner panel but did some tests using my mechanical staple gun with great success. I had already routed a 20x2.3mm rebate along the edges of the sub MDF panel where the seal is to be attached. I mitred the corners of the p-section proceeded to attach the silicone with the flat section tight against the rebate.
Firstly, I routed out the rebates on the frame for the hinges. I found a strip of thin material and used this to mark the hinge positions using the door as my template ready for routing. I little tricky with the heavy router up in the air but it worked like a dream. I then routed the fillets to sink the hinge barrels into the frame to correspond with the door. I then screwed the hinges to the door using the 4.5x60mm c/sunk screws.
I managed to get the door attached without any help even though it is pretty heavy. Once in the room and with some blocks underneath I managed to manoeuvre it into a good position ready to drill the pilot holes into the frame. A bit of a juggling act with a drill and a screwdriver but all good with just a small amount of effort - it's certainly a relief to get the door secured at least a couple of hinges.
Once all hinges were secured came the moment of truth...will the door close!! Well, no it didn't! But no dramas - just the top and bottom corners of the frame which required a bit of a shave off with the plane. So about 10 minutes later the door closed beautifully.
Prior to attaching I had centralised the MDF sealing panel against the main door and drilled a couple of 6mm holes through both panels to allow for alignment pins to be driven. This makes it easy to attach the seal panel onto the main door when screwed to the door frame. Obviously, I did it in a modular way to cut down the weight I had to handle at once. I drove the pins into the main door panel with just under 18mm protruding into the sealing panel. This worked like a dream as I could actually mount this panel and drill the attaching screw holes with it in place.
Before this I attached some wooden edging strips framed with mitred corners to create a recess for the final door layer, a sheet of 12.7mm plasterboard. This protects the plasterboard edges from damage.
That was pretty much it so I’m now ready to attach the door jams and compression latch and the latch plate.
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