Building traditional Garage Doors


The last step is pretty simple but it is an excellent place to mess up too. In order to put glass in you need to make a rabbit in the back of the grills. I chose to use my router and the same bit that I used on all the other rabbits. You have to be very careful as there is not much to balance the router on at this point. I have a couple of not so pretty cuts on mine where the router tipped, so be careful.

Once this is done, you ready for sanding and paint or stain. I used a solid stain instead of paint for the simple reason stain doesn't peel! Years down the road when these need refinishing I don't have to deal with peeling paint!

I chose to install my doors before the glass goes in. I didn't want to run the risk of breaking one since I work by myself. While fitting and trimming the last door to the opening I was tired and should have quit. But I wanted to get that last one finished. I lost control of the door and dropped it. I ended up with head in one of the window openings and door landing on my shoulder. No serious injury but had that happened with the glass in place I image I would have had a serious cut on my head. So you might want to get a helper when you install the doors.

My two left hand doors stained and ready to install.

Page 1 Introduction |  Page 2 Start with the design  |  Page 3 Construction methods
Page 4 Making window grills. |  Page 5 Assembly  |  Page 6 Routing for the glass
Page 7 Garage door openers |  Page 8 Making the doors open
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