The Alaskan Sunset Entry

This project is called
The Alaskan Sunset Entry
also known as
The Lena Ridge Entry
It is a door, sidelight, and transom.
They are constructed of Vertical grain Old Growth Redwood
Curly Redwood panels and with beveled "stars"
with 24 karat "rays" of the sunset
The entire entry is approx. 60" x 95"

Here is the completed entry

with The Alaskan Sunset with 24krt sunset rays

The "view" from the new home !!

This is the completed door, notice the beautiful panels

and the finished sidelight

and ...... the transom

Click on Any Image to Enlarge !

here is the original drawing.

the beveled colored lites represent the sunset over an Alaskan bay

the "rays" are 24krt gold,

the wood in the door styles all came from the same tree

and the curly Redwood panels are all book matched

the panels can from a Redwood tree high stump

another view of the beautiful panels

Each insulated lite is hand beveled and insulated with the colored hand rolled German glass.

the sidelight continues the sunset

and it is made from the same Old Growth Redwood salvaged logs

and the gold rays turned out to be very beautiful

here is the layout doe the rays

here is the Rocky Mountain Hardware we will using for the entry.

here is a salvaged Old Growth Redwood log

Below is the provenance of the making of this beautiful Entry

here the source for my old growth Redwood that we salvage from the forest floor.

here I scanned the end grain so that you can see how tight and dense that my Redwood is.

Here is a drawing of the proposed door.

here is a picture showing the rays and colored glass.

the dots on the end of the boards are a code that tells me that

the wood was all cut from the same tree

here is the wood, fresh out of the planer

here are the long vertical rails being coped

here is the first fitting

after machining the wood I use actual spacers to layout the desired spacing

here are the long mullions

here are the short mullions used in the door

another hand fitting

I use actual spacers to lay out each space

and I use the tape so that I can draw lines for mahogany dowels in the small mullions.

here is the door being clued up

where it will stay in clamps for at least 72 hours.

and here is the sidelight being laid out

and here is the sidelight being glued up

and it, too, will stay in clamps for 72 hours

here is the sidelight out of clamps

here is the transom being laid out

and here it is in clamps

we "chalk" each molded edge before we start hand-sanding, all of the molded edges

hand sand

and hand sand

till all of the chalks is gone !

ahh....... here is the cant we will resaw all of the gentle curly Redwood for the panels

and here Sun Ray saws each board

and we index them so that we can bookmatch each panel

we'll store them with spacers so that they equalize

such beautiful wood

here are the panel blanks

very stable and edged with 1-1/4" REDWOOD

YUP.....THEY FIT

another view of making sure the panels fit

The panels are a gentle curly Redwood

The panels are all bonded with a waterproof urea resin glue

all of the panel stock is glued to the sub strait

and place inside a plastic sleeve

the placed in our vacuum press under 1725 per sq. ft. It will stay in the press for 72 hrs

here are they glue covered panels just out of the press

here I am "signing" the door !

Here I'm checking to see how the newly received beveled lites

we added a shadow frame to raise the beveled lites further forward

they bring the lites about 5/16" forward

here is the doors and sidelights ready for oil

the oil is allowed to soak in for a couple of hours.

here is the beautiful wood after the 1st oiling

a closer look

Here are the panels freshly sanded

the excess oil is cleaned out of the joints

a view of the freshly oiled Entry door

The heel of the door reminds me of a sunset.

Here the transom is being finished sanded

Here is the transom freshly oiled

here are the panels receiving its' first coat of varnish oil

here are the sidelights and panels receiving their 2nd coat of oil

Here we start to lay out the 24krt rays

The blocks are placed there to represent the jamb spacing

here is the layout on paper

all of the rays radiate from the "amber" sun lite

here are they rays carved in the wood

a view from the base

here are the lites in place

now we start to cut the stops

each stop is hand cut

and fitted ............ stop by stop

then the lites and panels are bedded with a siliconized latex the turns clear when cured

the results of all that effort

Return to my Door Gallery

Return to Doors in Progress