Ripping a Non-Square Door for My Shed

[Skeezix]

I am replacing the shed doors that are shown in the photo below.

Unfortunately the door opening is narrower at the top by about 1/2 inch so I'll have to cut the hinge side of one of the doors (the one without the center hinge) to make it 1/2 inch narrower than the width at the bottom.

I don't know how to set up my table saw to do this (using a BT3000 portable table saw). If somebody could post a link or two showing how to set up the saw, or maybe describe a better way to make the cut (I also have a circular saw) I would appreciate it.

[cwsmith]

I think I'd just scribe a line the length of the door and then cut it with my circular saw. I suppose you could try some kind of taper-jig to do in on the table saw, but frankly that just seems like more effort than necessary, at least for me. Frankly, I'm just not that versatile with the table saw beyond normal rip operations.

CWS

[LCHIEN]

Here's how I would do it. - using a circular saw.
Make you door. lets say its 24" wide and needs to be cut down to 23.5 at the one end.


First you need a straight edge guide as long as the door. Don't have one? How about the other door, or the old door being removed?

Measure the offset of your saw blade to the baseplate. you can use either side, if you have a thick guide (the door will be thick) then you may need to use the side opposite the motor housing.
Use a combination square to measure the offset and use it to mark the two ends of the door to be trimmed. Lets say its 2" Then make a mark another half inch over. 2-1/2" from the door edge.

Now lay your guide on top of the door to be trimmed.
Line it up with the 2" mark at one end and the 2-1/2" mark at the other. Clamp the doors together on top of some sawhorses. The clamps should be at least 6" away from the edge of the guide so that they won't interfere with the saw movement.

Just to make sure, do a test of the saw position. Depending on which side you chose, It should at one end have the blade flush with the door edge and at the other end be inside the door by 1/2". This is with the edge of your baseplate on the offset side chosen, against the guide.

If that's not clear let me know.

As a matter of appearance. I'd be tempted to trim each door by 1/4" so it looks symmetrical.

[Jim Frye]

I would also do the cut with a circular saw, or a router, with a clamp on straight edge. I have a couple from the days when I didn’t a table saw. One of these is over 8’ long and doesn’t deflect at all as it’s 3” wide.

[d_meister]

As a matter of appearance. I'd be tempted to trim each door by 1/4" so it looks symmetrical.

Wouldn't it matter where it is out of square? I would think that if only one corner is out of square, the door set needs to be fitted to that corner so that the tops of both doors fit evenly along the top. If both outer top corners are out of square, then the outsides of both doors need to be trimmed to match the opening. The doors in the picture look to have good even gaps, so maybe use them for the cutting guide. Looking at the photo, it's not apparent where that half inch is lost, or gained, if at the bottom
Maybe the thing to do is to get the opening back to square and then fit the doors. I can imagine a scenario where the bottom of the doors swelled from wetness, and the doors wouldn't close separately.Then, when closed together the bottom of the opening was forced out.

[capncarl]

From my past experience working on very out of square buildings and houseboats where nothing is square, rather than try to measure cut and then re-cut again and again, I would remove both doors and make a cardboard template of the door opening. I always keep a supply of cardboard from refrigerators and washing machines for this purpose, templates and for use for crawling under cars. With a proper duplicate template of the door opening you are more likely to make the doors to fit an oddball door opening.
Capncarl

[cwsmith]

I would also do the cut with a circular saw, or a router, with a clamp on straight edge. I have a couple from the days when I didn’t a table saw. One of these is over 8’ long and doesn’t deflect at all as it’s 3” wide.

Good idea!

As I mentioned above, my first instinct was to simply draw a line and then use the circular saw. BUT, using a straight edge would certainly make the cut more precise and for that purpose, I have kept an 8 ft length of plywood for a "factory edge"! If I thought of that, I would recommend making a 'first cut' with about an eighth-inch margin using the circular saw and then going back with my router to make the final edge.

CWS

[Skeezix]

My thanks to everybody who replied. I'm going to use the circular saw and straight edge method to make the cuts.

The hinges on the new "driver's" side door are not mounted plumb to the ground (don't know why - dumb me I suppose). The top hinge is closer to the center of the shed than the bottom hinge and I think that's why the door won't stay open. The "passenger's" side door stays open though. When I make and mount my new door, should I mount the hinges on the shed so they are plumb, then size the door to fit, and then drill the holes in the door for the hinge?

[capncarl]

The door “auto opens” because the door frame is out of square. Crooked hinges doesn’t help anything but the problem isn’t with the hinges.

[Skeezix]

The door “auto opens” because the door frame is out of square. Crooked hinges doesn’t help anything but the problem isn’t with the hinges.

The door frame is square to the shed, but the shed itself is not level. The "passenger" side of the shed is lower than the "driver's" side.