Hey what's up guys? This sliding barn door is a very simple DIY project with a modern and industrial twist. It is also pretty special to me, but couldn't find a good way to explain in the voiceover for the video, so I'll write it in here.
Check out the full build video below!
This is actually a pretty special project to me. Exactly one year ago (from the date this video’s published), I had built a very similar door to this one. That was my very first woodworking project. I knew nothing about wood movement, so it’s no surprise that after a year it warped pretty bad. It was bad enough that the door scraped the walls every time it opened and closed. So now I’m going to rebuild the door. Even though that first door failed, it got me thinking about what else I could do with the tools I bought. It gave me the confidence to invest more in this craft and keep building. So, in a way, it was a win.
Affiliate links are used below. I get a small commission from sales made through them, at no extra cost to you 🙌
materials
2x12 Pine
Steel C-Channel
step 1: break down lumber
I picked up some construction-grade pine from my local big box store, same as what I used to build my first door. But this time, I stickered them an left them inside my house for a few months to acclimate before working on them. As you can see in the video, these lumber were far from straight. And since they’re too wide for my jointer, i used a hand plane to knock down the high points in each board until the board no longer rocked. This step doesn’t need to be perfect. As long as all four corners are touching the workbench surface, they can be sent through the planer to get one surface flattened.
Once one face was flat, I just flipped the board over to flatten the other. Then I used the joiner to get a straight edge that’s perpendicular to the planed faces. Then used that edge as reference to rip the boards down to their final width at the table saw.
step 2: sub-assy glue-up
Once all of the work’s been done on the individual boards, I began laying them out to match up the grain. To join the boards together, I went with dowels and used the same dowel jig as the one I used a year ago. I worked on gluing three boards at a time, to keep the stress level at a minimum. After clamping the boards together, I clamped some angle irons to the panels to keep them straight during the glue-up.
step 3: c-channel
To keep all of the panels flat over time, I mounted some C channels to the back of the door panels. I used an angle grinder to cut the steel parts to length, then used my drill press to cut a few slots into them. The slots will allow the bolts to slide back and forth, compensating for wood movement.
Next, I used a router and a combination of a 1/4” bit and a 1-1/2” bit to route a groove for the C channel to sit in. Keep in mind, these grooves should be longer than the length of the C channel, to allow for expansion and contraction of the wood.
Finally, I marked and drilled holes in the panels for installing some threaded inserts and bolted the steel pieces to the door panels.
step 4: final glue-up
After all the C channels were mounted, I glued the three panels together to finish the glue up of the door. Once again, using some angle irons to keep the panels flat.
And after the glue has had some time to cure, I used my tracksaw to cut the door down to its final width.
step 5: aluminum plate
To give the door a more modern look, I put in some 1/8” aluminum plates. These serve no structural purposes, but I think they’ll add a lot to the overall appearance. To keep things looking clean, I routed a groove to allow the aluminum plates to sit flush to the door. Then I used some bolts to hold everything together. But instead of using threaded inserts, I simply drilled the holes and then tapped the wood to accept some 1/4"-20 bolts that I had left over from the crib I built previously.
I didn’t like the seam between the aluminum plates, so what I ended up doing was using a V-groove bit in my router to cut a bevel into both the wood and the aluminum along where the plates met. The groove actually makes the seam look more like a deliberate feature.
Finally, I cut the door down to its final length, flushing everything up and squaring up the corners. After which, I removed the aluminum panels to apply some black spray paint. I also removed the C channels from the back and applied paint to them off-camera, which is important to prevent corrosion of the steel.
step 6: finishing
While I waited for the paint to dry, I applied stain and finish to the door. First I applied some pre-conditioner, which is essential for staining soft wood like pine to minimize the chance for blotching. For stain, I used some black walnut. And finally finished everything off with some water based poly that I had laying around, before re-installing all of the aluminum plates and the steel C-channels
step 7: hardware
Last steps are to install all of the door hardware. I won’t go into uch detail about this since it’s pretty straightforward process, and the measurements will differ between manufacturers and door sizes. Overall, the build was very simple, but just be prepared to have to move around some very large and heavy parts!