Planing oak veneer door

[Sparky70]

Hi,

What’s the proper way to plane down the bottom of an oak veneer door ? I have an electric planer with settings to adjust cut. I’m just a little concerned about damaging it by taking a chunk of the end.


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[London mike 61]

When I had to take a bit off the bottom of our oak veneer doors when the carpets were fitted with a thicker underlay , I used my evolution circular saw that has got a general purpose blade in it.
I put masking tape along the bottom edge both sides then measured what I needed to take off then clamped a straight edge the right distance away. I only had to take off about 6mm from the bottom and if I had chosen to use a electric planer it would have mashed the veneer but the saw left no scraggy edges and was quick.
I reckon the minimum amount you might possibly get away with by using a circular saw is the width of the blade plus 1 or 2mm, but that may still rub on the carpet fibres so you might as well take a little bit more than what you need all in one go.

Mike

[ayjay]

I’m just a little concerned about damaging it by taking a chunk of the end.

To avoid that, don't run the plane off the end: start from both edges to plane that part of the door, not just one cut all the way across.

To avoid any veneer breaking out on the face of the door, score the cut line with a sharp Stanley knife. I score these not on the waste side of the line but on the good side and then finish from the cut to the score with a block plane, this puts a tiny chamfer on the bottom edge and helps prevent any future break out when a small piece of grit or whatever gets under the door.