Thanks; living in an apartment in NYC, so taking the door outside would be a pain; do those electric planers collect enough of the sawdust that I don't have to worry about it getting all over everything? I see you didn't even have to wear a mask, so I assume so?
Hi @dixie7277 Good question! The short answer is yes, you can plane a bi-fold door but there are a couple things you can try first before you plane the door. Hardware: The components of the hardware of a bi-fold door are the top pivot, bottom pivot, and the guide wheel. There's also a track on the top of the header which is what the guide wheel rolls in, a top bracket that sits in the track which gives the top pivot something to sit in, and a bottom bracket which is what the bottom pivot sits in. If the door is too wide: If the problem with the door is it being too tight when it's closed, I would try to lift the door up and shift the door away from the jamb that it's rubbing on so it sits in a different spot in the bottom bracket. Then you can loosen the top bracket and shift the door over the exact distance you move the bottom over. If it rubs on the other jamb, then you went too far. If that doesn't work, then you can plain the side of the door. If the door is too tall: If the problem with the door is that it's too tall, you can take the door hardware out and plane the top or bottom of the door (I recommend planing the bottom because there's more material to plane than the top). If you have to take a good amount off the door in order to make it fit, then you might have to re-drill the pilot holes of the door for the hardware to fit in. I hope this helps and thanks for watching!
@vincechestnut2798 What an unusually confident comment. The strike side of the door is the correct side to plane. After you're finished, all you need to do is chisel out one section so the faceplate sits flush. If you plane the hinge side, like you're suggesting, you would have to chisel out all three sections for the hinges. I'm not sure where the logic in that is but if you have some extra free time then go for it!
A rectangular door has four surfaces that could reasonably be planed - the top that closes to sit flush with the door frame, the bottom that closes to sit flush with the threshold, the hinge side that closes to sit flush with the hinges and doorframe, and the lock side that closes to sit flush with the doorframe and strike plate. My concern for some doors would be planing a door with a full lock (keyway, cylinder, faceplate, deadbolt, etc.) because the lock location implies distance between the deadbolt and the strike plate that it enters. If the lock location remains the same but enough material is removed along that surface, eventually the deadbolt will extend as it did before but the surface (with the faceplate) will be farther from the strike plate and the edge would be closer to the lock. You would achieve the goal of creating the desired dimensions/ tolerances for the door, but the lock components relative to the doorframe and door might then have problematic locations. Taken to the extreme, I could see the deadbolt ending up always “sitting proud” instead of sitting flush inside when not in use (assuming the faceplate is installed again but basically keeps “moving back” closer to the lock). I can imagine scenarios where this would be a problem. It seems situational to me. This door in this video seems to be an interior door with little in the way of a lock and also with very little material removed. So I think avoiding the task of removing material for the hinges just makes this lock-side-planing approach a time saver. But in scenarios where lock placement is crucial I think planing the hinge side and then chiseling again for the hinges would be necessary. Agreed? Thoughts?
Hi @michaelpettineo1328 Thank you for your input. While I appreciate the level of detail in your comment, I think it's making a simple task a lot more complicated. To simplify what you're saying, you're worried that if you take too much off the lock side, you loose the 2 3/8in. space between the center of the hole for the door lock and the edge of the door which creates a problem when you install the lockset. While that may be true, the amount you would need to plane off the door to create that problem would be in the 1/4in. or 3/8in. range which is way too much to plane off a door. Of coarse, it can be done, but a planer is only meant to take off about a 1/16in. or 1/8in. If you need to take off more, then that door is not meant to be hung on that particular frame. Also, if you take off that much on one side, the profile of the door will not be symmetrical. By only taking off a 1/16in. or an 1/8in. you would never be able to pick up the discrepancies in the symmetry of the door profile because it would be so small. Thank you for your comment and I hope my explanation helps.
