Entrance doors should be not only beautiful, but also durable, as well as warm and reliable. Such combination of qualities is given by metal doors. Only not all of those on the market can boast of reliability – many of the inexpensive ones can be literally opened with a kitchen knife. Really beautiful and reliable steel doors are very expensive. If you have a welding machine and some welding skills, you can make an iron door with your own hands. Even taking into account the cost of purchasing materials, it will turn out 30-50% cheaper.
What is necessary
We will cook the entrance iron door from a profile pipe and sheet metal. To work, you will need a flat work surface, a welding machine, a drill, a grinder, it’s nice to have a level (laser level) and something to measure – a carpenter’s square, for example.
From the materials you will need:
- profiled pipe 40*40 mm, 40*20 mm;
- a sheet of metal 2 mm thick, the size of a door leaf;
- metal hinges are powerful enough to withstand a weight of about 100 kg;
To “ennoble” the door, you will need metal paint (preferably hammer enamel), wooden lath, insulation (polystyrene or mineral wool), plywood, OSB or other similar material, plastic or any other finishing material, door peephole, lock.
Cooking doors
First, we cook the door frame. We make it from a profiled pipe 40 * 40 mm. Cut pieces to size. If there is rust on the pipe, we clean it. We add clean blanks, set the corners, grab them together.
After welding, we check the corners, measure the diagonals. If there is even the slightest deviation, we correct it (hitting the floor with an angle usually helps, the main thing is not to overdo it).
We weld the loops. We retreat from the bottom and top by about 20 cm, mark, cook, making sure that they are on the same straight line. A laser level is very useful here, and if it is not there, you have to measure the distances many times in order to set it accurately.
Next, we cook the inner frame from a 40 * 20 mm pipe. We calculate the dimensions so that the gap on all sides is 3-5 mm. In one of the long pipes we cut holes for the locks.
We weld everything, check the diagonals, try on. If everything is fine, you can weld the crossbars – to increase the rigidity of the door leaf. We make them from the remains of a pipe 40 * 20 mm.
We clean all the places of welding, removing the influxes – everything should be even and smooth. You can grind off the excess with a file, but faster – with the corresponding disk on the grinder.
So that the frame does not “bend” and so that later there is a place for installing a sealing gum, we raise the frame by welding metal plates.
The frame inside the frame is set at the desired level (we check with a level or a level so that everything is in the same plane), we weld the reciprocal loops. We put a sheet of metal on the finished frame, mark it. It should go on the door frame pipe by 3-10 mm. Only from the side of the loops, the entry should be 3-5 mm, on the other sides it can be more. We expose the sheet from the hinge side, mark the cutting line, cut it off with the help of a grinder.
We process burrs and other irregularities after cutting with a file – to a smooth edge. To speed up the process, you can use a grinder with an emery wheel. Then we lay out the sheet as it should be and lightly grab the frame to the frame, the sheet also to the frame (not to the frame). The whole structure must be turned over, but it is difficult to do it differently.
We turn over the almost finished metal doors and boil the sheet along the perimeter of the frame, then – to the intermediate stiffeners. There is no need to make continuous seams – tightness is not needed, we weld in small segments at equal distances. At the same time, we make sure that the net does not “lead”.
We cut the welded frame from the door frame, turn the doors over and release the welded sheet from the tacks. We clean the places of the former welding. Now you can install locks.
Warming and finishing
Next we move on to insulation. Styrofoam 4 cm thick becomes good in the welded frame of an iron door. We take it with a low or medium density, since there will be no load on it. These metal doors took 4 sheets measuring 1 * 1 m.
We cut the PP to size, take a low-expansion mounting foam (if you take a regular one, the foam will force it out). Stepping back from the edge about 1 cm, we apply it around the perimeter of the rectangle in which we put the foam, make a few more strips of foam in the middle, lay the insulation. The remaining gaps between the PP and the pipe are also passed with foam.
You can also glue the insulation on a universal adhesive that is suitable for metal and foam, for example, “Moment”.
To save money, it was decided to use a sheet of oriented strand board available on the farm. Finishing is planned budget – self-adhesive film. As it turned out, this pair is very poorly combined – it took a lot of time to putty the OSB. It would be much easier with plywood (moisture resistant, furniture).
On the metal doors already made with their own hands, an OSB sheet was laid on top of the insulation. It is fixed around the perimeter with self-tapping screws. First, a hole is drilled under the self-tapping screw, then fasteners are screwed in.
We drill mounting holes in the door frame – there are two of them on each segment. We paint the frame in a suitable color (enamel is taken in a spray can). The painted frame must somehow be taken out into the street. We insert long mounting screws into the drilled holes, and drag it outside for them.
This is where the problems began – you can only glue the film on a flat, smooth surface, and the OSB surface is far from even. At first there were attempts to grind it with a grinder. The result is unsatisfactory.
There is only one way out – to putty. We take a putty, we spread it, we wait until it dries, we grind it. Then again – a layer of putty, again grinding. So – until a normal result.
On the second side, we also attach the OSB, but already puttied and sanded in advance – it’s easier that way. We cut holes for the eyes-handles, try everything on. Next, we begin to glue the film. In our stores, the widest that is – 90 cm, the doors are clearly wider. Therefore, it was decided to make a finish with imitation of a panel, for which a rubber furniture self-adhesive molding was bought.
We find the center on the door, set aside 45 cm on both sides, outline the strip. The central strip of the film will be glued here. We wet the surface with water (spray from a spray bottle), carefully, without bubbles, glue the film.
The missing pieces are cut off, also glued. We close the joints of the canvases with a molding.
All that remains is to install the metal doors made by hand in place. They are installed at the entrance from the covered veranda to the house.
The doors look good. They turned out very heavy, not to compare with the store ones. Most of the time was spent on finishing. If you choose another option, it will be much faster.
Related Videos
You can weld steel doors from the corners. One of the options is in the next video.