Thread: Are solid core doors actually solid?

The ones that I have seen at the big green shed have a timber frame (usually pine) and the rest is solid chipboard. That is what is meant by solid. Quite heavy though.
Les

With all the internal doors that I've recycled ( about 350 in total so far) none of them were solid but a couple of external doors were. Trouble is most of those don't have a flat surface but fancy grooves routed in.


Peter.

in my experience external solid core tend to be a sheet of water resistant chipboard sandwiched between mdf or ply. Internal doors tend to be made up of any old offcuts of pine, hardwood, mdf, ply, chipboard you name it and are full of voids.

I recently built one of these(paulk bench) and its not on wheels, real easy setup and packs away

The solid core doors that I used to make were frame filled with pine boards the thickness of the frame then a 3 mm sheet of waterproof ply glued over both side of the frame.

A work bench does not need to be square, only if you make it square. Having a flat surface is best for setting up and assembling.
Solid core doors can get heavy. You might be able to clamp down a hollow door if you go through the rails or stiles. I use a door that I replaced (it has a hole in one face and a bulge in the other) for most of my work. Easy to set up on two saw horses, easy to transport, easy to pack up.

When it comes to doors I wouldn't look past the advice from Sturdee given his extensive experience

A solid core door is made from 2 tempered hardboard skins with HMR partical board sandwiched between.

A solid block door is made from 2 tempered hardboard skins with laminated solid blocks of timber between.

In terms of flatness, the solid core is better but pron to bowing ever so slightly in length.

The solid block door is stable but tends to dimpling as a result of the solid b locking having varying grains and orientation.

Hopes this helps

I landed a solidcore door many years ago and keep it as a makeshift work surface mounted on trestles. Really good as a portable bench. Ask for a reject or damaged door at places like doors plus as sometimes they want to get rid of damaged stock. For $200 plus however I would get recycled wood and build a propper bench. That so called industrial bench looks like a flimsey rip off to me. Plenty of help on this forum on bench building. Have a look at the workbench section. Ask the questions and plenty people will help with answers
Regards
John

Originally Posted by NathanaelBC

so I'm thinking the two saw horses and door but I'll want to have recessed bolts holding the table to the horses,

You can use an old internal door with your saw horses but instead of putting bolts through the door I would put your bolts through some pine framing, with recessed nuts to hold in place, and then fix the pine framing to the underside of the door to attach to your sawhorses.

For cheap doors look at hard rubbish collections or Gumtree for freebies.

Peter.

Have a look at this page detailing torsion workbenches. It might cost a bit more but you would end up a bench that was a lot more satisfactory.


https://www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=ss...beam+workbench

As has been mentioned, a solid core door is sort of solid, but not suitable for countersinking.
I made my workbench from a solid-core door, but screwed a layer of 3/4" plywood on the top, then made the frame from hardwood 4x2s laminated into 4x4s.
Makes for a good workbench and it's nice and heavy, so doesn't move when planing etc.
Still good as new after 2 years use.
(This pic is old, taken when I first made it. I've since drilled a grid of 3/4" holes in the front RHS 1/4 of the surface as well, for hold-downs, bench-dogs etc)

Solid-core door workbench.jpg

Edit: I have a copy of the plans in pdf format here. If you're interested, I can attach a copy.

Good Morning Nathanael

For thirty years I used flat panel doors as a workbench and just sat them on a pair of saw horses or a pair of Workmates - that gave me a choice of three working heights, which could be subtly varied using spacers - nice for the back.

My doors were nearly all rejects from BigChains - damaged corners, door handle mortises measured from top of door rather than bottom, lock and hinge cutouts on same edge, etc - usually cost $10-15 - and while I preferred solid core doors the difference was not great in use. I just screwed stops and guides directly onto the doors/benches using self-tapping screws and when the bench got too daggy I just replaced it. Life about 5 years! To get rid of the old door I just cut it up so that the pieces would fit in my wheely bin. Always, solid core doors had a soft hardwood frame - luan, meranti or similar - and then were stuffed with chipboard. Mostly I just sat the door on the sawhorse/workmate - usually fine - but occasionally it moved under heavy sawing or planing. Solution: sit on bench or screw cleat to underside of door and clamp that in workmate or against sawhorse. Rarely needed.

This system was cheap, light, easy store, easy to assemble and use, and surprisingly versatile. I never cared if I damaged it; it would be replaced.

The biggest downside was that flush panel doors, whether hollow or solid core, are not as flat as they appear - there are commonly three dimensional "waves" across the plane. And the contours change! Depends on how accurate your work needs to be.

For this reason, two years ago I built an assembly bench from 25mm MDF with lots of dog holes - vaguely like Fubar's - and so far this has remained flat. But MDF is heavy.


Fair Winds

Graeme

Originally Posted by fubar

I recently built one of these(paulk bench) and its not on wheels, real easy setup and packs away

I like your bench, Nathanael. Is the second cutout for a table saw?

My bench also has an MDF top with lots of dogholes - I use my Quickgrip clamps as hold downs through the dogholes. Works well.


Fair Winds

Graeme

Nathaniel, check out Doors Plus in Fyshwick. They have a pile out the back to choose from....all the rejects, bangs and installers who f'd up a hinge etc

Last time I was there I grabbed a solid heavy as hell door for $30... Great for deadening my 2am routing sessions

Just trimmed the edge off with the circ saw.