Door materials to avoid?

[egalecki]

well, I have a vested interest here too, since I'm still waiting for a door... I'm thinking that my best bet for "homemade" is like the one you did, just without the wood panel. If I could find a sheet of copper, I could maybe wrap the front in that- I really liked the door on one thread which was had a copper front. It was beautiful.

If you did yours over, would you get some of the stove gasket and use that around the edge where the door fits into the arch?

[dbhansen]

Elizabeth, I did use stove gasket around the inside edge, and I will do that again on my next version. The wood never scorched anywhere, it just cracked down the middle. I am basically replacing the wood panel with a steel one now, and trying to decide which materials will not poison me or make my food taste bad! I think the Durock is okay. My only other concern is the hi-temp adhesive to seal it up.

I'm having trouble finding steel handles with wooden grips that I can attach to the front of the steel panel. Any ideas where to look?

[egalecki]

Originally Posted by dbhansen

I'm having trouble finding steel handles with wooden grips that I can attach to the front of the steel panel. Any ideas where to look?

How about in the kitchen cabinet handle/pull aisle? If you have the handle attached to the panel before you assemble the whole thing, the heat shouldn't get into the handles. The hardware would be next to your insulator, not the fire... so only transferred heat from the edges of the panel would heat them up, and that should be lessened by the gasket, right?

[dbhansen]

I'll give that a try, Elizabeth. The handles on my wooden door were attached in the way you described, but they loosened up after the first use (and of course I couldn't open it all up to tighten them), so I think some thread adhesive (Loctite) might be a good idea.

[egalecki]

Hm. I didn't think about them loosening afterward. Not a good thing. Would a lock washer function better than the locktite under these conditions, though? I think the door I was so enamored of had the inside of the fastener welded or soldered so it couldn't turn again. I don't have the ability to do that, unfortunately.