Door #2

I managed to get the second door hung today and magically, it fits perfectly!!

It was a tense moment or two after I screwed the hinges in place and swung it closed for the first time - I was waiting for the bottom of the door to scrape on the slab rebate - but it closed perfectly, with a nice even gap to the first door top to bottom.

Thrilled with that!!

This door has a covering angle to seal the two doors against ember entry.

It's not finished yet - I've found with the first door that the rivets aren't strong enough and tend to break and pop off, so I've got the sheet steel "tacked" in place with a few rivets, and I'll purchase some steel button screws during the week and replace the rivets with these.

I've yet to decide how the doors will latch during regular use. I'm going to use drop bolts top and bottom to lock them, but when they're in daily use I'll need some way to latch them without locking them. I'm thinking I'll set up a few strong magnets in the ply backing; I have some here which are only about 2cm x 1cm x 1cm in size but have a clamping force of about 100N, so a few of these should be plenty to keep the doors closed in the strongest wind.

I'm also not convinced that my hinges are strong enough for the job, especially since I've yet to line the inside of the doors with ply. I'm constructing these doors to exceed the BAL-FZ design requirements for the roof - an insulated steel/ply sandwich construction - and the 18mm ply will weigh about 40kg on each door (which are probably already 50kg each). I'll aim to get these ones finished first, then decide whether the hinges are up to the task before I hang the second set.