We wanted to try something a little different in the Cajun Salvage Shop, so we picked up some rustic mesquite boards from a local supplier, if you’re fortunate, some shops will straight line cut both sides of your boards which will make it easier for glue up. This was a very large door so trying to run the long boards through the shop planer can be a challenge without any help. Mesquite on the wood hardness scale is high up there, so it's not the easiest material to work with. If you don’t have a jointer and planer this will be a difficult project to take on. So make sure you have sharp blades on all your equipment when working with harder woods.
Mesquite is not a typical wood we use in the Cajun Salvage shop, mostly pine and cypress, but the mesquite wood had amazing saw marks so we decide what the heck.
The mesquite boards were straight lined cut by our friends down at the saw mill. Once the wood arrived at the shop we ran them through our joiner to make sure they were straight. (They usually are but this I like to double check.) Rough cut boards are usually not all the same thickness, if needed some boards might need to be run through a planer to cut down to proper thickness. Using a biscuit joiner to cut holes for the biscuit, we cut 7 holes per joint. We then apply glue and add the biscuits, align all the biscuits then clamp the boards together using pipe clamps to make the blank. We typically leave the boards long and cut then ends once the glue drys.
We cut the boards for the design on the front of the door, using a pocket hole jig we cut pocket holes, glue and screw from the back side.
The cross bracing can be tricky, so cut the pieces longer than needed. The longer piece in the x brace are placed under the design and traced, once traced cut your angle and pocked hole cut to attach. Attach and repeat the process with the short pieces in the cross bracing.
Once your design is complete turn the design over and apply glue to the backside. Flip design back over and clamp to the door.
We let our glue dry overnight on all our project.
For the finish, we applied a dark stain, let dry for a min, and then wiped off. We sanded with 150 grit to bring out some of the color of the wood and applied a poly to make the wood pop!!
Here is the finished project!! This door ended up being 106” x 48” and 2” thick, weighing in at over 300 lbs. We ended up using our Industrial Cajun Salvage Barn Door Hardware which we custom make for larger door applications.