Planing down door frames

gwernybwch

I need to reduce the size of my door frames in order to fit fire doors by around 15mm.

I'm not able to plane down the fire doors as they only allow a max. of 3mm to be trimmed off them.

The frames are in a Victorian house and a currently painted, which I'm sure is covering a multiple of nasties - nails etc, etc.

Before I loose in with my electric planer, is anyone able to give me some tips as how to safely plane down (or reduce down) the door frames?

(Or even better - anybody able to recommend 'cheap' 4 panel pine fire doors that be trimmed more than 3mm?)

Thanks in advance for any replies.

vaio

Planeing a old frame without dismantling it is going to be a nightmare

I’d certainly be looking for alternative doors, have you considered smaller doors and packing the frame out to suit?

gwernybwch

vaio wrote: »

have you considered smaller doors and packing the frame out to suit?

Thanks.
That was the common sense sort of suggestions that I was hoping for!

I'm not sure doing that will actually pass the fire regulations, but is certainly something worth thinking about.

tony6403

Not possible with a planer . The sole plate would stop any planing action well short of each corner.
What size are the existing doors?

mchale

Router ????

tony6403

mchale wrote: »

Router ????

Better tool than a planer for this job .
Maybe all the 15mm taken off just one side would work - but it would be a b*gger to keep the router at 90 degrees to the frame.
Depth of cut would be restricted by the architrave.
Perhaps it may be possible to carefully remove the architrave from one side , attach a guide batten to the wall with double sided tape and then use the router??

olias

As the OP states, the frame will be full of nails - particularly an old victorian one! At best you'll chip your planer or router blade, at worse you'll send shrapnel flying off to who knows where.

OP, as stated, I think the answer is to do a lot of googling and source either more accurately sized doors, or ones with a greater margin for trimming.

Smaller doors and packing out the frame would probably work, but will be a lot of faff to get neat and will never look as good as the original frame (assuming it is original), as the proportions will be altered.

Olias

vaio

olias wrote: »

........Smaller doors and packing out the frame would probably work, but will be a lot of faff to get neat and will never look as good as the original frame (assuming it is original), as the proportions will be altered.

Olias

When I suggested that I suspect I suffered a brain fart.

What was in my mind was "get smaller doors and plant strips on the side of the doors so they fit the frame"

GlynD

Is it not possible to order doors of the right size?

keystone

GlynD wrote: »

Is it not possible to order doors of the right size?

Quite probably only if they are built from scratch - cost a fortune.

Cheers

GlynD

keystone wrote: »

Quite probably only if they are built from scratch - cost a fortune.

Cheers

The amount of work OP needs to do to make the doors fit would seem to suggest that paying for bespoke doors might be cheaper in the long run - and faster. Taking the door frames off to reduce the width by 7.5mm per side is going to take ages. Similarly, purchasing wood for battens/fillets and having to plane them to size and fit them doesn't sound as if the aesthetic result might be pleasing andthe work needing done would be time consuming.