locker door varnishing..

[lindenberg]

Have any of you disasembled the louvered locker doors before? I'm thinking of it but the louvers dont move and I'm begining to think that perhaps they are glued in place. The reason I want to do this is trying to sand the inside edge of the door frames where the louver's tenon enters into the frame is an invitation to ruin. I'm starting to sand valley after valley with the Fein multi tool (non variable speed edition and that, ahem, might a problem) with 150 grit ever so lightly applied. It is'nt heavy but I can feel it and if I can feel it the bright reflective varnish will show it certainly. Meanwhile it is grey teakwhile the rest is properly sanded. The doors have only one side with four plugs present so I asume the other side is well bonded via glue. Any tools or techniques I'm missing? Old fashioned hand sanding and a stready resolve not to do locker doors again is one idea. thankyou for any ideas.

[Tim]

You might be able to break the doors down into their component pieces, but you run the risk of ruining the door in the process. All you can do is try; remove those plugs and see what you get from there. Maybe you'll have success. I have a feeling that it will become rapidly clear whether or not you'll be able to break down the joints without damage as soon as you start.

I don't think there's any magic trick as to how to disassemble the door, or to sand the louvers. Hand sanding and small power tools...or just leave the gray teak and realize that it will leave a darker area when varnished. In many cases, this is almost un-noticeable to most viewers. Of course, if it drives you nuts, then this is not a viable option!

Or, just trash the door and build a new one of your choice.

[Rachel]

This isn't really going to help your project, but I absolutely have to rant about louvered doors: Inventions of the devil! We had *lots* of them on the boat I was cruising on and they were so hard to maintain. Mildew and dust would appear in the corners almost before you turned your back after cleaning them. And of course cleaning them was a hideous task. We used diluted bleach or vinegar, with all manner of small brushes, rags, etc., then rinsed and applied lemon oil.

I will say that ours were varnished (from original owner) with a not-so-glossy varnish, and a glossy one would no doubt have helped; but re-varnishing them without getting a riot of runs and sags in the corners seemed rather daunting. We had 18 smaller doors, plus three larger ones on the hanging- and wet-lockers, and two really big ones on the head. Way too many! I came to love the lockers that had solid doors :-)

On the plus side, they did let air into the lockers, did conceal any clutter behind them, and were sturdy enough to fall against in a seaway and not break.

I thought long and hard to come up with a better solution and never came up with anything spectacular, although I had lots of ideas. Alternatives were usually either ugly, flimsy, rustable, non-breathing, or just as hard to clean as the originals. I think a slight improvement could be realized if the slats were not actually angled. They would probably do almost all the same things but be easier to clean. I suppose they'd have to be fairly close together to hide clutter.

Okay, I've got that out of my system :-)

--- Rachel

[Tim]

If we're talking about good options for replacing louvered doors:

I really like the caned doors I made for Glissando. They are attractive, easy to build, and well-ventilated. Obviously, the caning is not strong enough to withstand the potential impact of heavy locker contents (i.e. for offshore work), but if this was a concern it would be easy enough to add some additional supports on the inside of the door to reduce the effective size of the opening without affecting the outward appearance.

I love them, and intend to use caned doors again in future projects. Of course, if one doesn't happen to like the look of caning, then they'd be a bad choice.

[Rachel]

Hi Tim,

Your locker doors look very nice. What you mentioned about them not holding stuff inside in a seaway is why I didn't go to those on a cruising boat. Actually, the lockers were usually full enough that stuff couldn't get up much momentum to smash through the doors in many cases :-)

I also had visions of my hands going right though the caning during inevitable lurches at sea. As usual, a lot depends on intended use.

I'd like to know how you keep those lockers closed. I'm always looking for new ideas, and that was another thing that I found to be a challenge, since many of our doors were surface mounted - precluding a simple turn button.

--- Rachel

[lindenberg]

great responses and yes I agree the caning looks good. I would like to make a set of lockers in the futer so where is a good resource for caning?
Im just at the point of starting the varnish work and a good ten coats is starting to look just abusive...might be setteling for six.
Tim you were right about the grey inner sides not mattering much ..already with the tung oil applied it looks more bristol than I would of thought...Am reading Two Years Before the Mast (Richard Henery Dana jr.) and am humbled to read the maintanence efforts of a mid 1800's cargo ship. Makes bitching about door lockers seem kinda girly... lol (all apologies Ladies).