Front door and windows being made and fitted

July 2024

Finally the day came that I could start on the big opening doors of the dolls house. Again, I had a lot of learning to do and discovered too late that I needed 6mm mdf rather than the 3mm I was using. 

Unfortunately I discovered it only after Kevin had already cut out the door and windows on his milling machine.  However, since I have taken photos of the procedure I will post them here anyway. Much later we had to repeat the process with the thicker mdf.  Kevin did it all again without one single complaint. 🥰

The cutting of the door and windows
 on the milling machine

The half circle was done with the big drill...

 

... and finished off by me with a rotating sanding disc

Front doors (loosely) fitted

A temporary barn door to check measurements

And that was when I realised that 3mm mdf woudn't work... 😪

March 2026

In 2025 we had a very busy year travelling, so nothing much was done.  It wasn't until 2026 that I finally bit the bullet and decided to do it all over again, this time in 6mm mdf. So, the above process was repeated...

I could now progress to making the door and windows.  I had researched my old photographs.  We lived in a kind of 1930s house when I was born.  I decided to copy the front door of that house.

The funny thing was that I noticed much later that the centre part was recessed and not on top of the door.  Well, I liked it the way I had it done and used poetic licence.  It stays this way and it looks good.

In the meantime I had sourced thin perspex, or rather polycarbonate, which is slightly different.  I could get it reasonably thin.  Thinner than perspex, so I am very happy with that.

I used my milling machine to make a recess for the window.  

I had owned my Proxon milling machine since 2011, but had never really learned how to use it.  My then husband, who was going to train me, died shortly after and it sat on the shelves for all these years.  Kevin owns a big milling machine for metal, but the principle is the same.  He made me some clamps and taught me, and here I was, producing my first product on the milling machine!

Recess for the window in the front door

And here it is.  All done.  The bottom of the door has a strip across.  This was done to keep the rain water from entering the house and also from rotting out the wood.

April 2026

We have now arrived in April and I am still happily working in the shed.  Kevin has sold his business with which he was always busy and has now set up a model railway track on which he works now and then. So, we now both spend time in the shed working on our hobbies. 

The door and living room window have the same architectural design.  The other windows will be less elaborate.

I am very restricted as to what wood I can buy here, but the strips I bought from the hobby shop are just sufficient at the moment.

I needed strips of 9mm, 4mm, 3mm and 2mm wide.  The little 'posts' in the top of the window and door frame are 2x2mm.  I had to create square openings for them in the frame which I did by adding 6mm and 3mm to create the 9mm I needed and cut out the 2mm notches in the 6mm strip before I glued them together to form again a strip of 9mm.  Except for the 2x2mm strips the others are all of 3mm thickness.

The inner frame is 3mm wide, the cross bar 4mm

The simpler windows all have a cross bar only and (later) inserts that look like opening windows, except they don't open, because I forgot to drill holes in the cross bars and I am not going to pull everything apart again! 

The half circle of the outer frame is 9mm.  I was going to create it on the scroll saw, but would have done 3 half circles of 3mm thick.  However, Kevin offered to create a circle on the metal lathe.  The first one he did was not successful, because he had to work against the grain as we would have needed a block of wood that was wide enough. We didn't.

Next he tried it with compressed wood and that worked. The outer frame was done perfectly.  I only had to cut it to size.  The inner frame, which was 3mm, cracked when he had nearly finished it, but I managed to cut a half circle from it and there it was, my complete window. 

Unfortunately I broke a bit off when gluing it in, but I managed to neatly glue it together and fitted the cross bar, which I did not cut into the circle bit, because I did not want to try my luck. 

The 9mm and 3mm thick frames

I mentioned before that I was not going to have opening windows after all, so I glued all the not-so-opening windows in place, to make it look right.

At night time we have been putting a railway station together and Kevin made the surrounding platform and other items. 

The station is finished and I am now working on the fire place. Photos in the next post.

I am also searching for appropriate wallpaper, and I think I have found what I like.  I just need to go out and get some decent quality printing paper for it.