A Home Built Office Desk

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Modifying Door Length

You may want to shorten a door. It's easy so long as you take precautions to keep the thin plywood from splintering. One way is to use a thin, small-toothed handsaw. Wide-bladed Japanese saws (that cut on the pull stroke) are best if you have patience and learn the proper touch. Operating a Japanese saw takes the hands of a violinist using a bow, so practice on some scrap wood before tackling the door.

An electric circular saw with a plywood-cutting blade is faster. With a right-angle steel, mark the sawcut carefully all around the door—on the sides as well as top and bottom.

A circular saw blade revolves away from you, which means that it rotates up into the bottom panel of the door, moves through the void in the door and bangs upwards into the lower face of the upper surface. All plywood tends to splinter, and the thin, unsupported, and flexible panels of a hollow door will splinter worse than most. To minimize this, turn the door with the best surface (the one you want on top) facing down. Put a strip of masking tape along the scribe line to minimize splintering. On the upper face, clamp or hot-glue a strip of thin wood over the line, so the blade will have some thing to press the thin ply against as it revolves. Attach another strip to the left of and parallel to the first, alongside so that the saw base has a firm, level support. Using lines on the sides of the door, rescribe the saw line on the top surface.

For the best and straightest kerf (sawcut), clamp a straightedge or straight board to the left of the saw's baseplate to guide it in the cut. Now, align the saw level and straight, enter the cut very deliberately, and move the saw carefully and very slowly. Support the cut off end of the door at the end of the cut to keep it from revolving off, binding the blade or tearing the ply.

The hollow end of the door will be gaping open. Best workmanship is to saw a length of 2x4 or other soft pine board to precise dimensions to plug the hollow end. Coat top and bottom with wood glue and insert into the void, aligning carefully. Place stout boards top and bottom of the door end and clamp till glue is dry. Use at least three clamps. Tighten till glue begins to ooze out, but not so tight that it is all forced out. When glue is dry, remove clamps and smooth the plug even with the plywood, if need be with a hand plane set to cut shallow (the plywood won't plane.) Sand with sheets of sandpaper stapled tightly to long boards to get the most even surface.

The cut end will most probably be hidden away forever in the closed corner of the desk, however, and you can get away with a crude end-plug. I have been known to cut a board to plug the opening, tap it in, and fasten it with a couple of staples along both edges. Sloppy, but I'll never tell.

Finish

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