DIY wooden door handle

Features of wooden door handles

Since ancient times, door fittings have been made from wood. Later, they were given a worthy fight by steel products and elements made from modern materials. Even today, wooden models are widely popular due to their advantages:

Properly sanded and processed wood is soft to the touch. A wood handle is not as cool as a metal or plastic handle.
Accessories made from wood are irreplaceable when arranging baths and saunas. Wooden elements do not heat up to enormous temperatures like steel ones, and the possibility of getting a burn when handling the handle is reduced to zero.
Easy to make wooden door handles with your own hands. Wood is easy to process, and working with it does not require expensive equipment. Using bars, slats or logs, it will be possible to create a structure of any shape.
Affordable price.

Despite the significant advantages, wood products also have some disadvantages:

The strength properties of wood are inferior to steel elements. This fact must be taken into account when constructing a structure that is subject to significant loads. In this case, it is better to give preference to hard wood or metal.
With prolonged contact with steel surfaces, the wood is destroyed. Based on this, door handles for doors must be selected in accordance with the material of the door leaf.
In order for a wooden handle to serve for a long time, it should be carefully treated: sanded and impregnated with protective compounds.

Conclusion

Making a wooden handle for a bath door or front door is not difficult; you only need desire and a certain set of tools. In this matter, thoroughness and strict adherence to the technology of working with the material are important.

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Selection of wood species for the production of handles

Devices mounted on entrance doors must be made of strong wood. Some experts recommend using conifers, which, when heated, emit a pleasant smell that is suitable for human health. But hardwoods, which are distinguished by their excellent textured pattern and good mechanical resistance, are no less in demand.

Advice. It is better to make door handles from deciduous trees so that no resin remains on your hands when gripping them.

For making door handles with your own hands, the following are suitable:

Oak – characterized by strength, resistance to external influences and hardness. Oak products look respectable and generous, and are amazingly suitable for furnishing suburban mansions and apartments.
Beech is a desirable species, similar in many qualities to oak. The wood has an unusual pinkish color with a uniform texture.
Poplar - has very pronounced bactericidal qualities, which is why it is often used when decorating a steam room.
Linden – has an anti-inflammatory and calming effect on the human body.

Useful tips

When installing a door structure in a bathhouse, you should remember some nuances:

It should be taken into account that the door will shrink after some time: a frame made of raw wood shrinks by approximately 8%, and a frame made of dry wood - by 2%.
It is not recommended to install locks or latches on door structures leading to the steam room. This is done for safety purposes, so that it is convenient to get into the premises in case of accidents or emergency situations. In addition, at high temperatures, metal fittings heat up, and when exposed to steam, they quickly become unusable and can jam at any moment, which is very dangerous.
It is strictly forbidden to treat the door leaf leading to the steam room with paints and varnishes.
A threshold of 15-20 cm is always installed under the entrance door. Under the door structure leading to the steam room, a threshold is not installed, but a gap of 3 cm is made.
The doors always open only outwards, and the hinges are mounted on the opposite side from the wet room.

Whatever doors to the bathhouse are chosen, it is important that they consist of moisture-resistant and sealed materials that can withstand constant pressure.

It doesn’t matter at all whether the door structure is made independently, in production, or purchased from an expensive, prestigious showroom. The main thing is how comfortable, reliable, aesthetic and easy to use it is.

Manufacturing and installation

The sequence of creating a door handle:

Clean the cut of the tree from the bark, sand it and apply contours to the workpiece - this will be the base of the future handle.

Use a jigsaw to “go” along the contour and give the tree a suitable shape.
To add texture to the workpiece, you can use a milling cutter to make indentations in the marked areas of the wooden cut.
Sand the side ends of the product and chamfer the edges of the workpiece.
The handle is made from an unusual knot. Remove the bark from the branch and fit the handle to the base.
Use a saw to trim the edges so that the ends of the handle are in perfect contact with the prepared workpiece.
Apply epoxy glue to the handle, press it to the base and clamp the parts with a clamp.
Drill holes in the bases of the handle at an angle, lubricate the dowels with glue and drive them in, thereby strengthening the structure. Saw off excess pegs.
Leave the handle to dry for one day.
Coat the product with varnish, wait until it dries completely and install it on the door.

Main stages of work

The first step is to make a matrix and a punch. To do this, the master saws a wooden block into two parts with a jigsaw, having previously drawn on it the shape of the future door handle.

Then you will need a wooden strip of suitable length, which must first be kept in hot water for some time, and then given the desired shape using a homemade matrix and punch.

As for the material itself, you can use any wood, but if possible, try to choose oak, linden, birch and hornbeam.

Along the edges of the door handle, the master decided to make decorative elements in the form of leaves - an excellent option for a door to a bathhouse. Then you will need to drill holes for the mounting bolts. It is best to soak the product in mineral oil or coat it with wax.

Lightweight version of a wooden handle for a bath

A homemade door handle will amaze the guests of the bathhouse and will become the pride of the owners of the steam room. Constructing a lightweight model will not be difficult. Let's look at an example of creating a pen with a length of 20 6 cm and a height of 10 cm. To work, you will need a board with dimensions of 26 * 10 * 5 cm, a light pencil and a jigsaw.

Method of action:

Draw a sketch of a pen on the page. It is no more difficult to show the drawing by cells. In order to draw arcs and curved lines, you can use a pattern or improvised round objects of suitable diameter.

Transfer the contours onto wood and cut out a blank along them using an electronic jigsaw. To obtain an even cut, it is better to use a metal cutting file.
If desired, you can smooth the shape of the handle and chamfer it, apply a pattern, carve a sketch, or make decoration with a burner.
Attach the handle to the door with self-tapping screws.

Door handle in Russian folk style

An example of a carved handle will harmoniously fit into an interior designed in a traditional folk style. The handle will perfectly complement an antique-style door. The design of the model includes 6 parts:

Base;
Intermediate bars - two pieces;
Cubes - two pieces;
Pen.

First you need to prepare each part separately, fit them together and polish them. Production order:

Preparing the base: apply markings on a board measuring 36*9*2 cm in accordance with the drawing; Cut corners and semicircles with a jigsaw; If there is no tool at hand, the processing can be done with a semicircular file.
Make intermediate blocks. In planks with dimensions 6*2*2 cm, make a longitudinal hole with a diameter of eight mm. In the future, dowels will be installed in them to assemble all parts into a single structure.
Prepare cubes with a side of four cm: cut and polish a block with a cross-section of 4*4 cm, about 10 cm long; Saw the block into cubes; In the taken blanks, make two holes with a diameter of eight mm along the horizontal and vertical axis.
Make a handle from a block fifteen cm long and a cross-section of 3*3 cm. Drill holes at the end sides with a depth of two cm, a diameter of eight mm.

Perform decorative carvings on wood blanks: Base. Mark the outlines of leaves, squares and crosses on the board. Using the point of a knife, pierce the upper points of the ornament and cut out the tree, first on one side and later on the other, forming grooves of equal width. First, the leaves are cut out, and later the inner crosses. Pen. The carving is made on 4 sides using oblique lines with the same slope. The depth of the groove is about 3-5 mm. Cubes and blocks are decorated with diamonds and winding lines.
Assembly is carried out using dowels “planted” on PVA glue. At the same time, it is necessary to cover the surface of the holes and the dowels themselves with an adhesive composition.
Install the handle on the interior doors yourself using self-tapping screws.

DIY turned wood door handle

To produce a turned handle for interior doors, you will need to master the ability to work on a lathe. Creating a similar model requires the introduction of the following tools and materials:

Machine with three-jaw chuck;
Oak block;
Wood cutters;
Coarse and medium-grain sandpaper;
Wax mastic.

Sequencing:

Prepare the workpiece. A square block of wood should not be cut off much on the sides on one side. Thus, the rounded part will be evenly fixed in the machine chuck.
Insert the workpiece into the jaws and use a semicircular cutter to give it a cylindrical shape along its entire length.
Level the surface of the block with the end of the cutter, holding it at a slight angle.
Use the sharp edge of the cutter to shape the upper part of the handle.
Leave a certain distance from the edge and carve a base, the back of which will be adjacent to the door leaf.
Trim the base of the handle with a straight cutter and sand the surface with sandpaper. When sanding, it is important not to overdo it and not to press too hard on the paper, otherwise you may burn your fingers on the rotating elements and break the product.
Cover the handle with wax mastic. The product gets into the pores of the wood, protecting the material from external influences and giving the handle a matte shine.
Using the tip of the cutter, cut off the handle from another part of the rough timber.
Insert the handle into the door.

During the production process, some aspects should be taken into account:

For processing, it is necessary to take material without cracks and knots; otherwise, when rotating, the workpiece may split and cause injury;
It is recommended to make a pair of handles from one blank, since turned models are small in size;
Before sanding and impregnating with a protective compound, all minor cracks on the handle must be filled with putty designed for woodworking.

Determine the purpose and choose the method of making a homemade pen

In most cases, a handle is used to open or close a door. With all this, you can make a latch, hook or bolt from wood that will fix or lock the door.

The products shown in the photo were made on a lathe. The small button-style handle

To open a heavy door, it is better to make a full-fledged handle from 3 parts. I would choose the option with a crossbar that is inserted into the supports (above right), which provides the greatest strength to the craft.

Carved handles are not bad in their own way. There are an indescribably huge number of options for such products. To make something similar, you need to have a set of cutters and artistic taste. With all this, light handles can be completely processed with a knife.

I advise you to take a close look at expensive pens: they can be ordinary, reliable and even unique. Such fittings can be cut with a regular hacksaw or jigsaw.

If a handle made of 3 parts is secured with screws through the main element through stands, the product will be very durable. In this case, you should ensure that the stands are at a height that provides sufficient clearance for your fingers.

Flat handles are more popular and are made from boards. I recommend the option located in the photo below on the right: it is more reliable because the clearance of the handle is below the heads of the screws. In this case, the craft will not break along the fibers.

To produce accessories, you need to draw drawings of the parts on the plane of the board, and then cut the workpiece with a jigsaw. Naturally, sanding will be necessary.

Holes for fastening should be provided. They are drilled out from above with a huge diameter to hide the heads of the screws.

It is very convenient to use tree branches to independently produce door handles for buildings in the country. With all this, the uniqueness, simplicity and reliability of the craft are immediately ensured.

Accessories made from natural materials can be decorated with carving elements, applied with pictures or icons using a burner, or treated with a blowtorch. In a more complex version, linings cut with a jigsaw are used. To attach a handle from a branch, you need to prepare several holes for screws so that the fittings do not wobble and are held tightly.

Installing handles on interior doors

Inserting handles into interior doors with your own hands begins with marking the location of the fittings. In accordance with established standards, a standard door handle is installed at a height of 80-100 cm from the floor (depending on the height of the residents). The work is carried out in the following sequence:

Mark the installation location on the door leaf, moving at least 6 cm away from the edge.
Using a ruler, draw a straight line across the end of the door and continue marking from the back of the door.
Use a drill to prepare a hole ½ the thickness of the door.
Repeat drilling on the second side of the blade. It is important that there is no deviation of the hole axis horizontally or vertically.
Use a chisel to knock out a niche for mounting the latching mechanism.
Insert the latch and check that its edge is in the same plane with the door leaf.
Place the two parts of the handle on different sides of the door and guide them through the hole. Tighten the structure with bolts.
Finish the end of the box with a steel plate - prepare a selection for the tongue and frame, try it on and secure the plate with self-tapping screws.

Over time, you may need to do some minor DIY repairs to interior door handles. At times, to prevent the elements from becoming loose, it is enough to tighten the screws with a screwdriver.

If the walls are made of logs or timber

A wooden bathhouse made from a log or timber is quite common, and the installation of doors in such a bathhouse differs in technology from a similar installation in a room with walls made of a different material. The fact is that wood constantly changes its overall dimensions, and this has to be taken into account in buildings made from it.

In particular, the installation of doors and windows is usually accompanied by the creation of a specific frame. This is a well-known tongue-and-groove connection, which creates the possibility of the box sliding during the period of continued shrinkage of the wooden frame.

Pit under the door in a chopped bathhouse

IMPORTANT! An increased vertical opening size is mandatory - the gap between the jamb and the wall is needed for the future if the height of the log house is reduced. If it suddenly turns out that you made it too large, then you can make a transom above the door. The “tenon and groove” can be done in any way you like - cut a groove in the logs or, conversely, cut a tenon in the wall and a groove in the frame

Both options are viable. The tools usually used are a hand-held power saw and chisels. However, it is worth warning in advance that the work is not the easiest and will take quite a lot of time.

The “tenon and groove” can be done in any way you like - cut a groove in the logs or, conversely, cut a tenon in the wall and a groove in the post. Both options are viable. The tools usually used are a hand-held power saw and chisels. However, it is worth warning in advance that the work is not the easiest and will take quite a lot of time.

DIY wooden door handles: photo ideas

The design of door handles amazes with the variety of colors and designs. The fantasies of woodworking masters are embodied in unusual shapes, beautiful curves and stylistic execution of door accessories.