Heavy Forcible Entry Door... on the cheap!!

Over the last week, here in Interior AK we decided to build a door that could with stand some serious pounding with our hand tools.  The following blog is the process that we used to build this door...

First and foremost thank you to the Brotherhood Instructors... we studied their door stole the idea for this from them during FDIC 2010...

The materials list is as follows:

2 - 79" pieces of 6"x6"x 1/4" square tube (4"x4" will work also to save some $$)

1 - 40" piece of 6"x6"x1/4" square tube (again 4"x4" will also work)

1 - 96" piece of 6" x 1/4" flat bar, broken into the following pieces: (these are for the hinges)
                      - 4 - 12" long pieces
                      - 6 - 6" long pieces
                      - 2 - 2.5" long pieces

1 - 4'x4'x5/16" steel plate

1 - 4'x4'x1/8" steel plate broken into 1' x 4' pieces

2 - old snowmachine springs cut to 4" long pieces

2 - 12" pieces of 7/8" threaded rod with nut and washer on each

1 - door cut down to 73" tall

2 - 2"x2"x3" square tube

2 - 1"ID x 7" long steel tube (1/4" wall works the best)

2 - 1"ID x 3" long tube pieces

1 - 72"x1"x2" rectangle tube

2 - 6"x1"x2" rectangle tube pieces

Now to get started... the pictures should be pretty self-explanitory... nothing tricky about this door... we used a 110V Lincoln PowerMig160 with .035 flux core wire... most of the cutting was done with a band saw and torch.







1.25" holes were cut with a torch on the inside of the frame and the outside.  Each set of holes had 1 7" tube put in to them and it was then leveled, centered to the other post and welded in place.


The floating portion of the hinge consists of 2 12" plate and 1 6" plate with on of the threaded rods welded directly in the middle of the inside (leveled vertically and horizontally).  The old snowmachine spring is set on to it and this portion can then be put into one the two frame holes.



Once the floating portion is on the door frame the actual hinge pieces are attached the stopper and frame side hinge tube pieces are attached... hinge tube pieces are each 1.5" long and they are 1" ID x 1.25" OD tube.


Door side portion of the hinge is made... the tube is 3" long and the plate piece is one of the 2.5" x 6" pieces welded to it while everything sits in place.


Next the door is set in place and the hinges are attached.  Prior to attaching, 4 of the 6"x6" plates had 7/16" holes drilled 1" toward the middle of the plate from each corner.  The door is squared to the vertical post and 1/2" top and bottom from the frame/base.  The hinges were then tack welded to the rotating piece previously made and then holes drilled for the bolts.  Each plate uses a 7/16"x2.5"long Grade 8 bolt, double nutted.


Sorry for the poor picture quality... but you should get the point


Once the plates were tacked into place, the door was removed and everything was welded fully










Door Jam is centered on the post opposite of the hinges




When all was said and done the door costs just shy of $700 in materials and 20 hours of labor with 2 people... the hinges will fit on any 1.75" thick door... door width has to be 36" wide (so pretty much any exterior door.

This is a general idea of how to build this door... and remember when you do any forcible entry... SHOCK, GAP, SET, FORCE... this door is built to demonstrate this technique.

FL