I have old exterior doors that are 15 glass pane wood doors. I went to my local home improvement center and ordered new doors, but found the amount of door covered by glass to be severely limited. They actually looked ridiculous. It was explained that I would "never" find what I was looking for since most houses are not buillt with these smaller size door frames any more.

I looked into expanding the frame, but that's just not going to work nor is it desirable. I thought about buying a new wood door with glass panes and cutting it down to size. (This is still a possibility).

I want to replace the doors because they're chewed up from old age and pets.

Now I have it in my head that I should build these doors from scratch. I would classify myself as an intermediate woodworker with enough tools to be dangerous.

My plan is to take some reclaimed old 5/4 pine. Laminate pieces together and mill it to right thickness. I'll use a rail and stile bit set to make the parts and use glass panes. The doorways are covered so exposure to water is not that bad.

Question:
1) Should I try to use 1 large panel and separate the panes using decorative mullions or use individual panes?

 

Welcome to the forums! I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack, so help me out a little. You don't give any dimensions in your "limited" glass coverage, versus what you want. Would it be possible for you to post a couple of pix of what you have so we can see what you see?? "ridiculous" doesn't tell us much either. Are the door frames too small for the opening, or do you just desire more glass area? If the latter, the reason today's 15 light designs are somehwhat smaller is because of structural integrity of the door. You thin down the door, you lose integrity. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html

 

You need to make sure the stiles and rails of this door are straight when you make it. That means using a jointer. You also need the joinery to be very strong. All that glass is going to weigh a lot. I hope you are planning to IGUs, right?

One large IGU might be cheaper than 15 small ones. I don't know how they price those things, so ask.