The Geiszlers

After all of the framing in on the pole barn we had to actually build the accordion doors. I started out with eight sheets of 3/4 (23/32) inch exterior grade plywood. Exterior grade plywood is plugged (the football shaped punched out and filled section where ever knots are) and sanded on one side. It is much more expensive than OSB (oriented strand board) or regular plywood. It was $31.88/sheet. Anyways our first steps was to rip the boards to the correct width using a radial-arm saw. In our case one opening was 14'3.5" and the other was 14' after the framing, done earlier. They are all 8' tall (we changed it to 7'11" later.) So we divided our width's by the 4 panels we would use to fill each opening (3'6 & 7/8" AND 3'6" respectively.) Then my brother and I stained both sides of 8 panels with a water-based semi transparent stain. Here's a pic of the backsides after they were stained.

We next took 2x4's and routed out 5 door hinges spots one each 2x4 where each of the 4 doors two panels would be connected. Remember half of the routes go to the left and half go to the right, we got it right no waste. We then used decking screws to attach the 2x4's to the plywood panels and more decking screws to attach the hinges to the 2x4. I considered going for a full frame on the back but my dad was concerned about the weight. We'll add a whole frame on the back instead of just the hinge mounts if it becomes an issue with warp or sag. We also had to add a few 2x4 spacers on the side opposite of the hinges so that the doors would not extend past 180 degrees when it folds shut. I'll show a pic later.

After having 4 doors (of 2 panels each) hinged together we first decided we were going to cut off 1 inch with the circular saw so they would be 7'11" tall because they would fit better at that height.