How to weld a metal door

Entrance doors should not only be beautiful, but also durable, as well as warm and reliable. This combination of qualities is given by metal doors. But not all of those on the market can boast of reliability - many of the inexpensive ones can be literally opened with a kitchen knife. Really beautiful and reliable steel doors are very expensive. If you have a welding machine and some welding skills, you can make an iron door yourself. Even taking into account the cost of purchasing materials, it will be 30-50% cheaper.

What is necessary

Boil we will be an entrance iron door made of a profile pipe and sheet metal. For work you will need a flat work surface, a welding machine, a drill, a grinder, it is good to have level (laser level) and something to measure - a carpenter's square, for example.

Standard metal doors. We will do something like this

From materials you will need:

• profiled pipe 40 * 40 mm, 40 * 20 mm;
• a sheet of metal 2 mm thick, the size of a door leaf;
• metal hinges are strong enough to withstand a weight of about 100 kg;

To "ennoble" the door, you will need paint for metal (preferably hammer enamel), a wooden lath, insulation (foam or mineral wool), plywood, OSB or other similar material, plastic or any other finishing material, a peephole, a lock.

Cook the doors

First we cook the door frame. We make it from a profiled pipe 40 * 40 mm. Cut off pieces to size. If there is rust on the pipe, clean it. We fold the blank blanks, set the corners, grab them together.

Welded the door frame

After welding, we check the corners, measure the diagonals. If there is even the slightest deviation, we correct it (hitting the floor with an angle usually helps, the main thing is not to overdo it).

We weld on the hinges. We retreat from the bottom and top by about 20 cm, mark, cook, making sure that they are on the same straight line. Here the laser level is very useful, and if it is not there, you have to measure the distances many times to set it exactly.

Welded on the hinges

Next, we cook the inner frame from a 40 * 20 mm pipe. We calculate the dimensions so that the gap on all sides is 3-5 mm. In one of the long pipes we cut holes for the locks.

Holes for locks

We weld everything, check the diagonals, try on. If everything is fine, you can weld on the cross members - to increase the rigidity of the door leaf. We make them from the remains of a 40 * 20 mm pipe.

Box and frame of a homemade metal door

We clean all the welding places, removing the beads - everything should be even and smooth. You can grind off the excess with a file, but faster - with the corresponding disc on the grinder.

So that the frame does not "bend" and then there is a place for the installation of the sealing rubber, we raise the frame by welding the metal plates.

We weld on plates that hold the frame in a given position

The frame inside the frame is set at the desired level (we check with a level or level, so that everything is in the same plane), we weld the reciprocal loops.

We put a sheet of metal on the finished frame, mark it. It should go 3-10 mm over the door frame pipe. Only from the side of the hinges, the entry should be 3-5 mm, on the other sides it is possible more. We expose the sheet from the side of the hinges, mark the cutting line, cut it off with a grinder.

We mark where to cut

After cutting, we process burrs and other irregularities with a file - to an even edge. To speed up the process, you can use a grinder with an emery wheel. Then we lay out the sheet as it should be and lightly grab the frame to the frame, the sheet - also to the frame (not to the frame). The entire structure must be turned over, but it is difficult to do it differently.

We grab the sheet to the door frame

We turn over the almost finished metal doors and boil the sheet along the perimeter of the frame, then to the intermediate stiffeners. There is no need to make continuous seams - tightness is not needed, we weld in small sections at equal distances. At the same time we make sure that the pure does not "lead".

We weld metal doors from the inside

Cut off the welded frame from the door frame, turn the doors over and release the welded sheet from the tacks. We clean the places of the former welding. Now the locks can be installed.

Install the selected locks

Warming and finishing

Next, we are engaged in insulation. Styrofoam 4 cm thick becomes well into the welded frame of the iron door. We take it of low or medium density, since there will be no load on it. These metal doors took 4 sheets of 1 * 1 m in size.

We cut the PP to size, take polyurethane foam with a weak expansion (if you take the usual one, the foam will displace). Having retreated from the edge about 1 cm, we apply it along the perimeter of the rectangle, in which we put the foam, we make a few more strips of foam in the middle, we put the insulation. The remaining gaps between the PP and the pipe are also passed through with foam.

It is also possible to glue the insulation on a universal glue that is suitable for metal and foam, for example, "Moment".

Styrofoam laid

To save money, it was decided to use the sheet of oriented strand board available on the farm. Budget finishing is planned - self-adhesive film. As it turned out, this pair is very poorly combined - OSB putty took a lot of time. It would be much easier with plywood (moisture resistant, furniture).

A sheet of OSB is laid on top of the insulation made already by hand on metal doors. It is fixed around the perimeter with self-tapping screws. First, a hole is drilled under the self-tapping screw, then the fasteners are screwed in.

Attached OSB sheet

We drill mounting holes in the door frame - there are two of them on each segment. We paint the frame in a suitable color (enamel is taken in a spray can). The painted frame must be taken out into the street somehow. We insert long mounting screws into the drilled holes, and drag it outside.

Door frame for homemade iron doors painted

Then the problems began - you can only glue the film on a flat smooth surface, and the OSB surface is far from even. At first there were attempts to grind it with a grinder. The result is unsatisfactory.

Grinding attempts

There is only one way out - putty. We take the putty, spread it, wait until it dries, grind it. Then again - a layer of putty, again sanding. So - until the normal result.

The surface must be flat and smooth

On the second side, we also attach OSB, but already putty and sanded in advance - it's easier this way. Cut out the holes for the eye-pens, try on everything. Next, we begin to glue the film. Our stores have the widest one - 90 cm, the doors are clearly wider. Therefore, it was decided to make a finish with an imitation of a panel, for which a rubber self-adhesive furniture molding was purchased.

The film will be glued "curly"

We find the center on the door, set aside 45 cm in both directions, outline a strip. The center strip of the film will be glued here. We wet the surface with water (spray from a spray bottle), carefully, without bubbles, glue the film.

Gently glue the film

We cut off the missing pieces, we also glue them. We close the joints of the canvases with a molding.

This is what happened in the end from the street side

A lighter film is glued on the side of the room

All that remains is to install the handmade metal doors in place. They are installed at the entrance from the covered veranda to the house.

Homemade iron door installed

The doors look good. It turned out very heavy, not to compare with the store. Most of the time was spent on finishing. If you choose another option, it will be much faster.

Related Videos

Steel doors can be welded from the corners. One of the options is in the next video.