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Refridgerator door insert replacement

September 23, 2012, 01:53:02 pm

All,
    While out west and northwest this summer the wood insert of large door on the refrig warped, twisted and slightly cracked. I assume the dry climate did the wood in. I removed the wood insert to eliminate the strain on the door frame. Once at home base I also removed the freezer door and fabricated new doors for both sides. I added a ½" piece of R3.3 insulation to each door and assemble everything. The top piece of wood is 1/8" thick and I custom made some wood edging to capture it in the original frame. The old doors were heavy so I weighed the old wood that was removed, wow, 21 lbs. All the new wood and insulation weighed 8 lbs. We have found that Rustoleum's "#260360 ultimate wood stain summer oak" (bought at Lowes) is almost the perfect match to the original finish after a couple of coats of satin finish polyurethane. Photo's attached for you viewing pleasure. More to come as I document these changes.
Have fun,
Rick

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Re: Refridgerator door insert replacement

Reply #1 – September 24, 2012, 10:59:22 pm

Wow. Nice job Rick! From the photos the color match looks perfect!

see ya
ken

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Re: Refridgerator door insert replacement

Reply #2 – September 25, 2012, 08:35:43 am

Thanks Ken.
Rick

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Re: Refridgerator door insert replacement

Reply #3 – September 25, 2012, 09:42:58 am

Hi Rick,
  That is a real nice job! Great work.
Raymond

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Re: Refridgerator door insert replacement

Reply #4 – September 25, 2012, 01:08:34 pm

which basement compartment do you keep your shop tools?  LOL... Very nice job!

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Re: Refridgerator door insert replacement

Reply #5 – September 25, 2012, 07:10:26 pm

All,
      We are at home base in MA until it is cold enough that I would have to winterize, then heading south to FL. So I have get certain things done while I have my tools and shop at my disposal. My woodworking tools and skills are limited but now that I have retired I find that all it takes for good woodworking is good planning, patience, and practice. I have an old Craftsman 10" radial arm saw that can do just about anything but you must know and respect it's limits, also an 8 1/4" Makita table saw that cuts very true. For any custom pieces that I need and cannot make with repeatable results I can go a few blocks downtown and have a lumber yard cut whatever I need, generally after I have made several trial cuts and fits with scrap. They have a custon cabinet shop also. The best part about going there is that I can go in the shop and watch them cut the pieces and tweak any dimensions as needed, and they are also very inexpensive if you know what you want and can tell them exactly what you want. Their equipment is really heavy duty and the saws just sing thru anything with ease and the workers are true craftsmen. I should use them more but it is kind of fun learning to do some of these things myself.
The thing that surprised me most about the original doors was the weight. Once I started taking things apart I could see that the lower right fridge hinge bracket was bent. No wonder, that one door was heavy, about 14 lbs for the wood alone. It is now 5 lbs of wood and insulation. Not sure what the total weight of the doors are as I never removed them from the fridge. Straightened out the bracket in place and realigned the door. Not sure if the added 1/2" of (R3.3) insulation I added to the door will help but it was a painless addition and it can't hurt.

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Re: Refridgerator door insert replacement

Reply #6 – November 21, 2012, 01:27:43 pm

Going to use the walnut inserts we removed to make covers for the puck lights in the salon. Will trim them to proper width and route a ogee all the way around. Leaning to putting in strip minifloods as we did the bedroom. Too nice pieces of wood to throw away.

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