I need doors for my dust collector closet. However, the opening height doesn’t match any off-the-shelf doors, so I have to make them. The question is how to do it.

Because my dust collector closet is beneath a steel I-beam in my basement shop, the door opening is a nonstandard 70" high. The DC fits in there just right, but no commercially available doors come in that size so I’m on my own. Making them from scratch will take the longest, and I’m eager to get those doors in place so I’m considering altering some off-the-shelf doors. That’s problematic, however.

Solid-wood paneled doors are my preference, but the panel locations don’t allow for cutting them where I need to – the cut would go right through a panel instead of a rail, so that’s out. Hollow-core flat doors don’t have the panel issues, but if it cut them to size I’d need to remake the cut ends to insert a solid wood rail for mounting purposes. Solid-core flat doors don’t have the hollow center, but I still might need to alter the cut ends to strengthen them for mounting.

Since all this altering would be trial-and-error based on what I find inside the door once I cut them, I’m thinking it might take nearly as long as starting from scratch. Making them from scratch is guaranteed to take a while, but then they’d be exactly what I want – paneled doors like commercial ones, but custom made to fit my closet opening.

I think I just made my decision.

A.J.