kuhl doors

Traverse Magazine Mention

2010-07-28T16:09:00.003-05:00

Check out the August 2010 edition of Traverse Magazine for a project we were apart of.

The project was a modern house done in Elk Rapids, MI

Custom window we featured earlier in one of our posts.

New Glass Insert Designs

2010-07-13T16:24:00.004-05:00

New designs for our doors and all available in glass inserts.

How to install glass insert into door

2010-05-06T13:45:00.006-05:00

Installing a glass insert into your door is easy and does not require anything more than a good jigsaw, a drill, 5/8 drill bit, a tape measure and or square ruler, caulk, pencil and screw driver. You don't need to be a woodworker or master craftsman to do this. You can take any flush panel door; wood, fiber glass, metal, new or used and add a glass insert to turn it into something unique and special.

First step is using the frame of the glass insert to draw your cut line on the door. There are two sides of each frame, make sure the outside of the frame is facing up and that you are tracing the smaller side. The door shown here is a fiber glass door I picked up at my local lumber supply company for $186. Measure once, measure twice and what the heck measure a third time. Make sure it is square, centered and where you want your glass to go.

Next, drill holes in the corners. Make sure the holes are big enough for your jigzaw blade to fit into. Don't drill too close to the cut line, use your jigzaw to make the close cuts.

Tape the outside of the cut line. This will protect the door from the jigsaw. Avoid any scratches or marks. Also, make sure you use painter's tape so you don't leave any gummy tape residue.

Using a good jigsaw with a blade long enough to go through a 1 3/4" door, cut along the pencil out line of your frame.

Carefully remove the cut out. When making your final cuts be sure to hold up the cut out with either tape or a second pair of hands. Don't let it fall out. It will tear the edge of the facing.

Insert one side of the frame. Caulk the frame onto the door. Make sure you have plenty of caulk around the frame, let it ooz out onto the door. This is important, you don't want any moisture to get in between the frame and the door. Install the outside frame first, you will know it is the outside since it does not have any predrilled screw holes.

Paint, stain, seal your door. Install the glass, again use caulk to secure the glass into the frame. Screw on the inside frame and voila your door is done. A door you won't find anywhere else. It took me about two hours to complete this project.

glass inserts

2010-05-05T14:39:00.007-05:00

One of the biggest costs of selling doors online is all the crating and shipping charges. To successfully ship a glass panel door requires extensive crating along with putting the door on a pallet. Something that takes up a big foot print in a truck and therefore higher shipping charges. Our new line of doors is designed to eliminate the need to ship the whole door. With our glass inserts you can take a standard flush panel door, cut out an opening and insert a glass panel. More on how to do this to come.

stained glass restoration

2010-03-18T21:18:00.004-05:00

Today we finished installing our big restoration project. Very exciting, lotta work, different from doors but still stained glass.

Looking through an opening from the outside into the inside scaffold and the opposite window on the far side of the chapel.

Looking down two lancets from the outside

Installing the last glass panel.

The scaffold from the outside. Everything is safely installed. Whew!

All in a days work

2010-03-12T23:12:00.003-06:00

Here is a clip of one days work reinstalling window. The panels shown here are 15 of 45 panels being reinstalled. All the panels were removed one year ago, completely rebuilt and now we are reinstalling them.

Historical Pictures of the National Cathedral

2010-03-11T21:52:00.003-06:00

These are some photos from the historical archives of the National Cathedral.

8 ft double doors with sidelites

2010-03-09T20:42:00.002-06:00

Here is an entrance door we recently did in Chicago. Simple door design with two sidelites.

Client photos

2010-02-24T19:09:00.006-06:00

Here are some photos a client sent in recently on the single panel glass door with two sidelites. Notice how the light is hitting the floor creating a new pattern. This pattern will move and shift throughout the day as the sun moves and changes the angle it hits the glass. Also, the pattern will be different depending on the season and how high the sun is in the sky.

Here are some photos a client sent in on the single panel glass door with two sidelites. Notice how the refracted light is hitting the floor.

New Doors

2010-02-21T15:46:00.003-06:00

We have changed our designs and are offering new designs. These new designs will allow us to sandwich all the art glass between tempered glass. The designs will also significantly lower shipping costs. More info to come soon.

pine cone window

2009-06-07T22:33:00.006-05:00

The making of the pine cone window. This video shows all the steps of making a window; creating a full size cartoon, cutting glass patterns, cutting glass, leading, soildering, puttying, cleaning and finished window.

recent work

2009-05-04T22:24:00.005-05:00

This is a leaded glass sidelite, part of a larger entryway. I did the design and my father fabricated the window.

This is a new leaded glass door. The door is made of black walnut, the center is made up of all clear glass, rondels, heavy and weak seedy.

leading a stained glass panel

2009-04-24T21:22:00.003-05:00

This is one of 32 leaded glass panels that will be installed in a church clerestory window. The glass is very dark, looks black in the photo. This is because the glass is heavily painted and is made up of very dark colors. Very unlike the sidelite or doors I do that use mainly clear glass. You can't tell from the video, but the sheet of paper is a leading guide and shows a outline of where each piece of glass is supposed to go.

puttying two sidelites

2009-04-14T20:12:00.003-05:00

puttying and cleaning two sidelites.

leading 2 sidelites

2009-04-13T19:41:00.007-05:00

These two sidelites are part of a 8 foot double door entryway going to Chicago. A real monster entryway. The glass is made up of rondels, heavy and weak seedy.

Traditional Stained Glass

2008-10-30T13:58:00.009-05:00

Here is a different project I've been working on. This window is part of a much larger window that will go into the Washington National Cathedral. The techniques and materials are the same I use in the entry doors I fabricate at kuhldoors. There are, however, some significant differences. The biggest is the glass. The glass is dark, deep and painted. There is no clear glass it is all colored glass. The glass does come from the same source I get my glass.

This is a close up of one of the pieces. All the dark space is black paint. The artist uses a cross hatching pattern to dampen down the brightness of the glass. This piece was cut, painted by the artist and then fired in a kiln to permanently adhere the paint to the glass. These steps were all done by someone else (my father and the artist). I am only helping my father out by leading, soldering, puttying and cleaning the panels.

Each painted piece is assembled to make up a larger picture. This is the base of a tree trunk.

Here is the whole panel. In this window there are 44 panels.

cool beans.

installing glass into door

2008-09-30T09:01:00.008-05:00

Many times clients, contractors, architects want to know how the glass is installed in the door. For many of the designs seen on the website the art glass is installed up against the tempered insulation glass facing the inside. Here is how we do it.

We start with a door I get from one of several suppliers. I get the door with no glass.

I also get a double pane of tempered insulation glass. This is what provides all the insulation and protection from the outside. This panel is 7/16" thick.

After applying a sealer on the exposed wooden back stop I run a bead of caulk around the edge. This will seal the unit from the outside elements.

I place the double pane of tempered clear glass up against the caulked back stop.

Then we put the art glass up against the tempered unit. This is facing the inside of the door. The art glass is exposed to the inside of the home or building.

The last step is putting the inside stops up against the art glass to keep everything in place.

New Door Design

2008-08-05T20:24:00.005-05:00

Sometimes a client pushes you into a new direction. Two months ago I got a call from a client in California who wanted a door, but not one currently listed on the kuhldoors website. He had seen a door in the gallery but wanted it turned into one panel. We went through the Simpson Doors door selection to pick a door and vala we have a new design.

Not a great picture but you get the idea. Not bad.

Custom Entry Door

2008-08-04T21:23:00.014-05:00

Along with providing standard designs shown on my kuhldoors website I do custom orders. These take a great deal more time and effort.

First step for a custom order is I like to see the space the stained glass windows and doors are going into. This is a new house being constructed in Northern Michigan. At this stage I do not have the job, I am only making a proposal I hope will be accepted. When I design a window it is very important for me to take into account the background. Notice the trees and that there are no other houses or anything else that needs to be blocked out. This is the grand entrance, an important focal point and I do not want to loose the outside view. Rather I would like to see it incorporated into the window.

Immediately I thought of a design/pattern I've used in the past, tree branches. I used this door as part of my presentation to the potential client. It is a design for a door I've eager to use on a big project like this one.

I start off with sketches in conjunction with the sample panel shown above.

In case the client does not like the idea of the tree branches I like to give different options. This is another strong design I've used many times successfully.

Just to cover my bases I incorporated the two designs. Sometimes people like elements of both.

As I had hoped the client loved the tree branches idea. However, they want to explore different options. They also wanted something to reflect birch trees, a prominent tree here in Northern Michigan. So I explore different options. Here we have one dominant tree.

Another option is to offset the dominant tree.

Dominant tree completely off center.

Spending a lot of time looking at Birch trees I find Birch trees usually are seen in groups. Also, I placed them to the left so you can see the actual trees through the window on the right.

Another option is to open up the center.

One dominant tree with two smaller trees on the right.

And why not through everything into the design. Many choices and the winner is.......we'll see.

tools of the trade

2008-07-18T14:58:00.004-05:00

If you look through my websites and other posts I talk about working in the traditional method of stained glass. I use lead came and not the copper foil. How traditional is it? And how much has it changed? Well one way is to look at the tools we use today and compare it to what was used over 250 years ago. Above is an illustration from Diderot's Encyclopedie of 1751-72 showing some of the tools used to make leaded glass windows. You can see a glass cutting tool, pliers, hammer, etc.

Here are some of the tools I use to make a leaded glass panel. No real big differences. Making a leaded glass panel means using hand tools. The techniques and tools have not changed much.

Another interesting part of the illustration is the detail of the glass they are using. If you can make out the glass on the shelf, those are rondels or crown bullions. The same type of glass you see in my windows and leaded glass doors.

soldering

2008-04-19T08:43:00.006-05:00

The leaded glass panel shown here is fitted together but not soldered. Soldering is how we bring the 36 pieces of lead came and 29 pieces of cut glass shown here into one leaded glass panel. I know I'm missing a great opportunity here to come up with an analogy to something bigger but it eludes me.

This is a close up of what the lead came joint looks like before it is soldered. You want the joints to fit as tightly together as possible to get the best solder joint.

These are some of the soldering irons I use. The bigger one is for a heavier gauge lead. The smaller iron is ideal for the type of soldering shown here. The little black box regulates the heat of the iron. If the iron gets too hot it will melt the lead. Solder, a 60/40 mix of tin and lead, melts at a lower temperature than lead. The hotter the iron, the better the solder fuses with the lead. A real master doesn't need a little black box to regulate the heat, he can do it through feel, smell and some zen like 6th sense. I need the black box.

The solder comes in a wire spool. First take a little bit of solder onto the tip of the iron..

Next touch the joint with the tip and press down for a beat or two.

Lift the iron and you have a solder joint. A good joint is one where the solder has spread out smoothly and appears to 'melt' into the lead. A poor joint looks like the solder is sitting on top of the lead.

As with everything in leaded glass repeat, repeat, repeat until the whole glass panel is complete. I counted 59 solder joints for one side, so including both sides that's 118 solder joints. Now we just have to putty and clean and the panel is ready to go. This panel is for an entry door, the simple door design from www.kuhldoors.com.

cutting glass

2008-04-15T22:13:00.009-05:00

Glass cutting. This panel is for a couple in Florida who instead of ordering a whole door with a leaded glass panel just wanted the panel and are ordering the door separately. The door is a craftsman style door.

The first step is getting the rondels and laying them out on my template. The rondels dictate the rest of the design.

The template gets cut up into patterns which I use to cut the individual glass pieces. Here you see the sheets of glass I use with the patterns laid out on the sheets. The trick is to get as many pieces I can out of a sheet of glass.

Here I start cutting the sheet down to smaller pieces.

The actual cutting. A close up of the glass cutter scoring the glass on the patterns edge.

If you can make out the line in the glass that is the cut in the glass. Looks like a big scratch This scratch is what starts the break in the glass.

Here you see the first cut along the edge of the pattern.

You just keep cutting along the edge of the pattern until you've cut each edge.

Here are all the pieces that came out of that one sheet of glass. These six pieces have 37 edges that are individual cuts. It is a labor intensive process as you can see. Lots of repetition.

And here are all the pieces that will surround the rondels used in the glass panel.

The final product after it has been leaded and soldered. What a difference the glass looks like from sitting on the bench. Not bad. When the glass sits on the bench you are seeing it with reflected light. Here the glass is shown in transmitted light.

Orange leaded glass door

2008-03-28T21:07:00.010-05:00

Every client interaction is unique. Because my leaded glass doors and stained glass windows are custom made, it is not just a simple point, click and ship product. Often times glass samples need to be sent and details nailed down like door sizing and delivery. Once in awhile, though, a client wants to discuss design options. Normally, I am skeptically open to a clients ideas about customizing a design.

Here was just such an order where the client was very involved in the design. The above photo came from the client, not me, and is a combination of two of my leaded glass door designs, the simple door and the 4 splatter door. Ultimately they went with the left design, 3 orange splatters and two clear rondels. Here is a case where I thought the client did a very nice custom design. The client went with the orange color to match their orange glass tile. I always like to see when the window can tie into the rest of the house.

From the clients design I ordered the rondels from Kokomo Glass, my excellent rondel supplier in Indiana. I lay them out on a sheet of paper that I will use to create patterns for the rest of the glass. Using a heavy stock, 70# brown paper, I outline the actual size of the window used in the leaded glass door.

I trace the rondels and the reinforcing bars first. The reinforcing bars are the thick lines that go all the way across the panel. Once these are penciled in I draw in the rest of the lead lines. The lead lines outline the individual glass pieces.

I then cut out each piece that will be used ....

... as a pattern ...

to cut the glass.

After all the glass is cut I lay it out on the bench.

Do some leading, soldering,

puttying,

and cleaning. The cleaning is done with saw dust. Saw dust is great for absorbing all the oils from the flux used in soldering and the putty. After the cleaning all I need is the door and away it goes.

leading a side lite

2008-03-19T15:14:00.001-05:00

Leading, that crucial first step in joining the individual glass pieces together. Here I am leading a simple leaded glass side lite, which is part of a bigger leaded glass entryway.

After the glass has been cut, grossed and filed to the size of my paper patterns, I lay it all out according to where each piece goes in the final panel. The circles are clear hand blown rondels and do not need to be cut. Surrounding the circles is clear, heavy seedy glass. All the glass is handblown.

This is a poor photo of the lead came profile. There are two techniques used in stained glass, the copper foil technique and the lead came technique. I use lead came in all my work for various reasons, mainly because that is what I was taught. Many people who take a stained glass course learn the copper foil technique. Looking at the profile of the lead came you can see a grove on each side.

These grooves or slots is where the glass fits into. Again a poor photo but you should get the idea of how the glass fits snugly into the groves.

Starting at one end of the leaded glass side lite,

I secure the first piece of glass against the outer edge lead. The edge lead is what surrounds the whole leaded glass panel. It gets buried into the wood frame of the door or side lite and therefore is not visible after I install the glass panel.

Next I place a strip of came lead against one of the edges of the glass. I line up the next glass piece against the other side of the lead came and ...

measure and cut the lead came to the proper length.

The third piece is the rondel shown here already wrapped in lead came. Again it is secured against the two other pieces of glass.

Guess what comes next, right, the fourth piece.

I could go on like this for all 30+ pieces but I think you get the idea.

Finally the glass panel is assembled and ready for soldering.

one leaded glass door, 72 days

2008-02-13T14:18:00.000-06:00

Since the middle of September everyday I think of it I snap a photo of my front door. You can see a slide show of my efforts on the right hand side. All the glass in the door is clear, handblown glass. As you can see depending on what is going on behind the glass, the glass is ever changing. I've had clients call and ask for the 'green' door when they are really looking at a photo that was taken in the spring time.