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warped or bowed dollhouse wood


masker

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I got my Cheltenham, and assembly is almost complete. The problem is (aside from the fact that the screws have busted through the trim because they were too long, nothing fits without cutting and sanding, and the instructions were written by a foreign madman who lived in a shoebox) the front-opening doors on the dollhouse is horrificly bowed. If we put the magnet to close it at the top like it shows in the destructions- er, instructions, then the bottom part of the door bows out a good inch and a half. If we put the magnet in the middle (which I don't want to do because it would be right on top of the interior trim), it only bows out a half an inch. Any suggestions to fix this?

The Cheltenham is a wonderful design, but unless I just got the worst copy of the model, it's not worth the money. My dad says we'd have been better of making, cutting, and designing our own. As it is, he doesn't have the time to help me make one from scratch, and I simply don't have enough money to buy a better dollhouse, so I need to make this one as good as possible.

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Rachel-beth, are all the trimmings attached to the front already? If the piece is still undecorated and flat, you could probably dampen it, put it between towels, and press it under weights (like heavy books) until it levels out. That's the only thing I can think of, but there are many more experienced folks around here who know much more than I.

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We might have to try a magnet on both the top and bottom. I had already put the trim on the doors, but with hot-glue only, so it should be easy enough to remove and then replace. I might have to try straightening the trim as well. The doors are already screwed onto the house by their hinges, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem either (I don't think?). It occured to me that I might try putting the two doors together into one door, but I'm not sure how well that would work. This is my first front-opening dollhouse (second dollhouse overall).

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If you have the front wall already attached to the house it sounds as though the problem wasn't noticeable when you opened the box and began building. I would most definitely go with KathieB's suggestion of using two magnets, one at the top aand one at the bottom. Also, if you run a piece of stripwood along the edges of the exterior walls to resemble quoins it will give additional thickness for the screws.

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Two doors into one? You mean make it one house-wide door with only one set of hinges on one side? I think the weight of the double door would tend to pull it askew. Better to try to deal with two doors.

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Two doors into one? You mean make it one house-wide door with only one set of hinges on one side? I think the weight of the double door would tend to pull it askew. Better to try to deal with two doors.

Ah, yes, you're right. I'm clearly not a master builder yet.

Havanaholly, yes, both doors are warped. They both came from a single sheet of wood.

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Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I will still have to put the magnets in the middle so it looks nice, but I did spray the doors and leave weights on them over night, so they are about half as bowed now. I have finished the exterior. :)

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