How do I make a dutch door with a hollow core door?

The amount of bracing you would have to do inside a hollow core door would not be worth it to make a dutch door. Hollow means hollow with just some cardboard bracing so the thin outside shell doesn't sag.

As any other hollow core door you are dealing with one-ply. I gotta advise against these in any place you get humid winters. They tend to warp. Unless you are retired or unemployed or a hobbyist usually your best bet is to: get the door from a carpenter or lumberyard prefabricated. To the employed the job of making doors takes more time and patience than they are worth. It is better to get paid by the employer $350 for 13 to 30 hours of aggravation at the job and spend less time aggravated. Anyways, to make any inlay you do not chisel out a Thick Board. You always are using ply. The Simplest but flimsiest is a 3+1 door. They are fine on Upper Shelves, small toys, tissuebox crafts and other disposable decor as You create 2 faux frames outside of the inlay by gluing the 2 Frames to the 1 ply and Voila, it is the Most Basic (and most junky) door on Earth.

To make that more sturdy rather than glue two of those Decors together, you make a 5+2 door. With 3 frames and 2 inlays. That is where the Hollow comes in. You have a Frame between the 2 inlays to absorb shock and 2 Frames as decoration and to secure it is 5 ply on the edges where the Hinges Go.

It sorta works like counting the 30 day or Less Months by the space between your fingers.

To create double hollows, triple hollows, etc, (even 350 hollows if you want to fashion a Lighter than a Log, Log) it is always within constraints of a formula of:

h=hollows=interior frames=f=inlays+1=P+1

Inlays=P=1 ply solids each cut to the dimensions of the door

you always want inlays seperated by a frame be those inlays: Veneer, Oak, Polyboard, Polymer, Plastic or Glass.

Some fill those inlays with glued on felt as an Insulation between hollows. You can tell where they did this if you rub a wool on the door to excite some static energy enough to zap yourself on tinsel.

I recommend this if you want to use this on an Exterior Door.

You put hinges on immediately after you glue and clamp them, usually this process goes best by a Special Homemade Clamp that enables you to Predrill Those Hinge Screws into the Ply before the Glue Sets and Hardens. You dab your Hinge Screw in Glue and Drive that Screw in after you predrill the holes enough to place the hinges.

After that you do same for and Pulls or Draws, and they will Never Come Off in your Lifetime.

Hiding 6 Nuts beneath the inside frame and the Boltheads inside the Outside frame makes it very impossible for theives to disassemble the door.

Doing that backward is How Houdini and other magicians make Death Defying Escapes.

Once you learn this basic method for Multiple ply doors, you can foremost retire your chisel for a decent File or Rasp and only use your chisel where it is the Best tool for the job.

Here you go! It's not easy finding a tutorial for a hollow core, but I knew it could be done because my uncle made one years ago out of a hollow door. Good luck with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu5glJGz6Rk

we just cut ours in half, added a hinge to the bottom of the top, and another to the top of the bottom, put a ledge over the top edge of the bottom and attached a pin to close the two together when I don't want the top open ..

This post should help. https://lifeonsummerhill.com/diy-exterior-dutch-door/