Hi G Don & welcome- I’m sure you’ll get any questions you have answered on here.
I’ll kick start things for you, but it’ll help a lot to know what door you have in mind- if you can post a couple of pictures- if you have any trouble there’s instructions on the main site page on how to upload images.
The bars on the outside front of the door are ‘pressure bars’. those don’t slide but rotate instead- the large handwheel that projects from the large drum, rotates these bars via a system of internal gears- spur gears, bevel gears, crown and pinion gears, and even worm gearing.
The bars slowly rotate to turn the cams on the end of each bar, each has a heavy offset pin or dowel, which engages in the keeps mounted on the frame. They pull the door in tight by a camming action on the pins.
The main boltwork varies, although many are also geared drive- turning the secondary ‘bolt throw’ handwheel, which is usually smaller, drives the locking bolts on the inside of the door in and out via a long spindle through the door, which often has a spur gear on the back. The boltwork on the inside has mating racks which engage with the spur gear to drive the bolts in and out.
There are many variations though, which is why it’ll help to know what door you have in mind.
Some of the big American doors, round and rectangular, only had the pressure mechanism on the door, and the boltwork was driven by the frame. I’m assuming you plan to do one with it all contained on the door though, so the boltwork will more than likely be geared or cam driven.
Also I’m not sure what you meant by ‘front safe panel’, as if you plan to only do the front you won’t need to worry about the inside boltwork on the back of door working. But if you plan to have moving pressure bars on the front, and all the locking bolts sliding in and out on the inside it’ll amount to making the whole door- there will be that much machine work and fabrication involved in making it working, you might as well make your own spoked hand wheel- it’ll probably be one of the easiest of the parts to do, and a lot cheaper than buying an antique one off a real door.
Let us know a bit more about your plans and hopefully be able to help when needed
