I have a door (utility entry) that is tight against the hinge side, but gaps against the strike side. Easy fix seems to be straightening the hinges a little (where the flat meets the bend around the pin) so the leaves don't touch as tightly, thus pushing the door over a little. Has anyone ever done this and is there a good way to do it? 1/8" over will look perfect, but that is more than you can get by putting shims under the hinge.
Cheers, Shawn
You may be able to accomplish what you want by either changes hinges that have a different swage, or swage/straighten the leaves on the ones already mounted.
Take a look at the following hinge catalog and scroll down a bit to the swaged hinge section.
IIRC, at one time I actually saw a tool for doing this on a mounted door, but can't find a hint of it anywhere.
Easier still, simply shim the hinge. Put cardboard between the door jam and the hinge. Use the Yellow Legal Pad backing type cardboard. By using 1 to 4 shims on each hinge you can also take out sag pretty accurately.
I always used to stick a nailset in between the hinge leaves and then close the door until the gap got right.
Quick and dirty old carpenter's trick.
Tom (dirty old carpenter - not quick)
Regards, Tom.
Thos. J. Watson - Cabinetmaker
Agreed. I use playing cards for small needs.
Body work trick as well. Were finesse does not work, force does.
Many thanks for the info Karl. I feel less foolish about this endeavor now that I know there is a word for it!! Methinks it will be safer to remove the hinges from the door and screw them into some 2x4s then use the nail-in-the-leaves trick. Alas, as the original post indicated, 1/8" seems too wide a gap for simple shimming--the hinge would stand proud of the mortise. So off to some un-swage.
Cheers, Shawn
PS: On your vise/hammer technique... do you grab the leaf, put in the pin, and tap to get the right shape? I am sure it takes some skill, but am I understanding the approach?
Idiot machine... it should say: "Off to un-swage I go."
"Rima Neas" wrote
Don't count on many recognizing the term these days. :)
Methinks it will be safer to remove
To swage a small hinge (one that will fit in it's jaws the full length), a machinist vice makes it quick and easy. To do a longer hinge may require a vice and some judicious hammer taps against an anvil (or the top face of the vice).
(Had to swage a 36" piano hinge to go on a blanket chest recently and it took a combination of a vice, and an old horseshoeing "stall jack" from my farrier days (small anvil that you can carry into a stall, stick in the ground and use to shape a horseshoe without having to get out from under the horse)).
Swaging a hinge is an intuitive process when you look closely at the leaves, the barrel of the hinge, and the jaws of the vice. To modify a swaged hinge to fit the circumstances is where the "nailset trick" comes in.
It's much easier to do than explain ;) ... good luck with it.
You're not trying to center the door in the frame, are you? The hinge side gap is usually smaller for a reason.
RRather than surgery on the hinges and the resulting alignment issues with the trim, wouldn't it be easier to add a thin lamination to the trim to close the gap?
You quoted my post instead of asking the OP, and I can't tell you that since I'm not there.
He asked about "bending" hinges" ... that's the only issue I responded to.
Maybe ... but that said, adding "lamination to the trim" would not fix any door "alignment issues" I've ever seen in the building business, but there's always a first time ...
I never knew it had a name! I have heard of swaging rifle barrels for fit, swaging bullets, and swaging as a machining process.
I feel like Jethro Bodine. You know, the scene where he comes in with a huge tree saw and a hammer and tells Jed, "I know what I'm gonna be Uncle Jed, I'm gonna be me a brain surgeon!"
All these years, I too thought like your grandpa that I was just bending hinge leaves. I have "swaged them" in a large machinist's vise I have by marking them with an index mark (to tell how much I have bent them) and then using a piece of 4X4 whacked with a large hammer.
I have even given doors a love tap while in place after replacing the jamb side with much longer screws to keep from tearing up the jamb. I have someone keep pressure on the door by lifting from the knob to control bouncing, and then I give it tap using a small sledge with a
4x4 against the hinge. It works great.I wonder if I can get more money for that know that I am "in the know" about it... ;^)
Probably not. But looking concerned at your client and telling him your diagnosis is "I am not sure.... we may have to swage" sure sounds a lot better than we probably just need to adjust the hinges.
Swaging... I love it. Wait till I spring that one on the boys! I can see it now. "Looks like you need to swage them sombitches a little bit and you'll be fine". I can see the looks of panic when I start to walk off.
Still chuckling...
Robert
My experience with swaging has been limited to making cable terminations (i.e.: mechanical distortion of the metal end termination to fill the spaces around the wires of a cable).
Lew
wrote
Hell yeah, you bet, Bubba!
Like a PhD in Education these days, you don't have to know shit, all you gotta do is walk the talk!
Y'all oughta by yaself a beginning machinist's kit.
I'da thought that bullet swaging woulda done it for the purposes of concept embracement... but I reckon I coulda been wrong.
We need to find language to deal with this phenomenon without getting too sexual about it.
You go first...
Regards, Tom.
Thos. J. Watson - Cabinetmaker
"Lew Hodgett" wrote
My experience with swaging has been putting in eyes on the end of aircraft cable for gym equipment. I have the cable cutters and swaging tools in the garage. You would be amazed of all the things you will use these for when you have them available. Cost me about a hundred bucks about 25 years ago and I have used it many times since.
I had to hide the cable cutters from my wife though. She used to steal them and try to use them as wire cutters and pliers!
One common use for these, that I have done many times, is to make up some cables for a diagnal brace on a gate. Just buy eyebolts and a turnbuckle and swage the carefully measured cables to them. Drill holes for the eyebolts at the corner of the gate. put in the eyebolts and screw the turnbuckle onto eyebolts in the middle. Tighten the whole thing up and the gate goes back into a square shape! It doesn't sag any more.
Yeah, I know, if the gate had been built right in the first place, it shouldn't sag. But it is a quick fix that lasts for years and years. I have had big gates stay true for 25 years with this fix. Just need to tighten the turnbuckle a little every few years is all.
Lee Michaels wrote: ...
...
A couple loops of #10 wire and a winding stick in the middle works just fine, too.... :)
--
Yaa....but, my solution is purtier!! :)
Technically known as a "Spanish Windlass".
Lew
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