A friend is purchasing 9 interior 6-panel doors of various sizes for her parents home. According to her they are mostly closet doors. She is purchasing the door only and no frame. Obviously, this means all doors will need to be drilled and mortised for hinges and she asked me if I would do it.
Normally, I would do a single door or two of my own and never worried about a template and routed the hinge by placing guides for the router based on my measurements, but it was time consuming. I don't want to spend all day or two doing 9 doors, therefore, I think it's best if I use a template. I'm seeking suggestions on what template to use/buy or suggestions on getting through the job fast.
I always just do them by hand. There are jigs to use with round-corner hinges and a router, but how will you use that if you need to match up to square-corner existing mortises in the existing door frames?
Could it make sense to use pre-hung doors? If you're just getting slabs then it's hard to see how you might really save time with a jig. Chiselling out a mortise isn't really all that time consuming.
I've always done them by hand too. Without a jig, I'd likely mess up trying to use a router. I have two tools that you hammer in to cut the hinge size. (One for the larger size hinge, and one for the smaller 'common' hunge sizes). I'm not sure waht they are called, but they work great. I bought them at a tool auction, and like them. But even without them, I can chisel a hinge out in no time. Just make sure the chisel is real sharp.
If the OP is matching existing hinges and door knob on the existing door frames, a pre-drilled door wont work.
It's easy enough to make a template...2x4 with masonite or ply cut to size/shape of the hinges fastened to 2x4; index 2x4 to top or bottom of door, clamp to door, rout.
A little trickier in your case. Are the jamb mortices round or square corner? If round, a 1/2" router bit wil most likely match; if square, you will have to chisel out the corners.
Is the hinge spacing consistent on all the jambs? Probably is but if not, forget a one size fits all template,
For square corner hinges after a routerd mortise, a chisel or a square cutting tool will do the corners.
For starters, I've never chiseled out mortises. I've always used a router. Therefore, I don't want to start practicing on someone else new doors nor want to do 9 of them when it'll require some time for me with just one.
Prehung doors are out of the question, she already bought the doors. But even so, I'd rather drill and mortise 9 doors than remove the entire door and jamb then reinstall 9 new ones.
I will stop at the house to view the hinges. If they are all the same, I will remove one, take home and make myself a template. Chiseling isn't my thing. I'm never consistent nor level. I prefer the router.
I agree, making a template/jig is easy but at this time, I'm uncertain of the hinge sizes or shape. I will be visiting the home today and check the hinges, then remove one to make a jig. I'm hoping they are all the same, which they should be.
| For starters, I've never chiseled out mortises. I've always used a | router. Therefore, I don't want to start practicing on someone else new | doors nor want to do 9 of them when it'll require some time for me with | just one. | | Prehung doors are out of the question, she already bought the doors. But | even so, I'd rather drill and mortise 9 doors than remove the entire | door and jamb then reinstall 9 new ones. |
In that case, it might be worth taking a look at HD or a lumber yard. I've seen people use aluminum router templates. Some are long templates that can do 3 hinges at once. They look very handy, but I don't know what they cost.
With all due respect, Jerry is wrong. I've bought many pre bored doors and they worked fine. Door knob height is standard, so unless the person that installed the doors previously screwed them up, they will work. Take your tape and measure existing handle heighth and check it against a pre bore, they should be the same
| With all due respect, Jerry is wrong. I've bought many pre | bored doors and they worked fine. | Door knob height is standard, so unless the person that | installed the doors previously screwed them up, they will | work.
Nothing is necessarily standard when you're actually doing the job. If you replaced 6'8" doors in modern door frames, in something like a recent condo development, you were lucky that everything lined up. If you were replacing doors in an older house it's almost certain that you'd need to trim the door and that nothing would line up exactly. In most cases the striker plate wouldn't even be similar. All the doors in my house have settled, so none are square. They all use old fashioned doors and hinges. They were all hung by hand more than a century ago, at a time when there was no reason to care that every door frame have hinges in exactly the same spot. If I bought pre-bored/pre-mortised doors I'd have to do a lot of filling.
That's what I was gonna say...... If the doors were being replaced into factory made frames, (which came with a door), there may be a standard, but if the house is older, the frames were likely made for that house, by hand, and there are no standards. And like you said, there is settling and other stuff to consider.
If the doors are being replaced, it's likely they are older than the factory made ones.
In my own house, there was a door missing on a room. I had a door that would fit the frame, but the striker was off by around 5". I used the door, but I had to fill the old striker hole in the frame with wood putty. Fortunately the hinges were darn near right, but even there I used a a little putty to make up about 1/4". Some people would replace the frame, but I'm not that picky. I was happy to just get a door on there and not cost me anything other than my time and a can of putty.
I agree that some suppliers have pre-bored interior door slabs (slabs means just the door, not pre-hung) and some do not. I think I found locally that Home Depot has them and Lowes does not, or vice versa.
If they are standard size doors, not custom size doors, the choice of pre-bore or not pre-bore may be available by checking with different suppliers. Or, if they are custom sized doors, usually the custom order can specify pre-bored or not pre-bored.
Of course, if the are pre-bored, that will probably mean modifying the holes in the door frame to accommodate the new door latches. But, that is easier than doing the doorknob bore in my opinion.
Also, the pre-bored or not pre-bored question does not have anything to do with the hinges as far as I know.
As far as what the buy for a template kit, I had the same question. I ended up buying a template kit at Home Depot and I had a choice of 2 types, I think. I ended up buying the slightly less expensive version which had some kind of spring-loaded metal clips that were supposed to hold the template in place. It didn't work very well and I wished that I had bought the most expensive template kit that they had instead of the one I bought. I don't have any more details on that, so I can't tell the OP which model I bought and what my choices were. I just know that I would definitely buy the more expensive template next time.
Okay, maybe a century old house they wouldn't work, but anything built within 20 -30 years they should. I replaced 26 doors in my home and all were spot on, besides trimming the bottoms a bit for carpet. The OP did not give the age of the house, so yes there are LOTS of variables YMMV
I do , and they ain't cheap . Meanie's best bet is to make a template from one of the hinges . MEANIE make sure your template is closed on all 4 sides so it fully supports the router , or use a router with an oversize bottopm plate so it is fully supported for the whole mortise . 40+ years in building trades has taught me a few things ... among them that bee hive components don't need the level of precision that a $35,000 reception desk requires .
As an amateur carpenter I replaced several interior doors and mortised for the hinges using a router and commercially available hinge template jig that cost about $10. I stacked the old door on top of the new and scribed the hinge positions using a combination square. I purchased another template jig for the lockset and found it just as easy to use a chisel instead of a router for the strike. I also had to rip about 1/4 each from the edge in order for the door to fit the frame. Each door took about two hours not including painting.
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