Hanging doors - tools to buy

One of these;

Yes, I know you can use a chisel and the handle of a hammer - but these are so much better.

And make up a sawboard.

It sounds like you have most of what you need. Chapter and verse here:

A drill for the lock fitting plus a set of some short auger bits is handy.

The small router will help with hinge rebates (you can make your own jig). Something like the Bosch GOF 600 is nice for this type of task.

A powered plane for tweaking the edge can be handy.

You can buy special hinges for use with routers, you don't have to clean out square corners, the hinges themselves are all "rounded".

The difficult bit is fitting the doors into their reccesses. Electric plane & belt sander comes in handy here. Practice with the plane first before using it on anything of value.

Be aware that some interior doors can't be cut down by much, they are a wooden frame with hollow interior filled with some sort of crap lattice. Also the lock/hinges can only go in a particular place, ie wooden blocks fixed inside the lattice.

Non-standard openings are therefore an extra problem.

AS TMH says, a sawboard is just so much easier than the plane. Would he take the job on I wonder? A house full is probably a day's work for a specialised chippy (an ordinary chippy won't necessarily do). A no brainer I reckon

If usually have to cut too much off for this so keep the thin wooden batten that was at the bottom, remove the cover and glue it into place in the (new) bottom of the door.

Like my house where the door frames look like they were designed by picasso. I often take the oppurtunity to replace the frames at the same time.

Rubbish.

You have a decent home-made jig: route the hinge recesses in 5 mins max.

Very little chance of going wrong - and has a nice finish and consistent depth to the recesses.

The man who hung our doors was a professional and he reckoned to do three a day.

Jonathan

Screwdriver Chisel Hammer (or mallet) Plane

I have a new house ... and I did not have to fit doors (although have fitted plenty on last build)

The professional joinery company who made the doors (to my design) used a hammer & chisel to fit hinges .... I asked them about using a router ... to much of a faff, too easy to slip. Time is money for these guys ... so if they don't use one ... its ain't worth having.

All the doors were solid Ash .. and pretty hard as well.

Cut your self a wedge, and use a flat pry bar ... save a lot of money

That's good to hear. It means I'm only .....err...2 a day.... behind a pro (on a bad day). The biggest factor in my experience is how straight (or not) the frames are...

Pretty slow - even I could do that!

(my retired chippy mate reckoned on about 12 to 18 a day into fitted but previously unused linings)

Neither of which are half as good. Try one!

For me, I'd rather do it well than quickly and I can't do both!

/The man who hung our doors was a professional and he reckoned to do three a day.

Jonathan /q

Suspect he retired early....

Jim K

In an 8 hour day that's a door every 30 minutes roughly. I find it hard to believe anyone can achieve that and do a good job.

Jonathan

I wasn't paying him, so not my worry. We had a fixed price contract with the main builder.

Jonathan

Umm ... please snip;!. Thanks..

If it's all new build the same door and same frame you can, once you get it rolling, using jigs to do the cutting with, and I think that whilst thats on the high side it is do able..

Its the differing sizes and other faffing around re measuring resetting tools etc that's time consuming..

It isn't worth having *for them*. I could easily imagine that a professional who is using the tools all day could be x10 faster than me with a chisel, and x3 faster than me with a router.