Doors Lock holes?

[James]

I'm replacing all my door locks and the new ones require 2 1/8 hole the existing holes are 1/4 to small. Whats the best way to expand the the holes?

Thanks

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Drilling a larger hole using a hole saw is the easy part. The hard part is getting it aligned properly.

Make a plug of sorts in the existing hold. It does not have to be perfect, or even round. It just has to be about the same thickness of the door and go across the center of the hole. This will serve to center the pilot drill as you cut through the larger diameter with a hole saw.

Drill through the first side and when the pilot drill comes through, drill from the opposite side. Ed

[Doug Miller]

Do a Google search. This topic was discussed extensively in this group a few months ago.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[John Manders]

I would use a hole saw and clamp a guide bush to the door to eliminate wander. The guide bush is simply a piece of hardwood through which you have already used the hole saw.

John

[Lew Hodgett]

Maintaining registration will be the most difficult part.

There are at least 2-3 different ways to do it.

Might want to try this one.

You want a piece of stock 1-7/8" OD x about 3" lg with a pilot hole drilled thru the longitudinal axis.

Make sure this piece will slip thru the existing hole in the door and the hole saw pilot drill will slip in and out of the pilot hole.

Slip the round piece over the pilot drill of a 2-1/8" hole saw, then into hole in door.

Drill about 1/2" deep, then remove round piece and complete the hole drilling.

A word of caution:

Clamp a piece of waste material to the back side of the door so that any break out is eliminated.

The above is a piece of cake. It just takes time and a little patience.

I had to do it several times while building a boat.

HTH

[Leon]

I do this quite often. With the proper size hole saw, drill a hole centered through a piece of plywood that is approximately 5" by 12". Clamp that piece of plywood so that it is evenly centered or spaced over the old hole. Eyeball close always works for me. Use that hole in the plywood to start and guide hole saw.

[George M. Kazaka]

[Trent©]

Scribe the new hole diameter by running a pencil at the end of an adjustable square. Set it to 1/4"...make sure you allow for the pencil tip...and run it around the existing hole.

Then use a rotary rasp on the end of a drill to knock off the excess...or use a RotoZip or sabre saw to cut it off. If you use a sabre saw, make sure you use a metal cutting blade and go slowly.

Good luck.

Have a nice week...

Trent

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity!

[Silvan]

Extremely extensively. That thread ran into several billion kilowords I'm sure.

[--Shiva--]

do NOT misdrill the distance from the edge of door, or you get to spend some time fixing things with a chisel, if it can be fixed.. MAG makes some 'fix the goof' plates if things get too bad off.

--Shiva--

[Trent©]

About how to take off a 1/4" of stock?

I would be surprised if anything in that thread pertained...or would apply...to his particular problem.

Have a nice week...

Trent

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity!

[Renata]

The center for the larger holes may not line up with the existing center.

Several good ideas have already been posted.

Another one I came across somewhere not too long ago was to attach a thin piece of ply on both sides of the hole, mark (on the ply) the center for the new locksets, drill, remove plywood. Assumes new hole will encompass old hold, centered or not. Otherwise you need to fill the old hole. Heck, if you properly position the ply pieces (say to the edge of the door, and some set distance vertically) you can reuse the ply on additional doors (kinda like the guide bush things another poster mentioned, I'd guess).

Renata

smart, not dumb for email

[Silvan]

The essence of it was the guy deciding to use Brasso, save his old hardware, and forget about drilling new holes entirely, meanwhile the Wreck kept feeding him ideas for how to do it for months. We covered everything anyone in human history has ever done to a door at least 50 times over I'd say. :)

[Trent©]

The Wreck...the neighborhood tavern for people who don't wanna go out in the cold! lol

Have a nice week...

Trent

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity!

[EL]

[Howard Lee Harkness]

Interesting tool. I have a similar problem, but this tool won't quite handle it. I have some doors that were outfitted with obsolete lock hardware that is no longer in production (company apparently went out of business over 10 years ago), and the setback is 1/2 inch off from that required for the hardware I want to install (electronically- operated lockset with remote). The hole is the right size, just offset by 1/2 inch.

What is the best approach to fix this? Basically, I'm hoping for a solution that doesn't involve getting new doors.

-- Howard Lee Harkness Texas Certified Concealed Handgun Instructor

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