Mortise locks

My brother has 17 doors in his house that need mortise locks installed. He wishes to cut the mortises with the doors hanging. I would like to know if there is a cheap, simple way to bore for the mortises that is better than hand-drilling. I have bored out many mortises with my drill press, but never free-hand.

Reply to
scritch
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A door lock mortising router jig sounds like what you're looking for, but the ones made strong and safe enough to be used on a hanging door are probably $400. Whereas, there are several decent, inexpensive jigs meant to be used on a door on its side.

A pair of homemade door blocks to hold the door on its side costs less than a cup of coffee. I can't think of too many woodworking tasks that are easier than taking a door on and off of it's hinges. :-)

If you're installing simple cylindrical locks, you can find a decent jig for those, that work on a hung door, for well under 50 bucks.

What are you installing?

Reply to
-MIKE-

I know, I know. I would take the doors off, myself. My brother does things his own way.

Reply to
scritch

This is pretty much the industry standard for locks, and has been for many decades. Nice piece of equipment!

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you are talking about plain drilled out locks with only the tongue and strike mortised out, in the industry these aren't considered "mortise" locks. Just plain door locks.

There are a dozen versions of this model, which will do the standard 2

3/8 backset with 15/16" or 1" tongue cylinder hole.

If he isn't good with a chisel, I think Amazon has an IRWIN model that has a router guide that will attach to the door and you can router out the small mortise on the tongue cylinder instead of chiseling it out.

For an installer, an chisel would no doubt be faster, but for someone that doesn't use tools a lot, chiseling out those little mortises can take a lot of time.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

FWIW, I do this for a living. I never bore, mortise and fit unless the door is hung.

I actually don't know anyone that does unless they are working at the door plant.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

There ya go.

Have you found it to be easier that way, or what?

Reply to
-MIKE-

LOL. I think I would let him do things.

Max

Reply to
Max

"scritch" wrote: .

This is a case where "cheap" & "simple" are mutually exclusive terms.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

No kidding. That's a real understatement. I knew a lock guy that I used to run into that sub contracted installation of full mortise locks. He only installed top line Baldwins, etc. NO bored locks, ever. Full box mortises were all he did.

He did one to two a day in the upscale neighborhoods for several of the high end remodelers. I was stunned when he told me what the PC mortising machine cost and I thought he was kidding me. Nope.

Then he told me what he charged for the installation of full mortise lock and matching deadbolt. $375 - $425.

He had a three week wait. I thought he was a pretty sharp old guy after that!

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

" snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote in news:fd364295- snipped-for-privacy@p11g2000yqe.googlegroups.com:

This afternoon's excitement upstairs of my son's: She locked herself out. Neede help calling a locksmith. Locksmith came really fast (~20 min) and drilled out the lock (didn't go to see the process). Charged $340. Girl was happy, then locked herself out again. Putty knife did the job this time. Wipe your monitor.

Reply to
Han

A great deal easier, and more important, less hard on the door. If I am re-locking or retrofitting, I go in after the finishing or painting is done.

I will not go in, fit locks and install them, then take them off, store them, then go reinstall them after finishing. So when you "lock out" a house, you are tail end charlie.

1) You cannot take a chance on scuffing or scratching finishes from handling doors when removing or reinstalling. No matter how careful you are, you will slip somewhere and the door will need a refinish. So you leave them on the hinges, then put the locks on in place 2) When you install a door, the installation of the frame and the door reveals, final placement of the door in the jamb, etc., are more of a feel you get rather than installing with a level or square. Twisted jambs, uneven floors, etc., all make the tongue/strike relation very relative. In a perfect world, the door is in a square frame that is plumb and level. You can get close, but no cigar most of the time. If you are in a tract home or production home, the "close" tolerance rule applies. You move the strike, fill the screw hole with a sliver, them mortise out to the new position. This is common with shop built doors that are fitted door-to-jamb in a plant and bored and mortised accordingly.

If you have the door hung on site and it looks great, reveals all perfect, tight fit against the jambs, etc., you can mark the door for lock/strike location, and since you aren't moving the door, when it closes it will always return to the same exact place. This makes your measured and carefully marked door and jamb line up every time.

If you mark the door and the jamb and remove the door from the jamb, it may not hang back the same way. With today's crappy hardware, I have seen many, many bent hinge pins that still work fine, but hold the door a certain way. If I take a door off the hinges by pin removal, I now label the pins. I learned this the hard way, and you can't seem to spot "those" hinges until it is too late. So now, look at the three hinged doors that are so popular. These hinges are pretty flimsy since they now use three instead of just two. NOTE: The third hinge BTW is to assist in keeping the masonite/particle board doors from warping in the jamb, not to make it a better door. I have removed doors for refinishing (oops... trim carpenter error!) that were these 6 panel masonite doors, and found that after working on them for a couple of hours they have warped on the saw horses.

I don't want to wrestle with rehanging a potentially warped door, wagging around a door in a house to get it to my work area, or winding up with doors have a less than *click* close when I am finished with the hardware.

For a guy like me, it is easier to mark, drill and chisel once to get a good fit. I mark, drill, then sit on a five gallon paint bucket and do the rest of the fitting. Also, when drilling the tongue cylinder, I find it much easier to gauge left and right by keeping the drill parallel to the door by doing it this way. Depending on the lock/latch/strike, I can go start to finish (marking to final adjustment) in +/- 30 minutes.

In the end, the door isn't moved so the finish isn't in danger (no $$$ for finish repair, even if it someone else that knocks over the door or drags their nail bags across it), and it always goes back to the original spot after the hardware is prepped and installed.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

LMAO!!

No kidding... after that first bill, I'll bet creative thinking was in full gear!

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

wrote in

Bingo ... and ONLY until _you_ get finished will the bank release the remainder of the construction loan, something they will not do with a construction door still on.

I've had houses that were *completely* finished but for the damn construction door that only qualified for 70% release of funds as long as it was still in place ... on a $400K project that's a damned expensive door and hardware!

Reply to
Swingman

" snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote in news:01ebe6e2- snipped-for-privacy@y7g2000yqa.googlegroups.com:

Seemed like a sweet smart college kid, but more I will not say ...

Reply to
Han

Well, not only is that stupid on their part, but just brutal on yours. I would probably have a stroke on the spot of that happened to me...

I'm tellin' ya.... I ain't that strong!

I always used to fantasize about a banker's head as a cover for a 2" ball hitch. Think of the fun you could have with that one!

Personally, there are a few I know that I am hoping found gainful employment in the janitorial industry. It would sure suit their skill sets.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

Next time, be more thorough, will ya? :-)

I suppose with 17 doors, the OP should start on the least seen door, and 3-4 doors in, will have the drill down and the rest will be perfect.

Reply to
-MIKE-

My father's words still ring in my ears on the subject of bankers.

"If you can prove to the SOB's you don't need the money, the skies the limit on how much they will loan you, but God forbid you need the money, you're between a rock and a hard place."

(The cleaned up version).

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

I once got over good on a bank. I felt good for years. It was all legal and knew they didn't know what a piece of equipment was worth. I ended up getting 3 pieces that were worth 60,000.00 for 6800.00. Ive told the story at least 100 times and it still brings a smile to my face. :)

Reply to
evodawg

Robert, I agree on the Porter Cable. Mine is a 1950's version. I wouldn't loan it out and I'm not aware of anyone who would rent one. I also would not care to take on multiple mortise locks with speed bore and chisel.

Reply to
DanG

If I had the PC version of that vintage, I wouldn't even let anyone touch it, much less use it. I have only seen a small few over the years, and the old ones are much better made and to tighter tolerances than the newer ones.

And no one rents those things.

I don't have one myself, regardless of the age.

And in fact, I only install from scratch a box lock about every 18 months or so. It seems clients started spending more money on the castings and finishes, and less on the mechanical workings of locksets. Just doesn't seem to be much call for that type of installation anymore.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

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