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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    Default Hinge Route for Interior Doors

    I have used a router a few times before. I'm certainly no expert. However, I may be facing the task of routing some interior doors for hinge placement and am wondering a few things. Is this very difficult? Are there kits/templates out there that aid in this process? Any tips that can make this task easier?

    I would appreciate any input you all may have.

    Thanks,
    Mike

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Wellington, New Zealand
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    59
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    22

    Default

    Hiya,

    I normally make a jig up from scrap MDF. Measure from the outer edge of the router bit to the outer edge of your base and use that as the distance from the edge of the hinge to the side of the jig. My jigs take about 10 minutes to make. I presonally prefer to use a laminate trimmer as it's easier to hold the door and route the hole, but using a normal router works just as well. I use a straight cutting bit.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Queenslander
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    206

    Default

    Mike,

    Big Red didn’t mention the template guide or collar guide that attaches to the bottom of your router. When making your template from MDF or similar you will need to make it exactly large enough so that the mortice cut by the router has the same dimensions as the hinge as the collar is always a greater diameter than the cutter. That is simply a matter of measuring the difference of the outside diameter of the template guide –v- the diameter of your straight bit and adjusting the template profile accordingly.

    Alternatively you could use a shank-bearing cutter such as a pattern makers bit. Your template would need to be thick enough to allow just a few milimetres depth of cut without the bit destroying the template. If the bearing is the same diameter as the bit, your template would be exactly the same size as the hinge.

    When you cut the mortice the corners will be rounded and will require a touch-up with a chisel.
    Mal

  5. #4
    Join Date
    May 1999
    Location
    Tooradin,Victoria,Australia
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    73
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    Default

    or buy the rounded corner hinges.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
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    Pambula
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    Default

    Red Neck, BigRed's method doesn't need the template guide. You use the base of the router against a fence instead. The jig is a three or two-sided fence that guides the router. Same principle but easier to make. IMHO.
    "I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."

  7. #6
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Queenslander
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    Silent C,

    Interesting concept balancing a 150 mm diameter 3hp router base on a 25mm door edge. For an 85mm butt hinge you would need a jig about 235 mm wide to trap the base plate over the work area.

    Conversely using a collar guide, the router could sit on a 300 mm x 100 mm template say, to support the base. With a little modification the template could clamp on to the face of the door providing additional stability. Either template would take just a few minutes to make with some strips of MDF, double sided tape and a pattern bit with a shank bearing. The profile using a 5/8 straight cutter in a ¾ inch collar guide would only need to be about 90 mm x 30 mm. Since the router would span the profile and a further 70 mm of the template a considerable amount of support and stability would be provided. Less chance to mar the door or injure the operator. Just my .02 cents worth.

    , good point about the rounded hinges!
    Mal

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Chicago, Illinois USA
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    2

    Default

    Gentlemen, the main issue I believe the original poster is having is he purchased the 6-panel replacement doors without the Jamb. This requires him to drill the knob hole and route and match up the hinges so they are even with the routed hinges that were left on the old jamb.

    They do sell hinge templates here in the US as I'm sure they do in your beautiful country.

    A good visual of this can be found half way down the page here:

    http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/d...hang/solid.htm

    Just wondering how much of a help they are and how difficult the procedure actually is.

    Any suggestions to make sure all new routed hinges in the door match the ones in the old jamb still up on the walls?

    BTW, the hinges are rounded.

    Thanks all!

  9. #8
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    Aug 2003
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    Red Neck,

    Didn't intend to get into a debate about it but having done a couple of them myself, just wanted to point out to you that BigRed didn't 'forget' the template guide because the way he does it, you don't need one.

    Anyway, try this one Mike: http://www.newwoodworker.com/edgerouting.html
    "I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."

  10. #9
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Queenslander
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    206

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    Silent C,

    Nothing wrong with a healthy debate – this one elicited a couple of web sites that probably will give Mike a better insight than my ramblings. I noticed my misinterpretation of Big Reds post just after I initiated my own reply but thought I would leave my post unedited. I felt that the method I alluded to probably had a little more safety going for it since the template offered more support for the base of the router.

    As an aside I found ‘jig technology’ an interesting topic covered by writers such as Patrick Spielman and Ernie Conover and have built and used many of their ideas. But by far the most informative books I have read on routing were written by Pat Warner. He analyses every conceivable angle in their use and raises issues on router science that other writers don’t mention. Warner deals extensively with hand held routing and the development of jigs that offer both safety and efficiency. So much so that my own routers spend less time in the table and more time ‘hand held’.

    Illini, that takes me to your reply. The jigs that you directed our attention to are not readily (if at all) available in Australia. As our population is less than ten per cent of the USA the market for such components is very light on. There is another angle here as well and it may have something to do with the isolation of this country up until we were invaded by Boeing in the mid fifties. Because of the time to import ‘gizmos’ by ship in the pre-fifties era the average bloke in this country became very inventive and resourceful. Many specialist tools were constructed out of packing crates, fence wire and old kerosene tins or whatever else he could find in the tip. That culture still exists to the point that some pride is displayed in home-made tools, jigs and other ‘gizmos’. My father-in-law used to make drill bits from nails by filing down one side. He lived on the land and harware shops were something you visited once in a dogs age. Do they still serve those magnificent spare ribs at Millers Pub in downtown Chicago?

    Regards
    Mal

  11. #10
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    Aug 2003
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    Red Neck,

    You're right, it is an interesting subject. The wife gave me 'Woodworking with the Router' for Christmas and it certainly opens your eyes to a lot of different ways of doing things.

    My main quibble with templates is that you have to be quite accurate when you cut them out and for enclosed shapes, they can be a bit fiddly and time consuming if you don't have the right tools. A scroll saw would probably be ideal. Then you still have to work out a way of clamping them to the job. However for odd shapes, they are the only way to fly. I've got a number of guides for my routers but don't use them very often.

    I tend to be a bit lazy and I end up just clamping a right angle support to the door, use the router edge guide as a width stop and clamp another couple of off-cuts at either end to limit the travel, or just do it by eye. Bit of a pain if you had to do a heap of them.
    "I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."

  12. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Chicago, Illinois USA
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    Default

    Red Neck,

    Mike and I were in the local Home Depot yesterday picking something out and stoped by the door area and saw one of thier "experts" and here was his recommendation:

    One, either buy pre-hung door replacements and then the only thing I have to replace is the molding (rather than drill the knob holes and match up hinges with the old ones on the old Jamb)

    or

    Second, stay with the doors we have and to notch out the hinges, take the door that came off that room, place it on top of the new door, trace where the hinges were excatly, take a chisel and chisel out the area. He stated you must be careful not to miss a spot and not to chip the door. He said use the same procedure when drilling the knob hole (use the old hole as a guide).

    At this point, we have no idea which method to use. The pre-hung doors with the Jamb seem a bit easier but what fun would that be.

    Thoughts.

    BTW...Chicago is awesome, best city in the US hands down. The ribs and beef and steaks are to die for.

    Anytime you want to switch, you can come take my place for one month and I will take yours. The problem is I may never return.

  13. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
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    Between a rock & a hard place (vic)
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    Default

    Originally posted by illini
    ...Chicago is awesome, best city in the US hands down. The ribs and beef and steaks are to die for....
    Although our beef is quite good - it's not to die for :eek:

  14. #13
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    Sep 2003
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    Elimbah, QLD
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    Eastie,

    Was that a polite way of saying we don't have any mad-cow disease in Oz?

    Rocker

  15. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Perth, WA
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    53
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    Default

    Has anyone considered using a stright cut bit and routing from the flat side of the door not the edge. Then set the plunge depth to the width of the hinge plate and rout along the edge where required. A jig for this would surely be alot simpler to knock up. The ends would have to be finished by chisel much the same as the corners with the method allready discussed.

    Just a thought!!

    Anyone with any experience??
    Keep the wood chips flying !

    Jarrah

  16. #15
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    Aug 2003
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    Jarrah,

    Haven't tried that but I think you would have two problems with that approach.

    First is that it is easier to clean out the rounded corners with a chisel than it would be to straighten the ends of the mortice, which would be rounded because of the shape of the bit. I suppose if you weren't fussy about it, you could carry on past the width of the hinge by at least the radius of the bit.

    Second, you would probably get tearout at one end of the mortice.
    "I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to."

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