Hanging a Door

Our first project is going to be hanging a door. Make sure you purchase the correct size door for the frame. Place the door in the frame. Most doors need minor alterations to get a good fit. Using two small wedges, lift the door off the floor. A 2-millimeter gap is required between the door and the frame. You can use a quarter to gauge the gap. Then, mark the inside of the door for any planing down. Next, plane down to the pencil mark. When planing timber, only plane with the grain and never across it. Try the door at intervals so a good fit can be achieved.

Now rub the planed edge down with a medium grain glass paper. Mark the position of the hinges onto the door next. Square this across with a setsquare. Now place the hinge onto the door and draw around it with a pencil. Next you want to measure the hinge and transfer half this measurement onto the door. This is the depth at which the hinge will need to be set into the door. Now this area of the door needs to be removed with a chisel. When using this, make sure that the flat edge or bottom is used to cut into the timber. This will give you a good straight clean edge. Also never use a hammer, only a wooden mallet.

Once the perimeter has been cut, turn the chisel over and mark off small areas to be removed. Now don’t try to cut it all out in one piece and remove small shavings of the timber. Continue this chopping until the depth you marked and then give the hinge a try. Mark the position of the screw holes onto the door with a pencil. Drill some small pilot holes because now you can fit the hinge. Why drill the pilot holes? This will stop the door from splitting when you screw on the hinge. Of course, repeat the same process with the other hinge.

Replace the door back into the frame with the hinges fitted. Mark the position of the hinge onto the doorframe this time. We will use the split pin variety of hinges, which are easy to dismantle. This is important because it allows us to easily mark the location of the hinge dimensions onto the doorframe. Mark around the edge of the hinge. Remove the marked area with a chisel and the chopping method as you did on the door. Fix half of the hinge onto the doorframe. Lift the door into place, lining up the two halves of the hinge. Replace the hinge pins and test the door.