A huge number of people do the right thing by thinking in advance about the entire process of renovation and any other changes to their apartment or their own home. If you want to change interior doors, you should thoroughly study all the nuances of this seemingly simple job.
It seems that everything is simple, I bought a door and put it in the required place. In fact, not only do you buy a door, you also need to polish it in order to install it correctly in the doorway. Important work includes: marking, inserting door hinges and much more.
In order not to lose a large amount of money due to a damaged product, and to correctly understand the issue, to understand what needs to be done and how, just read this article, in which you will find answers to all questions.
Special template for insertion
In order to conveniently and quickly install doors, you should use a special template for inserting door hinges. Thanks to the blank material, the procedure for installing a door in a doorway is significantly accelerated without loss of quality and the risk of unevenness and distortion. The template makes it easier to insert hinges and locks using a router.
Most likely, until now, you did not know about a milling cutter - a special tool for creating recesses for hinges. But before you get thoroughly acquainted with the device, you need to understand what a template is. In fact, the template is an important blank that completely matches the dimensions of the insert for the door hinges. Using it and a router, you can accurately, conveniently and very simply create the required recess of any length, width and depth, depending on your needs and tasks.
We figured it out. Next, is it worth buying a router and templates for it, just for a single case? The answer is quite predictable - no. If you can still buy a machine, although in some cases you can do it yourself, especially if there is a construction worker in the house, then you should not purchase expensive templates for a router. Real original options from manufacturers' factories will cost you a tidy sum, which will hit your wallet hard.
You should buy both a router and all the necessary templates only in two cases:
- If you are a professional and you need this tool to perform custom construction work.
- Or, when you have a huge house where you need to replace several dozen doors, about 10-20. In order not to suffer, but to quickly finish the job, you can buy a router that will definitely have time to justify itself.
If you are the owner of an apartment in a multi-storey building, then it is not recommended to spend a lot of money for a pair of 2-5 doors. It's easier to turn to specialists. They will do everything for you quickly, with high quality and relatively inexpensively.
For home craftsmen, a winning proposition would be to independently make a template from scrap materials: plywood, saws, etc. We will consider this outcome in more detail below.
Features of the device
If you have never heard of such a tool before, first you need to understand what a template for cutting door locks and hinges is. Essentially, this is a blank that matches the shape of the parts necessary for installing the fittings, which cut into the canvas or frame. It is due to this that it is possible to make the necessary recesses strictly along the given contours without much effort.
It doesn’t always make sense to use such a device for quickly inserting loops. The fact is that such factory-made tools have a considerable cost.
If we consider the costs of their acquisition, in the case of a one-time use of the template, the costs will not even approximately be recouped. Therefore, if you need to install a new door, but you are afraid of damaging it during the process of attaching the fittings, it is better to use the services of a specialist. But if you yourself are a specialist or are completely equipping your house with new doors, you may find this tool useful.
In addition, you should take into account that you can make a device like a template for installing hinges yourself. Of course, for this you also need to have certain skills and knowledge, but you can save a lot of money.
A template for inserting door hinges and locks with a router is a blank that facilitates the process of installing fittings
What tools are used to cut holes for hinges?
Basically, construction and installation specialists use a special machine – a milling cutter – to cut in door hinges. In some cases, improvised materials are used. However, it is important to understand that the further operational capabilities of the door, its distortion and respectable appearance depend on the quality of the grooves made for the hinges by a milling cutter. Therefore, you should not rely on manual processing of the recess for the hinges, but use a router.
As for the tools for making a template yourself, often at home, there is a fairly large list:
- Plywood sheet (preferably denser, i.e. thicker).
- The rail is 150 cm in length.
- Wooden beam.
- Board.
- Drill + screws, bolts and other fasteners.
- Electric jigsaw.
- Clamp + hand cutter for insertion.
We will cut out the necessary part from plywood using a jigsaw (it is advisable to prepare drawings in advance and outline a plan for future work). Speaking of the plan and step-by-step instructions, we’ll talk about it in detail below at the conclusion of the article.
Almost all other elements from the list of tools will be used to fasten the structure at the creation stage or already during use. And directly with the help of a device for inserting door hinges, the recess will be installed and the subsequent installation of the door into the doorway will take place.
Principle of using the tool
Let's look at how to correctly work with a template for installing loops. In fact, there is nothing complicated, since the principle of performing the work is obvious even to an inexperienced home craftsman. First you need to decide on the shape and size of the tool. To do this, you need to check the parameters of the available fittings and the device itself.
First of all, mark the position of the hinges on the frame and door leaf. After this, attach the template to the product and secure it in place. After cutting the material, the door hinges are inserted using a router. Please note that for mortise card hinges, it will be enough to remove a small layer of material from the corresponding structural parts. For hidden models you will need a deep recess. Accordingly, the type of template used is different.
If you need to install a lock, you can use a suitable template for inserting regular hinges with a router, or you can select a special model for this type of work. The task will be to deepen the plate from the end of the canvas with the exit point for the halyard tongue and crossbars, that is, the locking mechanism itself, as well as the counter plate on the opposite side of the box. For ease of work, you can use different attachments on a hand router.
Before inserting, you need to mark the position of the loops and secure the template
How to make a template for loops yourself?
Finally, we provide an exact plan for making the template yourself:
- We cut out a piece of plywood of the required dimensions and make six holes in it.
- We connect the block to the rail to create a limiter.
- In MDF we cut holes strictly along the contours of the drawing for the template. The work is carried out with a jigsaw.
- We attach pieces of plywood with cross cuts on top. We secure it all with bolts.
- To secure the template to the door, you need to attach it to the structure and push the pieces until they stop completely. Then you can insert the hinges into the door frame.
As a result, using this method you can make templates yourself without spending money on buying ready-made ones. The question of how to embed door hinges can be answered precisely - using a router. This tool is attached to the side of the door, in the place where the recess is supposed to be made; so as not to make a mistake, make a mark and draw the edges with a pencil.
We slightly adjust the tool to the required depth and turn it on. In a couple of minutes, the insert is ready. Everything is quite simple, and the buttons on the router are intuitive. If you have any questions, you can easily read the instructions for using the electric cutter. Thus, you will be able to answer for yourself exactly how to install door hinges correctly.
The procedure for manufacturing a device for inserting loops.
✔ Cutting the blanks. ✔ We make a base from the board. ✔ Cut the thrust strip with dimensions 50×20×580 mm. ✔ Cut a rectangular hole with a jigsaw.
✔ We refine it with a cylindrical cutter so that everything is as smooth as possible. ✔ We drill six through holes ø6.2 mm in the board to insert six hexagon head bolts.
Advice. In order to prevent the bolts from turning while screwing the wings, it is necessary to recess the heads of the bolts into the body of the base board of our device.
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✔ To do this, we do not drill holes ø9 mm through to a depth of 5 mm. ✔ Using a hammer, press the bolt flush with the plane of the board. ✔ We use a jigsaw to cut out the linings for the stops from MDF with a thickness of 10 mm. ✔ We mark and mill the slots with a ø8 mm cutter.
These slots give us the opportunity to adjust the stops to restrict the movement of the router as needed when we cut in the hinges.
As a result, we should have such a set of parts.
✔ We assemble the entire structure.
Technology for inserting hinges and handles using a router
After purchasing the equipment, it begins to be used for its intended purpose. To do this, it must first be configured correctly in order to determine to what depth the milling cutter will plunge, as well as what its rotation speed will be. To determine these factors, it is important to inspect the hinges or locks, as these elements may vary in thickness.
Equipment setup
Adjustment and installation of the necessary parameters on the router is carried out in the following sequence of actions:
Important! If a depression of significant depth is formed, then experts recommend doing the work in several stages so that no more than 5 mm of material is removed at a time.
The rotation speed of the router is selected only experimentally, since it is important that during operation the equipment does not overheat, and the material from which the door is made does not burn. The speed is very easy to adjust, since there is a special switch for this on any router.
After the preparatory work, the direct insertion of the elements begins. It consists of stages:
The procedure for inserting a lock is practically no different, however, it is important to carry out the work in such a way as not to violate the integrity of the canvas, and also to make a recess that fully corresponds to the dimensions of the purchased locking mechanism.
Thus, a router is considered the optimal tool in the door installation process. With its help, fast and high-quality insertion of various hinges or locks is ensured. This guarantees a high-quality result, in which no problems or unevenness on the canvas will be visible. Anyone can do the job, but you will have to pay a lot of attention to choosing the right device.
A milling cutter is a hand-held power tool designed for shaped processing of edges and grooves in wooden products. Rounded edges, profiled strips, beautiful joints, insertion of locks, arrangement of recesses for hinges - all this and much more can be done by a router for installing doors. It is an indispensable assistant in the household, but not every master is familiar with it. Of course, this tool is a little more complicated than a drill or figure saw, but it can work wonders.
Application of an electric milling machine
To install locks and hinges, you can use a chisel and a hammer, but using a router makes the work much easier and simpler. For professional door installers, it is one of the main devices, without which craftsmen cannot imagine a tool case. Using a router, you can not only install, but even manufacture interior doors with minimal skills and great desire.
The risk of damage to the door block when working with a router is minimized, the quality of the inserted lock and installed hinge will be higher, and the percentage of error will be lower. It should be noted that for a door hinge model without a mortise, called a butterfly hinge, you do not need to use a router.
The canvas is laid on its side and secured vertically using a slipway. It is imperative to mark the place for inserting the lock or hinge, then attach the desired part or bar and mark their bottom and top with straight lines. Then transfer them using a square to the outer sides, and so that the lines are visible, stick two masking tapes on the markings, which will act as limiters.
Now you need to insert a cutter corresponding to the size of the plate into the electric router, adjust the depth equal to the thickness of the strip, and make a recess. Next you can install the loop. To create a seat for the lock, a groove router is used. Its fixation system allows you to install the tool on both a vertical and horizontal surface.
