Ask The Trades - Hinge jigs

gcol

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Hinge jigs
Jan 6^th, 2006, 7:11pm

Hi all,
It was recommended that I pose this question to you all after asking the same question on a different forum.

The question is.... I want to get some kit to speed up fitting hinges to doors and frames. Has anyone had experience of using hinge jigs? And if so can they recommend a good one. I've seen the Trend ones for about £160 but this seems quite expensive to me. There is a laminate one on Ebay at the moment for about £56 inc p&p that looks very similar to ones in the £100 bracket I've seen on some sites, and I was wondering if that might be any good.

Any advice will be grately appreciated.
Gcol

p.s. When I asked this on the other forum (diynot.com) A nice chap said that "The guy to ask about that would be JerryD over on Ask the Trades - he uses the Trend and swears by it."

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TIMBA-WOLF

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Re: Hinge jigs
Reply #1 - Jan 6^th, 2006, 8:52pm

Hi there and firstly, welcome to this here forum!!

and now down to business, hinge jigs, there is a few available, obviously ranging in price , from £50-60 mark up to in excess of a few hundred !!(Yikes-i know!)

however, it really boils down to how much use you are going to put the jig to, if you are going to do your houses doors only, then a relative cheapy is ok!!,, if you intend to earn a living from it!, then a very robust , and well engineered one is a MUST!!!
as you already know the TREND version is quite expensive, but very well made (and JD, may swear by then-especially if he goes wrong!!-sorry JD!!)
there are a couple of other alternative jigs, the one made by Axminster and is rather good!! here's a direct link! http://www.axminster.co.uk/name/hinge+jig/sfile/1/jump/0/product-Axminster-Hinge...
there are also others, including short jigs, right up to a jig made by DAKOTA, but they are canadian, and the hinge jig of theirs that i have is yet to be found over here, i have also included a link to another website, and it's the Rutlands one, and shows various jigs on this page, >>>>> link removed stray link see below!<<<<<
hope this helps, and gives you some idea's
if you need further assistance, you now know where we are!!
regards matt!

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« Last Edit: Jan 7^th, 2006, 6:32am by TIMBA-WOLF »

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JerryD GDPR opt-out Total Thanks: 15 For This Post: 0	Re: Hinge jigs Reply #2 - Jan 6^th, 2006, 9:04pm Get the Trend one, you know it makes sense! I've got several now, set up for different sizes of hinge. Absolutely dead accurate and idiot proof (don't say anything.....)
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TIMBA-WOLF Board Moderator Offline Timba-Wolf..... Var@*sh, should be banned!! Posts: 7158 Total Thanks: 15 For This Post: 0 KENT,(under a tree!!!!) United Kingdom Gender: Trade: Joiner	Re: Hinge jigs Reply #3 - Jan 6^th, 2006, 9:24pm OH Jerry D, you spoil ALL my fun dude!!, the only reason i got the Dakota jig, as it is speciffic to one Router size/model when you order it!! and seeing as a mate bought it over for me, Who the heck am i to complain!!
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TIMBA-WOLF Board Moderator Offline Timba-Wolf..... Var@*sh, should be banned!! Posts: 7158 Total Thanks: 15 For This Post: 0 KENT,(under a tree!!!!) United Kingdom Gender: Trade: Joiner	Re: Hinge jigs Reply #4 - Jan 7^th, 2006, 6:30am i think you will find this is the correct link, for some reason the old link strayed to the internal search engine at the site!! http://www.rutlands.co.uk/cgi-bin/psDept.cgi?Lock%20&%20Hinge%20Tools
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JerryD

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Re: Hinge jigs
Reply #5 - Jan 7^th, 2006, 7:09am

Wolfie, that Dakota system only looks like it can set up one hinge at a time? How do you accurately space between the hinges on both the door and the frame/lining?

The Trend system is about 6 feet long and there are four hinge positions possible, each with considerable adjustment as required.

What I like about the Trend system is that you just screw it to the frame and rout out the pockets. Then screw it to the door and rout out these pockets. Screw the hinges to the door, offer the door up and screw to the frame. The fitting of the jig to the door and to the frame is easy as it has built in stops to ensure you get it in the right position every time.

Every time it is absolutely perfect and (once you get the hang of it) it takes no more than 5 minutes to rout the pockets, fit the hinges and get the door swinging. The fact that the hinge rout slots are all on one 6 foot long piece of aluminium means the spacings (once set) never change.

It's a joy to use. Go get one! Grin

I would add though, with any jig system you really need to have a dedicated jig for each hinge type you use and a dedicated router set up for the jigs (one router set up will work for all hinges). If you have to faff about resetting everything each time you use them then a lot of the time saving would be lost.

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Scrit GDPR opt-out Total Thanks: 15 For This Post: 0	Re: Hinge jigs Reply #6 - Jan 7^th, 2006, 9:51am So does that mean that you've got two (or more ) of these, Jerry? What sort of router do you recommend? Would my old Elu MOF96 be man enough? Scrit BTW Hi gcol - glad to see you made it over here.
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gcol

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Re: Hinge jigs
Reply #7 - Jan 7^th, 2006, 1:45pm

Thanks for taking the time to reply guys, I really appreciate it.

I'm not a joiner by trade and as such I don't hang that many doors to really warrant a £160 jig (yet). But I do hang enough to warrant something faster than a chisel.
The other thing is that most of the doors I hang are replacement doors and already have some hinge positions cut into the frames. The problem is that they're usually all over the place and I'm not sure that the Trend jig would be much use in that situation. I'm sure the Trend is the mutts nuts for a virgin door frame but I don't really want to be having to fill in the old cut-outs and cut fresh ones in the right place on old frames.
Unless there's a product that leaps out at me as being just what I want, I 'll probably end up cobbling something together myself.
Thanks again,
Gcol

p.s. thanks Scrit, I like this site.

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« Last Edit: Jan 7^th, 2006, 1:46pm by gcol »

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TIMBA-WOLF

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Re: Hinge jigs
Reply #8 - Jan 7^th, 2006, 4:33pm

JD, the Dakota hinge jig shown on Rut's site, is NOT the one i have, the unit i have is like the trend unit, a complete hinge jig, but is setable for 5'6" all the way up to a grand 8', yep, knocks spots off the trend, when my mate bought it, it cost him in excess of $450........ and unlike the trend, which as you state needs setting for every butt size, the Dakota, has "clippin" inserts(there word-not mine!!) so if you are doing say 3" butts on one 6' door, the the next is 4" butts on a 6' door, then it is a case of do one,then either clip in or clip out the inserts, takes about 30 seconds to change from one to the other, the other thing i like about the dakota jig, is you do not screw it to door or frame, it has a series of knock in pins, case hardened (i think!!) which really do hold tight!!, then when finished you use the "allen key type thingand out the pop!
as i stated though, it is not available here, and when my nephew was posted to canada for 12 months a while ago, i asked him to look in to getting another one for me or at least spares, and he could only get me a handful of spares, and a new jig is over $600 now....OUCH!!!
so i now look after mine even more carefully now!!!

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JerryD

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Re: Hinge jigs
Reply #9 - Jan 7^th, 2006, 4:43pm

[quote author=Scrit link=1136574679/0#6 date=1136627509]So does that mean that you've got two (or more Shocked

) of these, Jerry? What sort of router do you recommend? Would my old Elu MOF96 be man enough?

Scrit

[/quote]

I actually have three of them, one for 75mm hinges, one for 100mm hinges and a cut down one I shared with some other forum members a while back. This is used for short doors where the standard 6 foot long jig is too tall (eaves cupboards, loft hatches etc etc)

Your router will be perfect. Use the smallest router that the job requires. I have a dedicated hinge jig router, all set up and ready to go. I also use the Trend corner chisel for final cleaning of the hinge pocket rebates.

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JerryD

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Re: Hinge jigs
Reply #10 - Jan 7^th, 2006, 4:47pm

[quote author=WOLF link=1136574679/0#8 date=1136651598]JD, the Dakota hinge jig shown on Rut's site, is NOT the one i have, the unit i have is like the trend unit, a complete hinge jig, but is setable for 5'6" all the way up to a grand 8', yep, knocks spots off the trend, when my mate bought it, it cost him in excess of $450........ and unlike the trend, which as you state needs setting for every butt size, the Dakota, has "clippin" inserts(there word-not mine!!) so if you are doing say 3" butts on one 6' door, the the next is 4" butts on a 6' door, then it is a case of do one,then either clip in or clip out the inserts, takes about 30 seconds to change from one to the other, the other thing i like about the dakota jig, is you do not screw it to door or frame, it has a series of knock in pins, case hardened (i think!!) which really do hold tight!!, then when finished you use the "allen key type thingand out the pop!
as i stated though, it is not available here, and when my nephew was posted to canada for 12 months a while ago, i asked him to look in to getting another one for me or at least spares, and he could only get me a handful of spares, and a new jig is over $600 now....OUCH!!!
so i now look after mine even more carefully now!!! [/quote]

Hmmmm, I think I need to look into this Dakota system a bit more. Can you carefully box yours up and send it to me for a FREE appraisal. I like to test all good equipment very thoroughly so be patient when waiting for its return.

Please email me for my postal address.......... Roll Eyes

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TIMBA-WOLF Board Moderator Offline Timba-Wolf..... Var@*sh, should be banned!! Posts: 7158 Total Thanks: 15 For This Post: 0 KENT,(under a tree!!!!) United Kingdom Gender: Trade: Joiner	Re: Hinge jigs Reply #11 - Jan 7^th, 2006, 5:11pm eeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! NO!! nice try JD!!! nice try!!!
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splinter

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Re: Hinge jigs
Reply #12 - Jan 7^th, 2006, 11:53pm

[quote author=gcol link=1136574679/0#7 date=1136641537]Thanks for taking the time to reply guys, I really appreciate it.

I'm not a joiner by trade and as such I don't hang that many doors to really warrant a £160 jig (yet). But I do hang enough to warrant something faster than a chisel.
The other thing is that most of the doors I hang are replacement doors and already have some hinge positions cut into the frames. The problem is that they're usually all over the place and I'm not sure that the Trend jig would be much use in that situation. I'm sure the Trend is the mutts nuts for a virgin door frame but I don't really want to be having to fill in the old cut-outs and cut fresh ones in the right place on old frames.
Unless there's a product that leaps out at me as being just what I want, I 'll probably end up cobbling something together myself.
Thanks again,
Gcol

p.s. thanks Scrit, I like this site.
[/quote]

Just to make live a little bit easier,if you have a small managable router put a quauter inch bit in it set it for the hinge depth and set the fence to the hinge width and do it free hand or make you're own jig out of MDF

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gcol

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Re: Hinge jigs
Reply #13 - Jan 8^th, 2006, 3:42pm

Yeah I have one. I bought three 1/4" routers from B&Q on Friday for £6.65 each with the intention of Ebaying them. They seem pretty good so I'm gonna sell 2 and keep one for doing hinges. They came with 5 cutters and a guide bush! Although there is play in the guide bush that makes it hard to get central with the cutter. But like you say, It might be ok to do free hand anyway.
Cheers,
Gcol

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Scrit GDPR opt-out Total Thanks: 0 For This Post: 0	Re: Hinge jigs Reply #14 - Jan 8^th, 2006, 3:48pm Gcol DW624/DW625/DW626 routers come with a cone-shaped centring mandrel to overcome this problem =- looks like a cone on a stick. I believe that Festiil do something similar. Scrit
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Dewy

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Re: Hinge jigs
Reply #15 - Jan 15^th, 2006, 8:01am

Not about hinge jigs but a dangerous demonstration of using a router on TV.
QVC shopping channel has a Nutool router, router table & 20 bits as todays special value for approx £58.
An advert they keep showing during breaks shows freehand routing a quarter round edge on the router table without the use of a lead in pin.
As this is aimed at DIYers I can imagine A&Es all round the country having lots of missing finger accidents once the routers are delivered in a weeks time.

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ChippyMal Full Member Offline I'll cum in a minute!!!! Posts: 212 Total Thanks: 0 For This Post: 0 Gender:	Re: Hinge jigs Reply #16 - Feb 10^th, 2006, 5:49pm Is this a bargain?? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7589614946 Is it possible to buy all the bits needed separately. They have 5, save 1 for me.
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