Impromptu Job-Site Door Buck
This isn’t the most stable door holder, but it works in a pinch.
On a job a while back, I had to mortise hinges on several doors. I hadn’t planned for this, and I didn’t have any proper door bucks on hand to hold the 80-lb. doors on edge, so I came up with an alternative. Using heavy-duty clamps, I attached a 5-gal. bucket to each end of a door, with scraps of wood between the bucket and the door to prevent marring. This isn’t the most stable door holder, but it worked perfectly when I couldn’t follow my usual practice.
— Daniel Boyce, Red Feather Lakes, Colo.
Edited and illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #265
View Comments
I've never worried about having door bucks on hand. Every room (unless it's round) has 4 bucks in it...just shove the door in any of the 4 corners. Or you can use wooden screw clamps,large c-clamps,chop a notch in a piece of 2 x 4 and a wedge...and last but not least just straddle over the door and hold it between your legs.
Holding those 4' doors gets pretty dancy if you have short legs KnotRough. But ya, notch a pair of 2 x 4's, wrap the notch with cardboard, slide in a wedge and you have the best makeshift door bucks I've ever used. It's quick, it's simple, whether the door weighs 200 lbs. or 20. If you know how to mortise a hinge "properly", then surely you can notch a 2 x 4.