I have about 20 interior doors in my house design. I bought a bunch of 3/0 slabs when the local HD opened for a song (big grand opening sale), pretty nice looking 6-panel pine. I need to get the rest of them here soon, and was wondering what you all thought about the hassle of hanging a slab and building your own frame vs. buying a prehung and installing it. I really don’t like the prehungs because they will be stained and clear finished, and all that’s available is finger-jointed crrrrrap. I’ve never done a slab door before, only ever done a prehung, so it is that much more work? Building the frame isn’t a big deal, it’s all the hinge and lockset work that has me twitching.
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Buy the pre-hungs from a real lumberyard, and you'll be able to specify clear jambs. If you value your time at all, the time to cut and fab a jamb, cut the hinge mortises and lockset, set the stops, and get it all assembled right will be far outweighed by the cost of the prehung jamb. Especially if you've never cut hinges into a jamb and a door and had tem match up, the chances of you doing it and having it look as good as a good-quality prehung setup are pretty slim.
Bob
What Bob Kovacs said...
But if you really want to do the framing and hinge setting yourself, go for it. Your plan should include at least one day to find a book or article and read how to do it. The second day will be used to mess up the first door, and re-read the articles. (NOTE that I am not poking fun, I am telling you how I did when I tried this.)
On the third day you likely will meet with success on that first door. Then, as you build experience, you will be able to get the time required down to (maybe) a half day per door.
Or you could hang 20 prehung units in two or three days, little or no experience needed.
Unless you're the lead dog, the view just never changes.
And don't forget the kick in the a** when you accidently route the hinge mortises in the wrong direction on your slab.
Or you could hang 20 prehung units in two or three days, little or no experience needed.
you sound just like my mentor, Bob Vila....
carpenter in transition
Ditto for getting or making a 3 hinge template for both door and jamb. A plunge router with a fine adjustment knob helps things go faster/ smoother.
Buy all your hinges, hinge pin stops, and knobs first. Like the other guy said, do a test run on the edge of a 2X4, or better yet an old door.
Make a door buck, or make a door hanging bench. Use carpet to pad either one to protect your doors from dings and scratches.
Buy/ make a strike latch template, also for your plunge router.
Buy a cylindrical lock boring jig. It guides a large diameter (should be 2 and an eighth) for the face bore and maybe a 1 incher for the edge bore. Make sure backset matches the knobs you bought.
Don't bother with buying a 2 and a 8th hole saw. It'll be such a pain to knock out the plug each time. The lock boring jig should come with a forstner style bit, which turns everything into chips.
Vix bits are handy to have. A cordless drill with a clutch for driving the phillips headed screws into the door's edge/jamb.
Predrill for all screw holes.
Trying to wrap up my GF's house. She got 9 + new 2 panel hollow core prehung doors. I think the quality should have been better. The jambs just suck! Finger jointed pine, pre-primed. Already attached casing was finger jointed too. The joints telegraph thru the paint.
One day I'll post some before after pics of the doors and include a rant on the quality of pre-hungs today.
So where is this one guy getting all this clear pine stock to make jambs with? Inquiring minds want to know!
Chills
So where is this one guy getting all this clear pine stock to make jambs with? Inquiring minds want to know!
Who, me?
Sawmill. My own.
You NEED a jig to do the hinge work. You can make your own out of ply if you have the inclination or buy one, but it has to be the kind that locates 2-3 hinges (the less expensive jig from Lee Valley will last through your job) and transfer the same spacing to the frame.
Do a practice cut on a 2X and save it for a story-pole to make sure the jig hasn't slipped and do each door/frame together as a set (i.e. doing all the doors first then doing the frames later adds a risk.
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
It all depends on how much experience you have JonE. It you handle a router, a utility knife, a cordless drill all with presision and confidence, I would be happy to write down a foolproof 10 easy step meathode for you.
I can get clear solid jambs every day of the week so I don't know who's been telling you stories about not being able to get them. There is a lot of labour in building a jamb. We do it a lot for custom applications and wall sizes, but I don't look forward to it. OTOH, drilling backsets and hinging is a snap. For me anyway.
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After doing 2-3 doors, you should have no problem with a production-type routine setting the hinges and backsets. I have a dedicated router for the hinges which I used along with the Bosch hinge template. I also have another dedicated router that I use for the strike plate(s), etc. I leave them set for 1/8 " so I don't have to worry about them each time. I have tried the manual stuff, but I would never do it again without the Bosch template. With 20 doors, it would be well worth your time. When I bought the template, the guy gave me a deal and said it was the last one he had because everyone hangs "pre-hung" doors. Oh well.
I would consider prehung doors to be less expensive anywhere along the quality spectrum if your labor cost is anything like that of a finish carpenter. Even in multi-million $ homes it's common to see semi-custom or simply really good quality stock prehung doors.
If you have a large amount of free time, making your own jambs would be great experience even if you had to do it all with a chisel. I've always encouraged junior carpenters to become really good at mortising hinges with a chisel before moving on to router templates so when the time comes to hang an expensive custom door they will have the skill to get everything right if there isn't a template handy.
Go to a real lumber yard, quality prehung clear jambs, specify swing, hinge color/type, wall thickness, lockset holes, deadbolt holes, etc. Don't forget your solid slab self closer for the garage. Done.
Then wait for the truck to show up.