Putting a door's latch on and lining it up?

[johnny2007]

Don't forget Johnny, we are talking about a person who asks advice on washing hands and hanging fairy lights.



Andy

That's why I think he's a pi$$ taker.
Probably a extravagant millionaire setting up these disasters just for fun.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

You said there are two useful sizes of Forstner bits , what are they? Maybe referring to drilling out keep or just general use.

Measure the backs of the keeps to see what sizes you need for the locks you deal with. Probably 19 and 22mm or 25mm, but every manufacturer has different ideas on what sizes of holes they want. A colleague put me onto these last year - they work quite well as long as you mark a starter with an awl or small drill (otherwise they drift off easily)

Do you ALWAYS score marking gauges' Mark's with a Stanley before chiselling? I guess they're too light to chisel straight from

Yes, because if you don't you risk ending up with a recess which looks like one of these, or worse (from my rogues gallery):

(recognise the top one?) All as rough as a bear's arriss (and the bottom one was from an American lock fitting web site!). The recess is supposed to be neat with straight edges and no broken/smashed fibres.

This is how neat they should be:

Wood has grain. For cuts across the grain it is highly advisable to sever the fibres before starting to chop out a recess or you'll end up with an unholy mess. For the sides if you knife the line (no, NOT freehand) or put the chisel on it and give it a tap to start it (which is why you have a wide chisel in your kit) it helps keep the sides straight at the surface. The idea is to do the job neatly - not bodge it and scarper....

Oh yes, and if you try doing this:

without cutting across the grain first at that pencil line you'll like as not split the door.

As an aside I worked on a council job quite a few years ago where me and my mate (both of us a bit older than the rest) were put onto the task (on day rate) of sorting out all the mashed keeps and mortise locks in a school we were refurbishing. Every lock and keep looked it had been chopped out with a blunt spoon and the ironmongery smashed in with a hammer. Turns out the council joiner doing the locks was doing just that - position the lock (or keep), hit with hammer to mark position, then just hack out any old way with a blunt chisel, no pilot holes, etc - complete and utter bodge merchant. Same for the keeps. After a couple of days sorting out the carnage I actually saw this cowboy literally smashing locks in as described. His boss thought the sun shone out of the guy's arriss because he was so fast.... That was the day we decided to pack it. With that sort of standard no wonder council joiners have a carp reputation (but hey, job for life and all that).

Johnny's right about this - it has probably taken me 10 times as long to write this out as it does to do the job.

 

[Keitai]

Measure the backs of the keeps to see what sizes you need for the locks you deal with. Probably 19 and 22mm or 25mm, but every manufacturer has different ideas on what sizes of holes they want. A colleague put me onto these last year - they work quite well as long as you mark a starter with an awl or small drill (otherwise they drift off easily)

View attachment 257084


Yes, because if you don't you risk ending up with a recess which looks like one of these, or worse (from my rogues gallery):

View attachment 257078

View attachment 257080

View attachment 257081

(recognise the top one?) All as rough as a bear's arriss (and the bottom one was from an American lock fitting web site!). The recess is supposed to be neat with straight edges and no broken/smashed fibres.

This is how neat they should be:

View attachment 257111

View attachment 257112

Wood has grain. For cuts across the grain it is highly advisable to sever the fibres before starting to chop out a recess or you'll end up with an unholy mess. For the sides if you knife the line (no, NOT freehand) or put the chisel on it and give it a tap to start it (which is why you have a wide chisel in your kit) it helps keep the sides straight at the surface. The idea is to do the job neatly - not bodge it and scarper....

Oh yes, and if you try doing this:

View attachment 257083

without cutting across the grain first at that pencil line you'll like as not split the door.

As an aside I worked on a council job quite a few years ago where me and my mate (both of us a bit older than the rest) were put onto the task (on day rate) of sorting out all the mashed keeps and mortise locks in a school we were refurbishing. Every lock and keep looked it had been chopped out with a blunt spoon and the ironmongery smashed in with a hammer. Turns out the council joiner doing the locks was doing just that - position the lock (or keep), hit with hammer to mark position, then just hack out any old way with a blunt chisel, no pilot holes, etc - complete and utter bodge merchant. Same for the keeps. After a couple of days sorting out the carnage I actually saw this cowboy literally smashing locks in as described. His boss thought the sun shone out of the guy's arriss because he was so fast.... That was the day we decided to pack it. With that sort of standard no wonder council joiners have a carp reputation (but hey, job for life and all that).

Johnny's right about this - it has probably taken me 10 times as long to write this out as it does to do the job.

Mine looked good compared to other two.
Hahaha

 

[HERTS P&D]

Only in your eyes!

We've seen your block paving!

Andy

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Mine looked good compared to other two.
Hahaha

Seriously, if you are charging for it, you should do better. Unlike a lot of things this is one of those things that you can't just "fill your way out of trouble"

 

[Keitai]

Seriously, if you are charging for it, you should do better. Unlike a lot of things this is one of those things that you can't just "fill your way out of trouble"

Did another door in my flat. Apparently I'm a millionaire according to one poster, my flat is in Mayfair.

Anyway, I used marking gauge for centre and edge of face plate think fence on gauge wasnt at 90 degrees perfectly so it wasnt marked perfectly.

Centre was actually a bit out and I didnt drill central tried to redrill with spade to left a bit when realised I was off centre and pulling it to left while drilling but was tricky anyway my main point was getting edges good on faceplate. I scored the top of plate with Stanley, using top edge of faceplate and marking gauge for verticals then scored with knife then chiselled top and bottom to severe the grain (think wasn't doing this previously) then chiselled out. Think it's an improvement.

Also noticed it's a narrower door and think I needed a 64mm not 76mm latch as it's not central in panel.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Wrong size latch!



Andy