Thursday, February 7, 2008

Cutting Mortises in Door Jambs

We are going slightly out of order here... here is our experience in door jamb mortise cutting.

To cut the mortises you will need a few things:

A Hammer
A Chisel the same width as your hinge

Remember... measure twice, cut once. Oh, yes... and measure again... and throw something at the wall because your hinges moved on you after you cut the mortise. That MUST be it.

First, score the edges of your mortise:
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Then, chisel lines across the mortise using a chisel the same width as the mortise. Make the lines about 1/8 inch apart.

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Finally, take the chisel, bevel side down, and gently tap up through your lines. They should come up quite easily.

As you can see from the picture, this was NOT what we tried first... we don't recommend simply whacking at the jamb with the hammer and chisel. (The chip at the top of the mortise is from THAT method.) The method we depicted DOES work, however, and gives you nice flat and smooth mortises.

Next.... UTTER FAILURE in door hanging. Stay tuned.

3 comments:

Jan Marie said...

Bummer. The chip doesn't look very big so maybe a little wood filler and nobody will notice.

Hanging doors is something we hate to do. Without fail something always goes wrong or not according to the plan. Ends up ok but it usually results in a arguement (I mean discussion) or two along the way. Good luck with your door.

Fred said...

Good tip. Were you working from any articles online or a book that gives a full overview on how to hang doors? I've always planned to resort to pre-hung.

How are was it to get everything *really* lined up?

Looking forward to seeing the door hanging pics...

Fred
One Project Closer

Chris said...

You've given me the guts to flip my basement bathroom door. I hate that it swings the wrong way.