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Robert Allison
 
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Default Misaligned Threshold Locking Pin in French Doors

tacker wrote:
Does anybody have a good solution the following problem:

I have a set of outward-opening French doors, which, of course, consist
of an operating door and a door that usually remains closed and is
locked by vertical pins which extend into the top of the door sill and
into the bottom of the threshold. The threshold of these doors is
aluminum.

The problem is that whoever installed the doors drilled the hole for
locking the fixed door slightly in the wrong spot into the bottom
threshold, so that the door, when closed and locked, is not pulled
tightly enough against the weather stripping and stop. I am trying to
figure out how to reposition this hole inward by about 1/4" to tighten
the seal. Of course, this is a problem because the hole is cut through
aluminum, and I cannot figure out how to 'fill" that outward 1/4" of
space if I move the hole slightly inward.

Is there a clever way to address this problem, or must I replace the
entire bottom threshold with a new one and re-drill the hole in the
correct location?

Thanks.



There is a solution that either works, or gets you completely
screwed. I have used it on occasion to solve this problem.

Drill the hole where you want it to be. You may find that
this is a lot harder than you anticipated. You may find it
easier to just drill a larger diameter hole where the existing
hole is now. Take some epoxy putty, mix well and completely
fill the hole with it. Put a coating of vaseline on the pin
on the door. Holding the door exactly where you want it to
be, extend the pin into the putty. Retract the pin, wait for
the epoxy to dry, then slightly enlarge the hole so that the
pin extends and retracts easily.

Do NOT leave the pin extended into the putty. If the epoxy
adheres to the pin, then you are in the completly screwed
position that I spoke of earlier. Don't ask me how I know this.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX