On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 03:16:13 GMT, "CW" wrote:

I have been to a number of DIY type websites, even watched the Router
Workshop show on hanging doors. There is one thing that NONE of them ever
say. They all talk about positioning of the hinge along the edge of the door
(although some just say to position them!!!) from top to bottom but non say
how deep along the thickness (setback). Putting them back far enough to just
clear the barrel would put them entirely through the thickness of the door
so they would be seen on the other side. Looking at the ones around my
house, the barrels are set out away for the door a ways. What is the
standard? There must be one. I have read articles that gave really helpful
advice such as "buy a commercial but marker" or "buy a commercial router
template". That's not much help if you want to make your own template. I
need a measurement. A recent thread about his brought to mind the idea that
a template would be quite easy to make but, it occurred to me, I could quite
easily make a template to fit the hinge but, where to position it, I do not
know. There are those of you out there that have done one to hundreds of
these things. Enlighten me please.


Uhhh... Duh...

I've done at least 50 of them, but I never actually stopped to think
about it. As far as I know, there's no particular standard, so long
as they are set to the same depth. I put the backside of the hinge
1/4" from the edge of the door, but it's more what just looks right on
the first one, and then mortising the others to match than any hard
and fast rule. If I remember correctly (though it was about ten years
ago, so my recollection is a little hazy) I got the 1/4" figure from
just measuring the distance on another door that was already hanging.
Double-checking the doors in my house just now is kind of re-enforcing
that memory- they're all at 1/4".

You don't even really need a template, though it might be easier. I'd
feel pretty confident suggesting that you just set a combination
square to 1/4", then run it down the edge of the door where your hinge
is going with a pencil seated in the groove on the end, then mark your
horizontal measurements.