On 2/13/2011 8:34 AM, Nate Nagel wrote:
On 02/13/2011 07:51 AM, dadiOH wrote:
finiteguy wrote:
I have an old house with glass door knobs. The bathroom knob no longer
works properly. I bought a new replacement and when I removed the old
knob, I noticed that the bore in the door is way too small for the new
knob assembly. Should I get out a hole saw and cut a new hole? Looks
like I can really screw this up if I'm not careful.

How much bigger a hole do you need? One way to enlarge a hole and keep it
round and centered with vertical sides is to use a router bit that is
larger
in diameter than the bit shank. Extend the shank far enough through the
hole so that the shank rides on the top portion of the hole thus cutting
only a bit more than the bottom half; turn work over and repeat. When the
last cut in the hole is the correct diameter, use a bit that cuts the
same
size as the shank to finish the cut.

As an example, if you start with a 3/8 bit on a 1/4 shank, you will
enlarge
the hole diameter by 1/8 with each cut. Whether or not you can get an
exactly sized new hole this way depends on the sizes of starting hole and
desired finished size; with a 5/16 bit on a 1/4 shaft you can get to
within
1/16 regardless of starting hole size.


I'm imagining that he has a door with mortise or tubular latches and is
trying to replace with a modern lockset, something that always makes me
cringe.

nate


That was my first impression as well. OP has not posted back, so far,
that I have noticed. If these are in fact old-style locksets, the
backset will be wrong as well, I suspect.

I'd be looking on-line for repro knobs, or take out the entire assembly
and start visiting salvage houses, as well as the oldest locksmith in
town (sometimes, they keep junk boxes in the back room). In the short
term, I'd steal the knob assembly off another door, to get the bathroom
usable and buy some time.

--
aem sends...