"John Keith" wrote in message
...
I have a door that, due to structure settling, the latch no longer
enters the hole in the stirker plate on the jamb. In the past I've
been able to enlarge the hole in the striker plate and everything fits
again. But what remedy is there when another 1/16" is needed? Due to
the hole in the wood jamb for the latch it is not easy to just
relocate the striker plate since there is no place to put the screws
in. By the way, resquaring the jamb and/or remounting the door is not
an option at this time.

I would remove the striker plate, carefully mark on the jamb the top and
bottom of the latch bolt where it strikes the jamb, then fill the existing
jamb hole with a solid, drillable material, like Plastic Wood or some other
xylene based self hardening putty. Then mount a new striker plate so that
the latch bolt just grazes the top of the hole in the striker, allowing for
future settling in the same direction. Alternatively, if there is still room
to do it, you could remove the striker and use a file to file out the needed
1/16th of an inch at the base of the hole, then chisel out the corresponding
space in the jamb, to accomodate the bolt.