A bit of a ball-ache, this - front door is secured by a mortice
latch/lock but is ever-so-slightly out of position, so that the latch
will only engage if you either slam the door, or close it fully and
gently, and apply a sudden 'shove' to get the latch to click into place
(something that SWMBO's not strong enough to do). In other words, the
striker plate needs moving no more than 1 mm outwards from the frame.

There's no way I'd able to fill and redrill the screwholes in the frame
effectively (the old and new would overlap). Suggestions, please?

Thanks
David

On 27/07/2012 08:30, Lobster wrote:
A bit of a ball-ache, this - front door is secured by a mortice
latch/lock but is ever-so-slightly out of position, so that the latch
will only engage if you either slam the door, or close it fully and
gently, and apply a sudden 'shove' to get the latch to click into place
(something that SWMBO's not strong enough to do). In other words, the
striker plate needs moving no more than 1 mm outwards from the frame.

There's no way I'd able to fill and redrill the screwholes in the frame
effectively (the old and new would overlap). Suggestions, please?

Thanks
David
File 0.5mm off the plate & 0.5 mm taper on the latch....

On 27/07/2012 08:30, Lobster wrote:
A bit of a ball-ache, this - front door is secured by a mortice
latch/lock but is ever-so-slightly out of position, so that the latch
will only engage if you either slam the door, or close it fully and
gently, and apply a sudden 'shove' to get the latch to click into place
(something that SWMBO's not strong enough to do). In other words, the
striker plate needs moving no more than 1 mm outwards from the frame.

Adjust the plate by filing some metal off the edge which is catching.
You might also want to look at why the door frame is moving about!

Bear in mind that wood swells in the damp and shrinks in the warm and
dry so tolerances can drift about a bit naturally.

If you put dry marker or engineers blue on the latch surface you may be
able to see where it is catching eg on a burr or something.

There's no way I'd able to fill and redrill the screwholes in the frame
effectively (the old and new would overlap). Suggestions, please?

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

I have a door that has warped giving a similar result. I just filed a bit
off the plate. the snag that I had not bargained for is that the warp
changes with the weather, thus making it loose or OK..
Sometimes one cannot win.

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Phil" wrote in message
...
On 27/07/2012 08:30, Lobster wrote:
A bit of a ball-ache, this - front door is secured by a mortice
latch/lock but is ever-so-slightly out of position, so that the latch
will only engage if you either slam the door, or close it fully and
gently, and apply a sudden 'shove' to get the latch to click into place
(something that SWMBO's not strong enough to do). In other words, the
striker plate needs moving no more than 1 mm outwards from the frame.

There's no way I'd able to fill and redrill the screwholes in the frame
effectively (the old and new would overlap). Suggestions, please?

Thanks
David
File 0.5mm off the plate & 0.5 mm taper on the latch....

On 27/07/2012 09:03, Martin Brown wrote:
On 27/07/2012 08:30, Lobster wrote:
A bit of a ball-ache, this - front door is secured by a mortice
latch/lock but is ever-so-slightly out of position, so that the latch
will only engage if you either slam the door, or close it fully and
gently, and apply a sudden 'shove' to get the latch to click into place
(something that SWMBO's not strong enough to do). In other words, the
striker plate needs moving no more than 1 mm outwards from the frame.

Adjust the plate by filing some metal off the edge which is catching.
You might also want to look at why the door frame is moving about!

Bear in mind that wood swells in the damp and shrinks in the warm and
dry so tolerances can drift about a bit naturally.

If you put dry marker or engineers blue on the latch surface you may be
able to see where it is catching eg on a burr or something.

There's no way I'd able to fill and redrill the screwholes in the frame
effectively (the old and new would overlap). Suggestions, please?

Block the old screw holes with matchsticks. Use a bradawl to start a new
hole on the edge of the old one.

stuart noble wrote:

Block the old screw holes with matchsticks...

I've often used bits of cocktail sticks and kebab sticks for this kind of
thing, both useful because they are pointy, so can be broken off an dlightly
hammered into the holes.

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to replacing "aaa" by "284".

"Brian Gaff" wrote:

I have a door that has warped giving a similar result. I just filed a bit
off the plate. the snag that I had not bargained for is that the warp
changes with the weather, thus making it loose or OK.. Sometimes one
cannot win.

Careful application of some of the stick-on door seal products (sold by B&Q
etc) can provide enough stuff to fill the gap when a door is loose while at
the same time not blocking it when the door is tight. It does mean you may
well not have the seal running all round the frame and/or that you might
have more than one thickness of the seal in different places around the
frame.

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to replacing "aaa" by "284".

On 27/07/2012 10:41, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

Block the old screw holes with matchsticks...

I've often used bits of cocktail sticks and kebab sticks for this kind of
thing, both useful because they are pointy, so can be broken off an dlightly
hammered into the holes.


Yes, I'm way out of date. Who has matches any more? :-)

In article ,
Lobster wrote:
A bit of a ball-ache, this - front door is secured by a mortice
latch/lock but is ever-so-slightly out of position, so that the latch
will only engage if you either slam the door, or close it fully and
gently, and apply a sudden 'shove' to get the latch to click into place
(something that SWMBO's not strong enough to do). In other words, the
striker plate needs moving no more than 1 mm outwards from the frame.

There's no way I'd able to fill and redrill the screwholes in the frame
effectively (the old and new would overlap). Suggestions, please?

Work out where the bolt is fouling on the striker plate, and relieve the
striker plate with a file.

--
*Sleep with a photographer and watch things develop

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Lobster" wrote in message
...
A bit of a ball-ache, this - front door is secured by a mortice latch/lock
but is ever-so-slightly out of position, so that the latch will only engage
if you either slam the door, or close it fully and gently, and apply a
sudden 'shove' to get the latch to click into place (something that SWMBO's
not strong enough to do). In other words, the striker plate needs moving
no more than 1 mm outwards from the frame.

There's no way I'd able to fill and redrill the screwholes in the frame
effectively (the old and new would overlap). Suggestions, please?

Thanks
David

You can fix the screw holes problem by "carving" a bit of wood into a plug,
dip in PVA glues and hammer into screw holes.
Cut off when dry.

On 27/07/2012 10:41, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

Block the old screw holes with matchsticks...

I've often used bits of cocktail sticks and kebab sticks for this kind of
thing, both useful because they are pointy, so can be broken off an dlightly
hammered into the holes.

Or we could get really technical and drill a 6mm hole, glue in some 6mm
dowels, trim flush when dry & start again.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On 27/07/2012 08:30, Lobster wrote:
A bit of a ball-ache, this - front door is secured by a mortice
latch/lock but is ever-so-slightly out of position, so that the latch
will only engage if you either slam the door, or close it fully and
gently, and apply a sudden 'shove' to get the latch to click into place
(something that SWMBO's not strong enough to do). In other words, the
striker plate needs moving no more than 1 mm outwards from the frame.

Thanks for the responses. So, approximately evenly distributed between
filing down the plate and stopping up and redrilling the holes...

There's no way I'd able to fill and redrill the screwholes in the frame
effectively (the old and new would overlap).

I've certainly done that trick before plenty of times, but in this case
- really? Moving the centre of the holes by just 1 mm? I can't see that
working - the centre of the new hole will be within the boundary of the
old one.

Filing isn't as straightforward as it may seem, as the striker plate
doesn't simply have a rectangular hole in it for the latch to pass
through, it has a box around the hole: (eg like
http://www.thediyworld.co.uk/images/locks/lock-striker.gif

Might try and see if I can find a different striker plate in fact,
without the box, and which may well also have screw holes in a different
position...

David

On 28/07/2012 16:00, Lobster wrote:
On 27/07/2012 08:30, Lobster wrote:
A bit of a ball-ache, this - front door is secured by a mortice
latch/lock but is ever-so-slightly out of position, so that the latch
will only engage if you either slam the door, or close it fully and
gently, and apply a sudden 'shove' to get the latch to click into place
(something that SWMBO's not strong enough to do). In other words, the
striker plate needs moving no more than 1 mm outwards from the frame.

Filing isn't as straightforward as it may seem, as the striker plate
doesn't simply have a rectangular hole in it for the latch to pass
through, it has a box around the hole: (eg like
http://www.thediyworld.co.uk/images/locks/lock-striker.gif

Might try and see if I can find a different striker plate in fact,
without the box, and which may well also have screw holes in a different
position...

Filing a boxed one is tedious but still doable. That is one reason to
use engineering blue/dry marker pen to find the high spots that jam
since you want to do as little work as possible!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Filing isn't as straightforward as it may seem, as the striker plate
doesn't simply have a rectangular hole in it for the latch to pass
through, it has a box around the hole: (eg like
http://www.thediyworld.co.uk/images/locks/lock-striker.gif

Might try and see if I can find a different striker plate in fact,
without the box, and which may well also have screw holes in a different
position...

Filing a boxed one is tedious but still doable. That is one reason to
use engineering blue/dry marker pen to find the high spots that jam
since you want to do as little work as possible!


If it's only 1-2mm, you could alter the screw holes in the striker
plate, so they are oval. That's probably the easiest bodge of all with
one of those rotary files in a drill - takes a few seconds and job done.

On 29/07/2012 10:42, GB wrote:

Filing isn't as straightforward as it may seem, as the striker plate
doesn't simply have a rectangular hole in it for the latch to pass
through, it has a box around the hole: (eg like
http://www.thediyworld.co.uk/images/locks/lock-striker.gif

Might try and see if I can find a different striker plate in fact,
without the box, and which may well also have screw holes in a different
position...

Filing a boxed one is tedious but still doable. That is one reason to
use engineering blue/dry marker pen to find the high spots that jam
since you want to do as little work as possible!


If it's only 1-2mm, you could alter the screw holes in the striker
plate, so they are oval. That's probably the easiest bodge of all with
one of those rotary files in a drill - takes a few seconds and job done.

Sounds like a plan! Nice one = thanks!
David