How To: Mortise Door Hinge
A standard operation for anyone who retrofits doors into existing frames or must resize a door or opening to the available space, door hinge installations will crop up in the life of a woodworker or cabinet maker sooner or later.
Most videos offer a benchtop demonstration on a piece of scrap wood.
In this video you will see how to mount a hinge on an actual door with two techniques – “old school” with a scribe and hand chisel and “new school with a router and template guide.
You can buy a commercial guide or make one out of thin plywood.
I used a piece of thin plywood for my template.
As always, remember this is a demonstration, not tutorial.
If you wish to do this yourself seek the assistance of an experienced woodworker.
To see another variation of “old school” mortise technique take a peek at this guy at work:
(The good stuff– old timey chisel “chopping” technique– in the video starts at minute 2:14)
And then in this video you can watch a pretty good old timey size – to – fit door installation with hand tools and everything!
UPDATE: The router I used was equipped with a template guide bushing set attached to the baseplate. They came in three sizes to be used with different diameter bits. This was the system used before router TEMPLATE BITS were sold which, of course, simplified things immensely.
Router Template Bushing Guide
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