I have one of the Milescraft hinge mortising jigs for the router.
It works OK (especially since the NICE one are PRICEY!!!!) however, I absolutely hated the fact that it left mounting holes in the door.
Also, when using it to retrofit new doors into existing doors, it was very hard to line up the jig on the new door so the hinge mortises perfectly matched the existing door.
My solution was to mount a strip of HDPE and use a couple of Edge clamps to keep it in place on the door. Also, after first use, the router cuts away the HDPE and leaves a nice zero clearance type feature that you can use to better align the jig to the new door.
-- You're not a real wood worker until you've been to the Emergency Room...Twice...in one year...wait a minute, this isn't right.
4 comments so far
a1Jim
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87312 posts in 1749 days
#1 posted 174 days ago
I’ve always made mine out of scrape wood and they work fine and cost little.
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/articles/build-a-custom-hinge-template-to-mortise-doors-quickly.aspx
-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/
Bogeyguy
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129 posts in 239 days
#2 posted 173 days ago
Been hinging doors for 45 years with a hand made jig like a1Jim shows. Cheap and easy to use.
doordude
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862 posts in 1154 days
#3 posted 173 days ago
well you bought one jig now you have modified it to suite you. now you can use a1jim’s idea for other types of hinge styles.good luck
bohnsai
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35 posts in 978 days
#4 posted 173 days ago
I originally bought the miles craft jig when I didn’t have a shop (or most of my shop tools), so making one from scratch would have been more work than it was worth at the time. Now that I already had the jig, it was easier to just tweak it than to make a new one from scratch.
-- You're not a real wood worker until you've been to the Emergency Room...Twice...in one year...wait a minute, this isn't right.
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