How To Cut Mortises For Door Hinges With A Router

To do a good job cutting mortises the chisel needs to be razor sharp.

How to cut mortises for door hinges with a router.

Measure 6 inches from the top of the door with the tape measure and make a mark with your pencil. You can cut a hinge mortise with hand tools or a power tool. Before cutting your door hinge mortise place your hinge on top of the door and outline it with a pencil. Turns out once the door is hung it lacks the 1 8 gap between it and the door jamb making it semi difficult to shut.

That doesn t mean you need a complicated jig or setup to rout hinge mortises. To rout mating mortises in the cabinet clamp the jig s support arm to the face frame s stile see photo. Mark the door for hinge positioning. Then align the support arm s bottom edge with the bottom edge of the door clamp it in place and rout the mortise as shown above.

Cut your mortises to a depth that will have the hinge sitting as flush to the edge of the door as possible. Repeat at the top edge of the door. Using a utility knife trace along the outline to create small groves then make a cut on the front or back side of the door indicating the mortise s depth. The key to precise results is guiding the plunge router accurately so the sides of the mortise end up perfectly smooth straight and parallel to the faces of the workpiece.

Leah demonstrates how to use a router and jig to cut perfect door hinge mortises quickly and easily. The hinge mortise allows the hinge to be mounted flush with the jamb and door so the door will close properly. So i turned to my router to cut flat bottomed mortises. I mistakenly assumed that having a mortise about 1 16 too deep would be no big deal.

The hand tool method requires just a utility knife a hammer or mallet and a sharp wood chisel. Hinge mortises on a door are often cut by machine with a router and straight bit but you can cut mortises by hand using a hammer and chisel as well. In fact for the technique you see here all it takes is a simple two part jig and an inexpensive router bit. The bit i use for mortising is a short top bearing pattern bit.

This mortising jig is the way to go. To cut hinge. Get the door hinge jig shown in this video through our l. The power tool method uses a router and hinge mortising jig.

First use a hinge to set the router bit s cutting depth photo below. It clamps to your workbench and securing the workpieces in place only takes a second with a. To carve out the mortise place a chisel into the outline grooves and tap the.