How to put hinges on door blanks

When you hang new doors in old frames, you need to cut or hammer new hinges into the door. New doors, also called "door blanks," have smooth sides with no existing hinge locations. This allows you to place the hinges anywhere on the door to match the existing frames. If you are remodeling or building a home, you can save money by buying door blanks and cutting out the hinge cutouts yourself.

Transfer the location of the hinges from the door frame. If your frame already has hinge cutouts, place or lay the door in the frame as if it were already installed in the frame. Draw the positions of the hinge cutouts on the door blank with a pencil. Remove the door from the frame.

Lay the door on its side, with the inside edge of the door where the hinges will attach facing up, and place it on a stable surface, such as a workbench.

Place the hinge on the door as if it were already mounted to the door. If you have pencil marks from the frame, place the hinge there. If you don't have frame markings, the typical hinge location is 12.5 cm from the top edge of the top hinge to the top edge of the door and 25 cm from the finished floor to the bottom edge of the bottom hinge. You can also use an existing door or frame as a reference.

Draw around the hinge panel with a pencil. Cut the hinge break 0.3 cm deep with a box cutter.

Hold a chisel perpendicular to the door at the entry point of the hinge drawing. The chisel should be positioned so that when you tap the end of the chisel with a hammer, it moves across the grain into the hinge drawing and cuts across the grain 0.2 cm deep into the other side of the drawing.

Tap the chisel so that you cut out all the wood within the hinge tracing to a depth of 0.2 cm. Go over the thimble again with the chisel and cut another 0.2 cm deep until the hinge thimble is flat on the underside.

Place the hinge plate in the cut-out thimble. If it does not sit flat, use the chisel to scrape and cut the bottom, sides, or corners of the thimble until the plate fits flat and tight in the thimble. Tap the plate into the cutout with a hammer if necessary.

Screw the hinge firmly into the cutout using a cordless screwdriver and 2.5 cm screws.

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