What bit would you recommend for grinding out some strike plate material when a door won't latch?
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Best Dremel bit for strike plates?
Spencer
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Rotory file on a cordless works the best for one or two. Best ones are carbide end mills from a milling machine.
On commercial jobs, grinding the strikes was a compliance issue [doors latch on fire egress] that needed to be touched up.
Re positioning the strikes is not the way to go IMO, reconfigure the strike, if that does not work or you grind it out too far, replace the strike and try again.
Getting the strike to look "factory" after grinding is where the craft in craftsman comes in.
I've reworked all the strikes in a nursing home and used a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade screwed upside down to a small 2-step ladder and milled the strikes out with that. Smoke-seal really messes with the "latch" on closers, sometimes you need to open up the latch speed on those as well.
On commercial jobs, grinding the strikes was a compliance issue [doors latch on fire egress] that needed to be touched up.
Re positioning the strikes is not the way to go IMO, reconfigure the strike, if that does not work or you grind it out too far, replace the strike and try again.
Getting the strike to look "factory" after grinding is where the craft in craftsman comes in.
I've reworked all the strikes in a nursing home and used a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade screwed upside down to a small 2-step ladder and milled the strikes out with that. Smoke-seal really messes with the "latch" on closers, sometimes you need to open up the latch speed on those as well.
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17,394 Posts
..i just cut my losses and screw on one of these..what else can you do?..
Attachments
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If I am working on the back side, I just use a file. quick and easy. Also quiet so no one knows I screwed up.
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285 Posts
It isn't on the level but if you just wanted to try it out, $30 it will get the job done once or twice.These work the best, but pushing 500 bones, they're a little pricy unless you do a lot of doors:
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http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-bandfile-belt-sander-92158.html
The makita is only $224 on amazon.
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It is NOT a matter of screwing up, just becoming progressively successful.
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Are you sure it's the strike? If the stop is out of place, the latch won't catch.
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749 Posts
Grinding hardware, and bending hinge knuckles is for hacks... I don't roll like that...
Bending hinges on doors with cheap hardware is a necessity. That is if you want to have a perfect hinge gap reveal. I consider it hackish if you don't adjust that hardware. I've never ground a strike plate, but have filed a security deadbolt plate, because of junk mortises from the factory.
Even though it's a cheap door, it still deserves to look right.
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Commercial steel jambs do not have stops [they are rolled into the profile of the jamb. When smoke seal is added and not taken into account, something has got to give you the clearance for the door to latch. Grinding the strikes was common practice for commercial work. Maybe not for residential, though.
The OP shows wood
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Maybe shim the butts first, might be able to pitch the door up or down if it is a vertical alignment problem, hard to see from that exactly what's not lining up..
Grinding strikes should not be the first arrow out of your quiver, but it is one of them.
And the OP was inquiring about methods of doing this process.
Grinding strikes should not be the first arrow out of your quiver, but it is one of them.
And the OP was inquiring about methods of doing this process.
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many door hinges are just stamped steel with relatively rough tolerances,adjusting them is not wrong imo..
Many prefab door are crap and come out of the factory in such bad alignment you can only fix them by hacking them. They already came from the factory hacked.
Look at the mortising of the hinges. To deep, to shallow, done so fast there is tearout everywhere. Hinges screwed down not even inside the mortise, crooked hinges. Stops 1/4" out of alignment of where they're suppose to be. This is becoming normal for lower priced doors that you find in lots of spec houses.
You can't spend 20 minutes fixing a $40 door.
Look at the mortising of the hinges. To deep, to shallow, done so fast there is tearout everywhere. Hinges screwed down not even inside the mortise, crooked hinges. Stops 1/4" out of alignment of where they're suppose to be. This is becoming normal for lower priced doors that you find in lots of spec houses.
You can't spend 20 minutes fixing a $40 door.
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9,100 Posts
Job I'm on right now, this is normal for $600.00 doors. Couple more issues, stops not nailed completely, stops nailed on crooked, stain grade stops fastened with staples, some stops have ogee, some are square. All this on a 7 door project. I'm done with prehungs.
Send them all back. Let them know this is unacceptable.
Picture that but about 5x more and all steel doors, many of them fire rated...real blast.
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