How To Cut Mortises For Door Hinge With A Router

Cut your mortises to a depth that will have the hinge sitting as flush to the edge of the door as possible.

How to cut mortises for door hinge with a router.

Once you re happy with the outline remove your hinge from the door. Repeat at the top edge of the door. A plunge router is one of the best choices because you can accurately control the depth of cut and the machine delivers clean and precise results. Score the outline with a utility knife.

When routing the mortises this way you ll cut them to match half the thickness of the hinge barrel. Drag the blade along each of the pencil lines creating small grooves you ll use later. There are many ways to make mortises and just about as many tool options. The jig is clamped to the door and guides the router through the cut.

I use a 1 4 straight bit inside a standard guide collar for this task. Now clamp one part of the jig so the inside edge is right on this line. How to cut mortises accurately with a hand held router a straight bit a template guide and a few scraps. First use a hinge to set the router bit s cutting depth photo below.

Then grab a utility knife and extend the blade to no more than 25 in 0 64 cm. 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. 2 cutting hinge mortises making a door hinge mortise can be done with a chisel but it s more efficient with a standard trim router. The first step in the process of making the hinge mortise is to mark the location of one end of the hinge mortise.

With this setup hinge mortising becomes a standard template routing operation. The hand tool method requires just a utility knife a hammer or mallet and a sharp wood chisel. 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. Get the door hinge jig shown in this video through our l.

Leah demonstrates how to use a router and jig to cut perfect door hinge mortises quickly and easily.