Door hanging router bits and accessories

To assist with some of the aspects involved in hanging a new door in your home, why not browse through our selection of router bits and other tools that are designed for door hanging. 

Staggered mortisers

The mortiser router bits  are designed for routing deep grooves and mortises for fitting locks and latches. They feature an extra long shank of 40mm that allows the cutter to plunge to a depth of up to 70mm with a number of passes. They have staggered flutes that give excellent chip clearance. They are PTFE coated for built-in lubrication and have 2mm micrograin Tungsten Carbide tips that provide an extra long life and allow you to rout the most abrasive materials, such as hardwood, fibreboard, plywood, and particle board. These router bits are available in two sizes, both with a cutting diameter of 15mm and cutting length of 50mm, one has a 12mm shank diameter  and the other has a ½" shank diameter. Alternative staggered flute mortisers can be found in the CraftPro range and also the Professional range.  

Door leading edge router bits     

We supply a small selection of undercut router bits designed to rout a leading edge of a door  to facilitate a tight fit against the frame jamb. They have shank mounted bearing guides to follow the door's edge without needing a jig or template guide. For an especially tight fit to a door, you can use the 2-degree undercut router bit, or you can use one of the different sizes of 3-degree undercut router bit. An alternative CraftPro 3-degree undercut router bit is also available for non-trade applications. 

Intumescent recessors

These router bits  are specifically designed to cut out the recess required to fit intumescent strips around the edges of fire rated doors or frames. They all feature a shank mounted bearing, so they are self-guided, and they rout recesses for 4mm thick intumescent strips that are either 10mm, 15mm, or 20mm wide. Intumescent strips are a vital part of a fire rated door as they form a seal between the door and the frame when they are heated. 

A selection of intumescent recess router bits can also be found in the CraftPro and Professional ranges of router bits that we supply, and they are also suitable for strips that are 4mm thick and varying widths. The selection of CraftPro recessors  includes router bits with shanks of ½” and ¼“. The selection of Professional range recessors  all have ½” shank diameters and accommodate intumescent strips between 10mm and 25mm wide. The Professional range also contains router bits for routing smoke seal recesses. 

Door hanging accessories and jigs

We also supply a small range of different routing jigs and accessories that are particularly helpful to people wanting to hang their own doors. This is a selection of some of our more popular tools for door hanging.

Door lifters

Door and board lifters are usually simple pivot tools that are ideal for supporting a door with your foot while you fit it to the door frame or door lining. We currently supply two different door lifters. The more basic of the two lifters we supply is just called a door lifter  and works by simply sliding under the door's bottom edge and you use your foot to pivot the tool so it lifts the door a maximum of 38mm high. it uses a cam design with internal weight for ease of use.

We also supply a more complex door and board lifter  with a swivel design. This lifter allows for up and down, and also side to side movement, for easily positioning the door in the correct place to fix it in place. This lifter is also ideal for fixing plasterboard, and similar panels, to walls. This lifter is also foot operated, so your hands will be free, and can swivel a full 360-degrees if needed. This door lifter can be used to lift panels up to 75kg and will lift up to 60mm from the ground. 

Door clamps

The Trend door clamp  can be set up to hold a door in place while you drill it and fit any locks, allowing you to have both hands free. It's easily and instantly set up and can be used with doors that are up to 55mm thick. It works with a ratchet system and is padded so it won't damage the door or the floor.

Door stands

The door stand  is an adjustable clamp that is ideal for securely holding a door in place for things such as planing the edge to trim it, routing for hinge recesses or mortises for locks, and for drilling. It also allows the door to be pivoted over to assist with fitting it into a frame. It will support doors up to 50kgs and can clamp between 32mm and 55mm. 

Corner chisels

This handy little corner chisel  is specifically designed to square off a hinge recess once it's been routed. Routers will produce a clean, but curved corner when recessing, this chisel sits in the curved corner and squares it off easily when hit with a hammer. It has a lightweight aluminium body and a spring-loaded HSS anvil for long life and a sharp cut. It's ideal for use with the Trend hinge jig or lock jig. 

Hinge jigs and templates

We have a small selection of professional quality hinge jigs and a butt hinge template to assist with positioning the recesses for door hinges. The butt hinge template  is made of clear plastic and consists of templates that can be used to rout recesses for butt hinges of 75mm and 100mm on door edges. It can be used with doors between 35mm, and 44mm thick, but must be used with a user made batten of 44mm x 34mm x 450mm and two F-clamps to hold it in place. 

Our trade hinge jig  is a two piece phenolic plastic template with adjustable apertures for accommodating different lengths of hinges. It is suitable for interior timber based doors and frames that have separate stops or fixed stops that are a maximum of 11mm. It can significantly improve your productivity as it will be set up just once to do the door and the frame and don't need to be adjusted for repeated doors. It is easily and quickly set up by using the hinges as templates. 

Our contractor jigs are the two part skeleton hinge jig , the two piece contractors hinge jig , and the single piece contractors hinge jig . These jigs are specifically designed to improve productivity on-site and in joinery shops, with accurate results each time. They are suitable for use with timber-based doors with fitted stops that are a maximum of 25mm thick and they all include four apertures which make them compatible with fire doors. 

Lock jigs and templates 

We supply a range of lock jigs and templates that can be used to accurately rout recesses and mortices for fitting different types of locks in doors. The lock recess template  is a clear plastic template that can be used by any plunge router for accurately fitting 2, 3 and 5 lever sash and dead mortice locks. This jig comes with a choice of six faceplate recess templates and three mortise templates. The jig must be supported with a user made batten and two F-clamps.

For more frequent, professional users we have a choice of lock jigs for use with plunge routers. The fully adjustable trade lock jig  is designed for precise fitting of locks in doors and for lock faceplates that are up to 250mm long, as the aperture can be adjusted from 30mm to 250mm. It can be used to rout the mortise for lock bodies of 16mm and 19mm. This jig is also engraved for lock widths of 16mm and 19mm and faceplate widths of 22.5mm and 25.4mm.

We also supply two contractor lock jigs; a standard lock jig  and a large lock jig , both of which will cut mortise and faceplate recesses in doors for popular locks with their selection of templates. Templates are held firmly in jigs with powerful magnets and the jigs are self-clamping. The large lock jig has two faceplate templates and a mortise template which are suitable for larger locks, such as the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) style locks. It also has an adaptor plate that allows for smaller templates to be used, like those with the standard lock jig.

The standard lock jig comes with a total of twelve faceplate temples and four mortise templates, to suit most popular sizes of door locks. There is also a range of spare templates available for other sizes of lock if necessary. It also includes a line-up template that will help the jig to be centred more accurately on the edge of the door.

Letterbox jigs and templates

For quickly routing precise letterbox openings, we have and adjustable letterbox jig  or a letterbox template . The letterbox jig is easy to set up and simple to use. It is machined to a high standard from cast aluminium and will ensure that template openings are cut exactly square each time. It ca be adjusted to suit the exact measurements you require, from 210mm x 46mm up to 310mm x 82mm.

The letterbox template is a clear plastic template that features three apertures for different sizes of letterbox - 220mm x 50mm, 210mm x 60mm, and 200mm x 60mm. It suitable for use with any plunge router and can be used with wooden doors that are up to 50mm thick.