Possible to "repair" door hinge?

hellopaul2

hellopaul2

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Hello,
I have an internal timber door that has dropped by a few mm, presumably due to the hinges getting worn over the years.

Here are a couple of photos; the first one shows the hinge in its usual, dropped position...
[GALLERY=media, 100834]IMG_20171216_114440 by hellopaul2 posted 17 Dec 2017 at 7:47 PM[/GALLERY]
...and this one shows it with me lifting the door into the position where it should be:
[GALLERY=media, 100835]IMG_20171216_114455 by hellopaul2 posted 17 Dec 2017 at 7:47 PM[/GALLERY]

So, I could buy a pair of 100mm hinges (the existing hinges are 3 7/8", so about 98mm) and try to find something that looks old and has matching screwholes, but I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to fix an old hinge? Googling anything about fixing door hinges just brings up pages of results about fixing doors whose hinges have pulled away from the frame, etc. but nothing about fixing the actual hinge. What I really need is some kind of C-shaped washer; is it normal to push something like this into the hinge, and have it actually work and not drop out? The hinges don't seem to come apart - there's no visible pin which can be tapped out - I'm not sure what magical method they used to make these things.

So - in a nutshell - any ideas on how to fix a hinge?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Paul
 
You may get a little more life from the hinge if you turn it upside down, but really it's had it's day and time for a new one. Blocking off the original screw holes isn't a problem and is normally done by hammering in some dowel coated in PVA glue.
John :)
 
Well, my excitement was short-lived. I took off the door, removed the top hinge, refitted it the other way up, then tried to remove the lower hinge, only for one of the screw heads to break :(. So I left the lower hinge as-is, refitted the door...and it's now LOWER than before! I wonder if someone had already tried the inverting-hinges trick. Ah well, I'll buy a couple of new hinges tomorrow and also some kind of magical-broken-screw-removing-wand. I have no idea if I'll be able to drill it out...anyone got any good ideas on how to remove a fairly large, broken-headed screw from a door? Maybe I'll need something like this, complete with its one-star review :unsure:.
 
Drilling the screw out would be nigh on impossible, but it could be possible to drill a hole alongside the screw and then prise it to one side and lever it out.
No worries though, you don't need a screw in every hole to support the door.
John :)
 
before you drill anything out get the new hinges as it may be a case off a new hole in a new place with the need to cut file off knock off the remaining part off the screw head assuming half a slotted screw
and possibly a nail used as a punch if its a mm or two proud
 
Well, I got some new hinges, with holes in different places from the old hinges (seemed impossible to find hinges that matched exactly). I bunged up the existing, non-matching holes in the frames with dowels and glue, and fitted the new hinges, plus some stiff sheets of cardboard to pack the hinges out (even though they are quite thick by modern standards, they're considerably thinner than the old hinges). The door chafed and caught even worse than before I changed the hinges (in TWO places now - the floor AND the frame where it's sitting too far back into the frame), which, as you can imagine, filled me with joy that I'd put seemingly billions of hours of work into this and only made the problem worse. So I changed the thicknesses of the cardboard, and managed to get it to not catch. But it's still way too far over for the latch to actually hold the f***ing thing closed, and it "boings" open because the hinges don't close fully - probably because I re-used the old screws in the lower hinge and the countersunk heads sit very slightly proud.

So, if anyone has any dynamite spare, I'd like to just blow the f^cker off the wall and set fire to it. Or find someone who can make an EXACT replica of the hinges I took off (without the wear!).

But it's time to move on to the many, many other projects I have going on. Such as fitting my kitchen worktops that only arrived yesterday...which were supposed to arrive last week:mad: so they'd all be fitted and done in time for Christmas....o_O
 
hellopaul2 said:
So, if anyone has any dynamite spare, I'd like to just blow the f^cker off the wall and set fire to it. Or find someone who can make an EXACT replica of the hinges I took off (without the wear!).
...o_O
Click to expand...
Are the old ones Cast Iron hinges ? they are thick and different closing to pressed steel ones;)
 
DaveHerns said:
Would turning the hinge the other way up work? Should then take the load on unworn surfaces, I think.
Click to expand...

Duh, no. Think about it.

Hinges are standard, just get a new pair, and they'll drop straight in place. Those are steel hinges, and have rusted slightly, and whilst they're dirt cheap; better to get a pair of fire rated hinges with roller bearings, and you'll never have any more problems. If they are thinner than the old ones, then pack the back out with a bit of card.
 
hellopaul2 said:
Well, I got some new hinges, with holes in different places from the old hinges (seemed impossible to find hinges that matched exactly). I bunged up the existing, non-matching holes in the frames with dowels and glue, and fitted the new hinges, plus some stiff sheets of cardboard to pack the hinges out (even though they are quite thick by modern standards, they're considerably thinner than the old hinges). The door chafed and caught even worse than before I changed the hinges (in TWO places now - the floor AND the frame where it's sitting too far back into the frame), which, as you can imagine, filled me with joy that I'd put seemingly billions of hours of work into this and only made the problem worse. So I changed the thicknesses of the cardboard, and managed to get it to not catch. But it's still way too far over for the latch to actually hold the f***ing thing closed, and it "boings" open because the hinges don't close fully - probably because I re-used the old screws in the lower hinge and the countersunk heads sit very slightly proud.

So, if anyone has any dynamite spare, I'd like to just blow the f^cker off the wall and set fire to it. Or find someone who can make an EXACT replica of the hinges I took off (without the wear!).

But it's time to move on to the many, many other projects I have going on. Such as fitting my kitchen worktops that only arrived yesterday...which were supposed to arrive last week:mad: so they'd all be fitted and done in time for Christmas....o_O
Click to expand...
You don’t need any special hinges just ability to hang a door correctly .
Get someone in to door it properly .
 
I've played this game when fitting new doors in my house and it can be a nightmare trying to reuse the same rebates. You're better off filling the old hinge rebates with a strip of wood, glued and pinned, then starting again with brand new hinges and new rebates. Fit three hinges to each door as well.

Unwanted strips of wooden blinds make good fillers. Once the glue has dried you can chisel them flat then fill around them, sand, prime and paint.
 
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