Replies

1. 
   mike4244 | Mar 11, 2005 05:02am | #1

   I have used the PC but not the bosch. I have hung thousands of doors, almost all of them without a store bought template guide. The PC works fine, easy to set up once you become familiar with it. I prefer a homemade template made from aluminum angle and 1/2" cabinet grade plywood. The plywood is just a spacer , otherwise your bushings wouldn't work without cutting them down to almost nothing.

   I have 3 1/2" and 4" templates made up for three hinge doors. Also made an adjustable template out of mdf for the occasional oddball hinge.The advantage to the homemade ones is they do not go out of adjustment. If you buy a PC or Bosch, check your adjustments at least each morning of use,more often if you think it may have been bumped.

   One morning  I went to a safety meeting, lasted maybe 20 minutes. Came back and routed 7 doors before I realized the template on the PC was off 1 - 1/4" on the middle hinge.Apparently another trade played around with the template while I was gone.Don't know for sure, these doors were stain grade red oak. I got fired, went back to work for another outfit next day.The template didn't go off that far by itself, I had routed 20 plus doors before the meeting with the same setup.

   mike

1. 
   chills1994 | Mar 11, 2005 09:05am | #2

   Ouch!  That must have been a real bummer!

   I've used the Bosch.  And I've used the plastic Porter-Cable templates.

   I recently bought an old Stanley hinge template set at an auction.  Came in a nice, handmade?, sheet metal box.  All for $50. 

   I just haven't tried it out yet.  It seems a lot sturdier than the Bosch I used.

   Have you thought about posting this over at Breaktime?  You'll get more of a response over there.

1. 
   mike4244 | Mar 12, 2005 03:46pm | #3

   You replied to the wrong person, by the way I have used the stanley jig. I forgot about it ,I owned this setup 30 years ago. As good as the PC, the router is converted to a plner in a minute or two. From what I recall, the stanley router is 5/8 hp. It is rated in watts and an electrician told me it's equal to 5/8 hp. Spiral cutters on the planer attachment did an excellent job.

   mike

1. 
   chills1994 | Mar 15, 2005 06:11am | #4

   Sorry Mike,  I usually reply to ALL, instead of pointing out one person in particular.  Don't know happened there.  I was talking about the guy who had is template screwed with while away from the door bench.

   I'm not familiar with the Stanley product you're referring to.  What I have is a hinge template set made by Stanley.

   How long ago it was made, I don't know.  But there is nothing motorized about it at all.

   It did come in nice sheet metal box, all very organized with the router bits.  It has 4 individual hinge templates that can be connected together to route out the hinge gains on the door.  Then you carry the assembled template over to the jamb, and with the proper "setback" from the top route the hinge gains in the jamb.

   The product you're talking about sounds like a combination of router and portable (door) planer.  That sounds like a very slick idea.  It saves having to carry two tools around. 

   A few years back P-C discontinued their heavy duty portable (door edge) planer.  Supposedly, there was such a huge response, they brought it back and tacked on a few hundred dollars.

1. 
   mike4244 | Mar 16, 2005 01:49am | #5

   Yes, I was referring to a Stanley combination router and planer. Came in a metal case with door hinge templates, router, and planer body. The threads on the router were very fine and shallow. This made height adjustments much easier to fine tune. The only plastic was a knob that locked the router depth . I do not recall if the template had 3 or 4 hinge templates. This is one tool that Stanley should never have discontinued.

   Your are correct about the porter cable planer being discontinued then brought back.I have used this planer for many years. I haven't used their cheaper model, have used the dewalt, makita and a couple of others. I can plane better and faster by hand than with the el cheapo power planes.5 swipes with a homemade joiner plane moving as fast as I walk, usually is enough to bevel a 1 3/4" door. The porter cable with the spiral cutters will do the job in the same time but with less effort. The other power planers I have  used must be set to 1/64" to plane the same door. The bed and fences are so short that it will not straighten a wavy edge. You must draw a line and plane off the high spots first.Even on a new door the time taken to plane with these under powered planes is double or triple that of a quality tool.

   mike