old hinge, new pin?
Had to take an interior door down last night to move our dining table into wife’s preferred room for our Thanksgiving gathering. Eventually wrestled the hinges free from the layers of paint the encased them, but am weary of re-hanging the door using the same old (and not entirely straight pins). Hinge is a full…
Had to take an interior door down last night to move our dining table into wife’s preferred room for our Thanksgiving gathering. Eventually wrestled the hinges free from the layers of paint the encased them, but am weary of re-hanging the door using the same old (and not entirely straight pins). Hinge is a full mortice, 3-knuckle with a finial attached to the bottom knuckle of the jamb, and the pin has a finial at the top. Would take some serious force to get the old pins back in the hinges. Was thinking of soaking the hinges in paint thinner, but am wondering if I can also use the re-installation as a chance to replace the old, heavily worn pins. I have an anxiety that the top finial might pop off at some point, especially if my bride likes Thursday’s dinner setting. Anyone have any experience on this front? Would prefer not to replace the old hinges, as they have a nice bit of detail… Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving.
One thing you also might want to use for future reference when getting these hinges, is to use lock washers. Their stability and life expectancy is much longer.
I find thomasnet has most everything i need, their hinges page specifically…
http://www.thomasnet.com/products/hinges-38101804-1.html
Hope this helps…
I have had great luck finding old hinges on ebay.
Oh, I did not explain, the old pins will go right back in if the door and hinge leaves are aligned. Don’t hit it with a hammer, just wiggle the door and apply gentle pressure. Use a small board as a lever and a block as a fulcrum under the door and operate it with your foot.
gmcandd.com
Oh yea! I think old hinges like yours are worth saving. You should only try to replace them if they are hopelessly broken, worn-out or undersized for the door. It can be harder than many imagine to replace one pair in a house where all the others match in color, texture, size and shape of finial. Yet, each is uniquely forged, cast, fabricated, gained and eventually worn. It is a bad practice to re-mate antique hinge leaves and pintles. They might squeak, change how your door closes, and wear-out more quickly. Baldwin advises against mixing up the parts of their new hinges.
I use paint stripper (methyl chloride) before removing hinge screws. The screws, especially with brass and bronze hardware, are also hard to match, so a cleaned out screw slot can help prevent damage.
In the butt hinges you have, it is the bottom finial, which sometimes falls out and gets lost, not the one on the pin. I don’t have a great solution for that, but I have used a dab of 5-min epoxy. Remember to soak the parts in solvent before hand.
Even steel hinges can be patined. A can of clear spray lacquer will keep them from rusting or tarnishing.
If you go through all that, you will never slop paint over any hinge ever again. And, you will save some money. Good quality new hinges are not cheap.
Hardware Source sells hinge pins and finials separately, and maybe
House of Antique Hardware does the same—or maybe they can advise. See:
http://www.hardwaresource.com/
http://www.hardwaresource.com/Store_ViewProducts.asp?Cat=620
House of Antique Hardware, Door Hinges:
http://houseofantiquehardware.com/s.nl/sc.10/category.17/.f
Simon’s in Manhattan might be able to help you too:
http://www.simonsny.com/
I recently rehung some doors and found it was quite hard to get the pins out. I had similar issues with layers of paint and brass that had long lost its sheen. Once the pins were out it was surprising how easy they went back in after a quick clean.