Hinges on room doors

[RogerS]

To digress slightly on perspective and viewing, I've never had a satisfactory asnwer why the hands on Michalangelo's David are so huge and out of proportion to the rest of his body

 

[jeffinfrance]

when i've got a heavy door dibs, i always over specify the hinges and go 4 evenly spaced, for nothing more than aesthetics, rarely use three, if i do i choose a hinge that will do the job with two and centre the middle one. just looks too odd with two at the top for me. the cost ratio of overspecifying the hinges is negligable, unless you're hanging 50 fire doors in a hotel.

bonne chance

jeff

 

[PeterBassett]

To digress slightly on perspective and viewing, I've never had a satisfactory asnwer why the hands on Michalangelo's David are so huge and out of proportion to the rest of his body

Not sure about his hands, but apparently the reason his manhood is so small is because he is terrified. You can't see it from the floor, the normal viewing position. But if you see the statues face from the perspective of Goliath, i.e. from above, then his face has a decidedly scared look to it.

Hence the tiny tackle. :lol:

 

[Dibs-h]

when i've got a heavy door dibs, i always over specify the hinges and go 4 evenly spaced, for nothing more than aesthetics, rarely use three, if i do i choose a hinge that will do the job with two and centre the middle one. just looks too odd with two at the top for me. the cost ratio of overspecifying the hinges is negligable, unless you're hanging 50 fire doors in a hotel.

bonne chance

jeff

I was (& still am) tempted to put 3 hinges - 6/9 or 7/10 - and one in the middle - to prevent the door from twisting. Also a 4th one between the top one and middle one for better distribution. Good idea or bad?

 

[paininthe]

To digress slightly on perspective and viewing, I've never had a satisfactory asnwer why the hands on Michalangelo's David are so huge and out of proportion to the rest of his body

Because he got his dimensions wrong when he drew this and had to adjust the hands to fit.

/off topic

 

[bodgermatic]

Because he got his dimensions wrong when he drew this and had to adjust the hands to fit.

I suppose he might have done, if he'd drawn it...

 

[Dibs-h]

Hands & puffins - feel free to start a new thread! :wink:

 

[Max Power]

Dibs if your going to fit four hinges then fit the two central hinges equidistant between the outer two . They will adequately displace the load of the door spaced like this and will look better than a group of hinges in the top half of the door

 

[Max Power]

Dibs are we allowed to say hands :shock: :wink:

 

[Max Power]

Incidently, shows that ladies should not get excited by the size of a mans hands :wink:

 

[brianhr]

Ask a picture framer why the border at the bottom of the mount is wider than at the top. And it's not to provide room for a label or title!

 

[Dibs-h]

Dibs are we allowed to say hands :shock: :wink:

Don't see why not.

The thread seemed to be wondering off topic (a little is neither here nor there) but the several posts one after another seemed to be suggesting we were going to end up discussing Michalangelo's David rather than hinges on a door. Apologies if the gentle nudge - or was intended gentle nudge - had other than the intended result.

Alan - thanks for the the hinge advice.

 

[jeffinfrance]

back on track.........

i concur with alan here dibs, if you're using more hinges than necessary to carry the wieght, positioning doesn't really matter.......unless you wanted to put three at the bottom and one at the top!!!

but i'm sure you wouldn't want to do that :?

when you can buy a pair of hinges to take 160kg for £20, add another for peace of mind and centralise it for aesthitic effect; you end up saving a lot of time calculating hinge position. money very well spent in my book, never skimp on ironmongary. a decent door can last 100 years, no reason why the ironmongary should't either.

all the best

jeff

 

[JoinerySolutions]

Interesting thread, I'll not get into possible relationships twixt hands and puffins dimensions :lol: but there are several factors as to why 6" & 9" where adopted for hanging doors.
1) Not attempting to get a firm screw fixing into the end grain of rail tenons.
2) The shrinkage factor: as the stile shrinks the tenon ends of the rails might hold the hinge away from the stile.
3) Aesthetics, based on the deemed average height of a man (women were probably not consulted, a theme in common with M.A's David)
4) An architectural practice of relating dimensions of a buildings components back to the 'Golden Mean'. ( A subject too large to discuss here though.)

As previously stated in above replies, the third hinge on heavy doors tends to be in close proximity to the top one, though on some jobs this was an additional hinge (the fourth) while the third was equidistant between the top and bottom hinge. On most front doors the third hinge is equidistant between top and bottom and the same rule applies to internal lightweight doors where the third hinge is for aesthetics in the design.

 

[Dibs-h]

As previously stated in above replies, the third hinge on heavy doors tends to be in close proximity to the top one, though on some jobs this was an additional hinge (the fourth) while the third was equidistant between the top and bottom hinge.

So if one went with 4 hinges - sounds like top and bottom, 3rd one at the mid-point of top and bottom and a 4th (if req'd) hinge closer to top one?

 

[jeffinfrance]

three hinges down to the middle, then one at the bottom?????

is this for your front door dibs?

honestly, best way with your grade 11's if three carry the weight....two at the top, one at the bottom as per manufacturers spec and another to equall all four for decoration.

thats what i've done with my neighbours new door.....pics to follow after its installed, this weekend hopefully, weather permitting.

jeff

 

[Dibs-h]

three hinges down to the middle, then one at the bottom?????

That's what I understood from JoinerySolutions post. Hence the question for clarification.

is this for your front door dibs?

You could say that - it's the door on the workshop.

honestly, best way with your grade 11's if three carry the weight....two at the top, one at the bottom as per manufacturers spec and another to equall all four for decoration.

thats what i've done with my neighbours new door.....pics to follow after its installed, this weekend hopefully, weather permitting.

jeff

Cheers - probably have a day or so - before it has to be finalised.

 

[Dibs-h]

As the door jamb is effectively steel (5mm thick - screwed into the timber), would there be anything wrong from "surface mounting" the hinges on the metal jamb and then effectively deepening the recess on the door? i.e. not recessed in the jamb and perhaps double the normal depth recess on the door?

The reason I ask - is that it would be a damn site easier cutting into timber than metal, and later I could tack weld the hinges in a few places to the jamb.

Cheers

Dibs

 

[jedmc571]

Dibs,

Me personally, based on the stregth of your reinforced frame, I would space evenly.

I think it's easy to get carried away with getting it perfect every time ( and I do ) I recently hung 12 internal doors, all around 35+ Kilos. They were 4 panel Shaker style, and because of the height of the centre rail, it didn't look right if the 3rd hinge was fitted above it ( equidistant from top and bottom ) so based on aesthetics, I positioned it bang in the middle, I find my eye drawn to the middle one, as it's directly opposite the handle. they've been up for 4 months now, and had no issues at all

I appreciate it may not be as structuraly sound as per the explanations of the others ( who I know are right ) but sometimes you have to sacrifice something for the right look.

Perhaps you should do a mock up on the door and see if it looks right ?

Cheers

Jed

 

[JoinerySolutions]

Dibs,

Me personally, based on the stregth of your reinforced frame, I would space evenly.

I think it's easy to get carried away with getting it perfect every time ( and I do ) I recently hung 12 internal doors, all around 35+ Kilos. They were 4 panel Shaker style, and because of the height of the centre rail, it didn't look right if the 3rd hinge was fitted above it ( equidistant from top and bottom ) so based on aesthetics, I positioned it bang in the middle, I find my eye drawn to the middle one, as it's directly opposite the handle. they've been up for 4 months now, and had no issues at all

I appreciate it may not be as structuraly sound as per the explanations of the others ( who I know are right ) but sometimes you have to sacrifice something for the right look.

Perhaps you should do a mock up on the door and see if it looks right ?

Cheers

Jed

I think that installing locks and therefore handles at the middle rail, it was often called the lock rail, stems from the older rim locks that required little to be removed from the stile or rail in terms of morticing. This practice lead to the 'balancing' middle hinge position being opposite. It can be seen on some older properties that have escaped refurbishment or fashion.
My earlier post re the fourth hinge was that the architects had specified the positions on some very heavy fire and security doors, the explanation to me was that the extra hinge just below the top one would prevent the doors dropping, pulling the screws out of the top hinge.
Some of the things we are asked to do are a bit like the black art of designing a propeller for a boat design, you have no clue as to how it is worked out! :lol: