drilling the wife's precious door

[wreckwriter]

Most straight bits are 1" long, though you can get longer ones - or a spiral cutter. Even if only 3/4" - 1" long, plunge router will give you a very nice , clean, and square to the door hole. Then, you can chuck whatever bit in the drill, and deepen the hole as needed.

It sounds like a good idea but I have a lot more experience with a drill than a router. I probably shouldn't make my first rounter plunge on this fancy door

[LarryG]

I probably shouldn't make my first rounter plunge on this fancy door

Especially since you'd have to hold the router in a horizontal position and plunge it sideways. If you had the door off and laying atop sawhorses, a router would be viable. But since you want to do this with the door on its hinges, a router would be difficult to control.

[wreckwriter]

Especially since you'd have to hold the router in a horizontal position and plunge it sideways. If you had the door off and laying atop sawhorses, a router would be viable. But since you want to do this with the door on its hinges, a router would be difficult to control.

Yea, I want to use the router on some less expensive stuff first

The more I think about it though, the whole process, regardless of what I use to drill it, would be a lot easier with the door flat on sawhorses. I may need to rethink not taking it off. Will look at it and see if its got the type of hinges where the pin can be removed and, if so, may just pull it after all.

[LarryG]

I may need to rethink not taking it off.

You probably could've taken it down, drilled the holes, and put it back up in the time we've spent talking about it.

Seriously, I think this job could go either way. Pins are so easy to pull that I virtually always take the door down to do anything except paint it (and sometimes even then).

One thing to watch out for if you DO take it down: check to see how plumb it is in its frame. The front door frame on our old house is so out of plumb that if I applied anything with straight lines to it, I'd have to deliberately install it out of plumb in order for it to look right. IOW, if I took down the door and applied a panel or moldings that were square to the door itself, they'd look crooked when the door was back up.

[wreckwriter]

You probably could've taken it down, drilled the holes, and put it back up in the time we've spent talking about it.

Certainly so but I'm at work (you probably are too) so the time's not truly wasted All the things we've talked about will come into my head when I actually start the job.

Seriously, I think this job could go either way. Pins are so easy to pull that I virtually always take the door down to do anything except paint it (and sometimes even then).

One thing to watch out for if you DO take it down: check to see how plumb it is in its frame. The front door frame on our old house is so out of plumb that if I applied anything with straight lines to it, I'd have to deliberately install it out of plumb in order for it to look right. IOW, if I took down the door and applied a panel or moldings that were square to the door itself, they'd look crooked when the door was back up.

Gotcha, good idea. Very few parts of this house are plumb but the door has panels cut into it and they don't look odd so its likely not too badly off. Will check it though.

[wreckwriter]

Update- the pins are the kind that can be removed, which doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling since they're accessible from outside...

I think I'll remove it so I can do this horizontally. This Saturday morning project I hope.

[wreckwriter]

Got her done. Thanks for the tips