Repairing old doors

[BigguyZ]

I've been tasked with repairing 4 or 5 old doors that have had a deadbolt hole cut into them. They will be painted, and I need to know the best way to repair the hole that's left.

Should I try to plug the holes, and fill with patch? Or just try to fill them with something like Rock Hard? Or should I cut out that section of the door entirely, and glue on a piece of wood in it's place?

Any tips/ ideas are welcome.

Thanks!
Travis

[Daryl]

I think I would use a circle cutter and make piece as close as possible, same wood and orient the grain, then use a filler and sand to get it nice and smooth.

[Kensrock]

Think a tapered cork

I've used this method in many applications and it works well.
If you have a lathe, turn a plug, or two plugs, that are slightly larger than the hole you are trying to plug. Then taper them slightly. The resulting plug will stand proud of the door. Shave it down until it is level. Place one of these plugs on each side of the door. I have used Gorilla Glue to seat them. It works well.

If you don't have a lathe, cut a plug with a circle cutter, then, place it on your drill and sand a taper onto the plug.
Kenl

[jziegler]

I did the same as Daryl suggests to repair a deadbolt hole in one of my kitchen doors. It is a semi-exterior door (between the kitchen and an enclosed but unheated small porch) so teh temperature swings quite a bit. After a year or so of temperature changes, I can see the outline faintly if I look for it. I doubt anyone else really notices. So it works well, but probably will not be completly invisible.

Jim

[Mr__Bill]

As said above and.....
Make sure it's the same wood, a lot of the old doors were made of clear fir. Make sure the plug is as dry as the wood in the old door. Make sure the grain runs the same, not only up and down but how it was sawed.

If you use a hole saw to cut the plug first cut a hole in a piece of scrap and then remove the center drill bit from the hole saw and use the hole in the scrap to guide the saw as you make the cut in the final wood. Two plugs lightly tapered and pressed in from each side works well. It takes a lot of force to do this if the plugs are cut to fit tight. You have to be careful to not be too tight and split the door.

I would plug the mortise first re-drill the hole for a clean fit and g lue in a dowel and then a small piece for the edge of the door with the grain going the right way. Then re-drill the face of the door for a clean cut edge. Then Plug the face.

You want the plug cut such that there is no glue line, then you should never see the plug in the painted door. This is almost impossible to do so the closer the better.

Plugging with stuff like Bondo will look good until the wood starts to move and then the plug will stand out for all to see.

Good Luck

Bill

[BigguyZ]

Some good ideas, and some things to think about... Thanks!

[cabinetman]

Here's one method for a painted door. I picked up this tip at a jobsite from a guy that only does doors (repair and hanging).

First re-drill the bolt hole the same diameter but about 1/2" or 3/4" deeper into the door. Insert the correct diameter dowel with TB III into the hole and glue into the inboard side of the stile. When dry, cut off and chisel flat the end of the dowel that protrudes past the mortise for the plate on the edge of the door.

Using a hole cutter cut two circles for the lock hole approx 1/2" thick (if the door is 1 3/4"). They should be slightly thicker than the distance from the dowel to the face of the door. Glue into place with TB III, orienting the grain vertically. When dry, sand flat to the door face.

Fill the space around the lock plugs and the bolt plate mortise with Bondo and when dry, sand flat. The theory is with the dowel glued in, and the thinner plugs, movement/E&C is minimized for both the plugs and the stile.
.

[JimD]

Another option would be to use one of the router bit/template guide setups to make dutchmen patches. You put the template guide on the router base plate and it has a collar on it that snaps on and off. A 1/8 spiral cut bit goes into the router. Then you make a patch shape a little bigger than the hole in a scrap piece of plywood. You rout the hole with the collar in place and then pull it off and "cut" the patch with the router bit. And you get a good fit. I haven't done this on a door but patched my error on a bookcase that was clear finished so the tight fit was particularly important. An oversized patch also lets you do some face grain to face grain gluing to reinforce the door. This idea could be combined with a dowel on the bolt hole idea.

Jim

[BigguyZ]

Here's one method for a painted door. I picked up this tip at a jobsite from a guy that only does doors (repair and hanging).

First re-drill the bolt hole the same diameter but about 1/2" or 3/4" deeper into the door. Insert the correct diameter dowel with TB III into the hole and glue into the inboard side of the stile. When dry, cut off and chisel flat the end of the dowel that protrudes past the mortise for the plate on the edge of the door.

Using a hole cutter cut two circles for the lock hole approx 1/2" thick (if the door is 1 3/4"). They should be slightly thicker than the distance from the dowel to the face of the door. Glue into place with TB III, orienting the grain vertically. When dry, sand flat to the door face.

Fill the space around the lock plugs and the bolt plate mortise with Bondo and when dry, sand flat. The theory is with the dowel glued in, and the thinner plugs, movement/E&C is minimized for both the plugs and the stile.
.

Wow! I think that's the method I'll use.

Thank You all for the help!

[KLF]

I have to rebuild 4 very nice but very old doors in my house when I was remodelling. They were heavy fir doors, in nice rabetted jams, there was no way I was gonna toss them but they were almost 100 years old and pretty beat up. The hinges were shot, and there was only 2 hinges, not 3, the hinge mortises were poorly done. The lockset side of the doors were really beat up.

I first carefully cut a plug to fill the old lockset striker, then cut plugs from 3/4" fir to fill the large lockset holes. Then I used my worm drive saw and a long straightedge to rip 3/4" off both stiles. On the lockset side, I set the saw to a 3deg bevel cut. Then I glued and clamped a clear 1x2 to replace the pieces I ripped off, with lots of finish nails set deeply. Then I used my jack plane to shave the 1x2's down so they were flush with the old surface. Some sanding with my ROS, a little bit of filling here and there, and I had what looked like a brand new door slab, which I mortised for new hinges and installed a new lockset.

[eezlock]

repairing old doors

Have you given any thought as to replacing the old deadbolts with new ones?
If you are not going to replace the locksets, I suggest that you use some solid wooden plugs that would be a tight fit when glued into the existing holes.
I would sand these doors down to bare wood, seal them with a couple of coats of Zinsser Bullseye spray shellac and then paint them with paint of your choice.
It makes a good slick surface for the paint and it goes on like spreading hot butter with a knife! Also, if you plug the holes where the old locks were, be sure and plug the hole where the deadbolt latches were....usually a (1") dowel
will do nicely here, it not only gives a finished look to the door, it also strengthens the wood considerably to help in the event of break- in attempts.

[iceman61]

A couple of months ago, I watched an episode of "This Old House" & they were doing the same thing you are needing to do. There was a sub doing the doors & to the best of my recollection, he repaired the hole leaving it shallow on either side & then installed a square 1/4" thick inlay of the same species of wood over the top of the repair matching the grain direction. I can't remember if the hole repair was with a round plug or if he actually cut out the whole deadbolt area, but aftewards he routed out a larger square area for the inlay.

If you check the website, you might get lucky & find the video. If my memory is correct, they were remodeling a NY city "Brownstone Apt".