I installed a wooden door in my son's 60 year old home where I had to mortis for hinges in both door and jamb. My son had cut the width and height of the door to make it fit. I used a Vermont American hinge mortising Template and my router and that went fine except my height measurement were a bit off so resorted to chisel to make the adjustment in the jamb and will do a "fill in" for gap. After we got the door in the jamb (hinges did not have a removable pin so that made it hard to hold the door, position the hinges and put in screws in jamb so hubby had to do the holding) the bottom hinge is tighter than the middle hinge which I would call just right, and the top hinge is a little tight. I know a lots of things can make this happen (door not square, jamb not square, mortis too deep or shallow) but what is an easy cure for this? Should I put a "shim" under some of the hinges for adjustment and if so, which ones and on the door side or jamb side? This is a heavy wooden door and we put three 4" hinges on it which I thought was a little over kill but that is what they bought. Also I did put the top and bottom hinge the same distance from bottom/top of door since that is the way our prehung doors are but directions I read indicated you should put bottom hinge further up. Just want to know the "why" of that recommendation and if that would cause the "binding" problem with the lower hinge. In my gut, I feel that that bottom hinge needs a shim under the jamb side. Also I will be doing this again but the next time will just be replacing the door. I know it would be easy to mark where the new door mortises will go from the old door but I love the way the template and router does over chisel and hammer (a slow go). Since the template is off set so you use a bushing to guide your router bit, how can you get the template exactly positioned to where it should go before you cut. Eyeballing it is not very accurate. Any little handy hints from more experience door handlers will be appreciated since this is my first door to hang using my router and has been 20 years since I helped my hubby do one with chisel and hammer.

I am replacing a double window with a double aluminum french door. My rough masonry opening is 73 wide by 84.5 high the french door is 71.5 wide by 79.75 high. The width is no problem with a 1X buck on each side fastened to the masonry with tapcon. The height is no so easy. I can't build out the bottom anymore because of my finished floor and at the top I have the tiebeam. [B]My question is this. I will have to build up the top by 4.5 inches in wood. What would be best (3) 2 X 6 each piece attached to the tiebeam with tapcons progressively longer or a 6 X 6 cut to 4.5 X 6 attached with 6" tapcon which would give me 1.5 embed into the tiebeam.[/B] :confused: Miami-Dade County building code states: :wall: [I]Where the wood buck thickness is 1.5 Inches (38mm) or greater, the buck shall be securely fastened to transfer load to the masonry, concrete or other structural substrate and the buck shall extend beyond the interior face of the window or door frame.[/I]