Making homemade door hinges: why you need a responsible approach

High-quality fittings are an important condition for long-term and stable operation of the door system. You just need to purchase loops of the appropriate size. If they are not available, homemade hinges will come to the rescue, which are made independently, taking into account the parameters and weight of the sash. To do this, prepare tools and materials.

Self-made loop

Why choose homemade ones?

Many people refuse industrially manufactured fittings in favor of homemade ones for several reasons. Such products:

• Withstands significant loads. What is relevant for garage doors and solid doors;
• They have the required size. If the parameters of those manufactured in industrial conditions are standardized, then when producing in-house, the size that is required is chosen;
• They have a high level of reliability, since the fittings produced for themselves have a high level of strength compared to those produced in the factory. You can always choose a material with high mechanical properties and greater thickness.

We make loops with our own hands

The process of making loops is simple. In order for the fittings to turn out to be of high quality, you must be able to perform various types of work on your own.

Preparing tools and materials

To make high-quality accessories at home, prepare the appropriate tools, materials and equipment. You must have the following tools and equipment:

• Tape measure or other measuring tool. Sometimes you can get by with a regular ruler, but in this case it must fully meet regulatory requirements;
• A marker that writes on metal. Instead of a marker, you can use chalk;
• A hacksaw with a blade for metal. Those who know how to use a grinder can use this equipment if it is available;
• File;
• Hammer;
• A welding machine with suitable technical characteristics, as well as personal protective equipment necessary for welding work.

Preparing the tool

• Metal plate 2-3 mm thick;
• Pipe section;
• Steel rod. Its diameter is consistent with the internal diameter of the pipe section. Select a rod so that it fits inside the pipe with a slight interference fit. It is better to discard a rod whose size is smaller than the internal dimensions of the pipe.

When choosing a material, pay attention to its characteristics. The plate, pipes and rod must withstand the applied operating load.

Manufacturing sequence

Initially, two sections of pipe are sawed off. The total length depends on the size of the door leaf. So if it is 11 cm, you need to prepare the first piece of pipe 5 cm long. Before cutting the pipe of the required size, carefully apply markings. You will also need a piece of pipe whose length is 1 cm longer, i.e. – 6 cm. As a result, the total length is 11 cm.

After sawing, burrs often form on the metal surface, which can cause injury during installation work. To prevent this from happening, remove defects with a file. Wear gloves to avoid damaging your hands. Perform processing on both sides.

Once the tubes are ready, the rod is prepared. Its length is equal to the total length of the pipes, that is, 11 cm. To do this, markings are applied to the surface of the rod and a saw is made. The cutting line must be perpendicular to the nominal axis of the rod.

After cutting the rod and pipes to size, they are connected together. To do this, a rod is pressed into the sleeve. Once the sleeves are in place, the plates are prepared. Their size is consistent with the dimensions of the door and the dimensions of the manufactured hinges. There should be two such plates, and they have the same length. This concludes the preparatory stage. Moving on to welding work.

After making sure that the rod has taken the desired position inside the sleeve, the ends of both tubes are welded. This prevents the rod from moving inside the pipe during operation.

The plates are then welded to the sleeves. They are positioned perpendicular to the conventional axis of the sleeves. To do this, the plates are first grabbed, and then, after making sure of their correct spatial arrangement, they are finally welded.

Decoration

To make the manufactured hinges look beautiful, they are painted or galvanized. Both of these options allow you to give the surface a beautiful appearance, as well as protect it from external negative influences. To do this, the thickness of the applied coating must be sufficient for specific operating conditions.

After decoration, the fittings look almost the same as those sold by official manufacturers. In this case, you can always choose the color of the product that you require. So, if you can find fittings on sale, as a rule, black, then hinges made in-house can be painted in any suitable color.

Ready-made accessories

Installation of hinges

After the fittings are completely ready, they are installed. To do this, one plate is screwed to the sash, the second to the door leaf. The fastening is done so that the plate with the upper sleeve is screwed to the door, and the second part to the vertical post of the box. During the installation process, the manufactured loop is assembled into a complete product.

How to install correctly?

It is possible to carry out the installation yourself without outside help; you just need to strictly follow the instructions and follow the basic rules . For high-quality installation of gates, whether they are garage doors or used to fence a site, it is important to follow these steps. Welding elements to racks is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. For this you will need special plates.

You can make the task easier if you initially buy hinges that are suitable for a certain type of structure.

Beginning of work

At the preparatory stage you will need to prepare the tool. If you have a machine, a hammer and a grinder, you can easily cope with the task. You can’t do without a building level and a tape measure. Do not forget to follow safety precautions. In order to properly weld overhead loops, you must first prepare a drawing according to which you will follow.

Welding process

Welding work requires mounting plates. They will allow you to evenly distribute the weight of each of the sashes. Use a welder to attach the plates to the hinges. To do this, you will need an assistant who will provide tools and support during further welding of the structure to the pillars. Next you need to check whether all elements move correctly and whether the gate is warped.

Final stage

Now it's time to start making the finishing seam. To do this, you will need a grinder to clean out all the seams, and the job will be finished. Welded hinges must adhere well to the structure, and it, in turn, must be level and also move smoothly on the fastening element.

Other options

Not everyone can boast of having a welding machine at home. For others, such products turn out to be an expensive option, which is a pity to install on a light door. In this case, the necessary fittings are made from scrap materials. Which option is suitable depends on the size of the door leaf and the material of the door leaf.

To do this, prepare a conveyor belt and metal plates. Their thickness can be relatively small. You can take metal whose thickness is not much greater than the thickness of the sheets that are used in the manufacture of cans. To fasten the fittings, prepare nails 4–5 cm long.

Installation of hinges is carried out by placing the panel in the doorway. Leave one centimeter between the vertical post and the door leaf on the side where the hinges will be located. Having fixed the position of the door, nail the hinges. To do this, first place a conveyor belt and metal plates on top. In this case, the conveyor belt acts as a flexible element that ensures the opening and closing of the sash.

Such fittings are suitable for lightweight doors that are installed at the entrance to a chicken coop or a place where rabbits are kept. Their distinctive feature is the absence of creaking during operation, as well as the ability to operate without lubrication.

Thus, anyone can make loops on their own. Such fittings are suitable for garage doors and entrance doors. If you approach the manufacturing process responsibly, you can make your home a real fortress. High-quality and durable fittings can withstand external loads and at the same time have an aesthetically attractive appearance.

Pendulum loops have several other names: bar, western, metro. The origin of the names is quite justified, because doors on pendulum hinges can be found in American bars in the Western style and in Hollywood films about the wild west. These hinges are classified as double-sided; thanks to them, the door can open in both directions. The scope of application of hinges is in places with high traffic: bars, restaurants, shops, industrial and production premises.

Pendulum loops are usually installed in bars and restaurants

How to choose?

Since there are several types of loops, it is necessary to study the features of each of them in order to make a choice. Reinforced options are more suitable for gates, so they are in demand. First of all, take into account the material from which the door leaf is made, because this indicates the weight and load that the hinges must withstand . If the gate is made of corrugated sheets, then you can take through or hidden views. But for wooden, forged and metal sashes, the best choice would be a reinforced structure.

The next question is what are the operating conditions. For areas where break-ins are a possibility, purchase and install hidden hinges as they are very difficult to break into. Classic iron gates are most often produced in the same dimensions, so for most people the best choice will be classic hinges. They are optimal and easy to use, so they are also used for gates.

But if we are talking about a design of non-standard sizes, the fasteners must be reinforced. Hinges for heavy gates are made of durable material that is highly wear-resistant.

Features of bar loops

Classic door hinges, card (overhead) hinges, consist of two leaves on a common hinge. Such hinges are installed most easily - by screwing them to the door leaf and door frame.

A door pendulum hinge has fundamental differences from a regular card hinge and consists of two cards mounted on pins, allowing the door to rotate in both directions. The opening angle in one direction is 90º; accordingly, the door can swing open in both directions within a range of 180º.

Products have their own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

Thanks to bar hinges, doors can be opened in both directions, which is very useful in hospitals, subways, bars and shopping centers. This design is sometimes used in ordinary residential premises to create an unusual design, most often in country-style interiors.

In addition, hinges for swing doors have the following advantages:

• comfort of opening doors when your hands (body) are busy;
• maintaining heat in the room (the doors do not remain open, as they close automatically);
• unhindered passage through the doors of a large number of people;
• automatic return of hinges to the closed position;
• Thanks to installation by insertion, the product looks aesthetically pleasing and unnoticeable in the interior and can be easily combined with other fittings.

It is worth noting that insertion can be made into a door leaf made of almost any material - plastic, metal (including aluminum), wood, glass.

Flaws

Pendulum hinges for wooden doors, if they are well made and installed, have only one drawback - the price. Their cost is several times higher than the cost of ordinary card loops.

Although the high price is partially offset by the good reliability of the products, achieved due to the spring design. Thanks to it, the hinges will last a long time, which means you will no longer need to incur the cost of replacing them, and also waste time on it.

Selection of pendulum loops

Choosing pendulum hinges is no more difficult than usual, the main thing is to know what you should pay special attention to. The most important selection criteria are determined not by aesthetic qualities, but by the quality of the products themselves. Let's look at them in more detail:

• The first thing you should pay attention to when purchasing is the manufacturer. It is best to give preference to brands from Germany or Italy.
• The second important criterion is the width of the product. Pendulum hinges are available in different widths, so they should be selected to suit the thickness of the door.
• The third selection criterion is load weight. On average, one loop can support a weight of 25 to 60 kg. In some cases, three or more pieces may be needed (the heavier the door, the greater the number of hinges required).
• The fourth criterion is the aesthetics of the product. Bar pendulum hinges can vary in length and color. The most common sizes are 75 mm, 100 mm, 125 mm; popular colors are matte brass and polished brass, matte chrome and polished chrome, and bronze.

Manufacturers of spring fasteners

There are a large number of manufacturers on the domestic market that produce spring hinges for bar doors.

Popular brands include:

• Justor (Italy);
• Luigi Aldeghi (Italy);
• AMIG (Spain);
• ARMADILLO (Italy);
• MERT (Türkiye).

Spring hinges differ little in the type of device, however, each manufacturer has its own nuances, ranging from the thickness of the part to the availability and quality of components. For example, the thickness of Chinese hinges can be 1.4 mm, while Italian ones are made from 1.9 mm sheet steel, which increases the performance of the fastener.

The presence of additional lubrication of springs, plastic elements between the bushings and soldering of rods affects the quality and durability of door fasteners.

Therefore, it is necessary to give preference to one or another manufacturer only after carefully familiarizing yourself with the part and its technical characteristics.

Installation of pendulum hinges

The installation of pendulum hinges is almost no different from the installation of overhead and mortise hinges. The sequence of actions is as follows:

1. Marks are placed on the door leaf and door frame to determine the location of the hinges.
2. Stoppers are removed from both loops (pendulum loops are usually spring-loaded).
3. Then a mandrel is inserted into the hole on the hinge and turned clockwise.
4. The cards are applied to the surface of the door and secured with self-tapping screws in accordance with the diagram proposed below.

If the pendulum loop is spring-loaded, then before starting work it is relaxed, and at the end it is clamped again

1. The springs are then compressed. To compress the spring, you need to turn the mandrel clockwise and then insert the stopper into place.
2. After this, you should screw the hinges to the door leaf and to the door frame.

1. At the final stage, the door is checked for smooth movement. If you find that the door closes unevenly, the spring will need to be adjusted.

Having installed the element on the door leaf, you can begin attaching the mating parts to the door frame

1. This completes the installation of the pendulum hinges.

To clearly understand what pendulum hinges are, what the principle of their installation and adjustment is, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with this video instruction.

In everyday life there are often situations when the most convenient would be a door that swings open in any direction. But ordinary canopies do not allow this. But there are special double-sided door hinges designed just for such structures. They are often called pendulum or bar.

The features of such loops, their scope of application, design and installation will be discussed in this article.

How to properly weld hinges on a gate made of corrugated sheets. Hinge installation sequence

• How to weld hinges on gates so that the metal does not move and the gate opens easily. For straight hinges, it is recommended to weld them onto the gate first while it is on a flat surface, on the ground or on a mounting table.


For half the length of the loop, a backing of two to four millimeters is made under the lower half of the loop, and the upper part is grabbed from the end. If the gate is installed on round supports, then the hinges extend 5mm outside the gate, and if the supports are rectangular, then they must be welded flush.

• The procedure for both loops is identical. After the loops have already been tacked, you need to use a rectangular block (30x30) to set the loops, placing it along the loops.
• Next, two tacks are made on each side of the loops. Cook the loops using short potholders, alternately on each side of the loop.
• Then the loops are welded to the posts. The gates are set with the required gap of one to one and a half centimeters in the middle, the gap near the pillars can be two to two and a half millimeters. The bottom of the loops is tacked to the posts; if necessary, you can use inserts between the posts and loops made of a round or rectangular section of a suitable size.
• Now you can carefully open the gate, carefully holding it, and if the gate opens easily, then several tacks are made from the outside.
• After closing the gate, it is necessary to make a stand in the middle so that they do not sag during cooking. The welding seam is laid from bottom to top. After welding, it is necessary to allow the hinges to cool, and only then can the gate be opened. To weld the hinges on the other side, a stand is also made under the gate leaf.

Scope of application

The easiest way to illustrate the operation of swing doors is using the example of cowboy salons. They say that cowboys used to ride into a bar directly on a horse, but, as you understand, the horse, as you understand, cannot open the door for itself. That's why they came up with structures that move freely around an axis in any direction.

Now the scope of application of pendulum loops has become mainly places with high traffic volumes of people - retail premises, train stations, subways. They are also convenient in cases where it is difficult for a person to open the door towards themselves. For example, if his hands are full, or he is a wheelchair user.

Therefore, double-sided door hinges are often used in medical institutions, catering establishments, warehouses, as well as in apartments where elderly or disabled people live.

But such structures do not always perform only a utilitarian function. They fit very organically into some interior styles. For example, the last picture shows a decorative wooden gate, stylized as the entrance to a cowboy saloon.

Selection options

To choose reliable and suitable double-sided door hinges, you need to pay attention not only to their appearance and color. This, of course, is also important for aesthetic perception. But it’s even more important that the door works properly and lasts a long time.

Therefore, we consistently evaluate the following parameters:

• Opening direction. This has already been mentioned above.
• Dimensions. First of all, the width of the cards, which should not be greater than the thickness of the door leaf.

• Permissible load. It is unlikely that every canopy comes with an instruction manual, but the seller should have information about the maximum load on it.

Advice. Please note that the load is per loop. Knowing the mass of the door leaf, you can calculate the required number of canopies.

• Appearance. This is also a shape that may differ from the standard rectangular one. And a color that matches the door or other interior details. The choice is quite large: gold, chrome, brass, bronze in matte and polished versions. There are also canopies coated with powder paint in different colors.

Some products come with additional features. For example, bearings for smooth and silent movement and elements for regulating the speed of spontaneous closing of the door.

Installation

The installation of such loops is slightly different from the installation of ordinary card loops. To better understand the description below, first look at the completeness of the products and their diagram.

So, double-sided spring door hinges can be adjusted by changing the compression force. Before installation, they must be loosened, and after installation, tightened to ensure that the base returns to its original position on its own.

• 1 – spring;
• 2 – bushing with holes for the stopper;
• 3 – stopper;
• 4 – locking screw;
• 5 – end nut.

And the mandrel is a metal pin with which adjustments are made.

Now you can see how to install a door on double-sided spring hinges with your own hands:

Advice. The adjustment must be carried out carefully, without applying much effort. Otherwise you can break the spring.

Often, over long periods of use, the springs themselves weaken. In such cases they are pulled up again. The main thing is not to lose the mandrel.

Cons of hidden awnings

In the material world, absolutely ideal things, in principle, do not exist; hidden models of canopies also have disadvantages.

• Installing hidden canopies is much more difficult than installing conventional hinges;
• Canopies with decent quality hinges and supporting parts cost from 1,800 rubles. a piece. Of course, there are loops on the market for 500 - 700 rubles, but they are not regulated and are often of dubious quality;
• Not all canopy models can be disassembled, so in order to remove a door leaf based on cheap hinges, these hinges must be completely unscrewed;
• To embed such a canopy, the door leaf must have the appropriate thickness. Hidden hinges for metal doors usually have somewhere to go, but problems can arise with framed interior doors.

Not every interior door is thick enough to install hidden hinges