Door Hinge rebuild fixture tool...

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cruiserbrett

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So, I got motivated today and finished the door hinge press fixture, to hold the hinges for pressing the pin out and back in after rebushing. You will need an H frame press like the harbor frieght deals... I had measured and cut all the pieces a few months ago but I never got around to finishing it. got some time today and finished it

Anyhow, started with a 3"x6" box tube, about a foot long. I drilled it and a 6x6 3/8" plate for a 1" hole. I machined a 1 inch piece of mild steel for a roughly 3/8" ID for the pin to drop into. Measured the offset for the hinge pin-mounting surface depth and discovered the spring hinges are the same front and rear, but the upper fronts are shallower, so I made an aluminum spacer. I think its 3/16" but It could be 1/4", so the pin centers better in the reciever hole on the fixture.

Anyhow, as you will notice, the spring hinges require the tube to be above the base of the press for clearance, but other than that nothing too tricky.

You arent going to fit the rear non spring hinges on the press, but it works for the spring hinges and the front no spring hinges. BTW, the pattern is different, slightly between the spring hinges and the no spring front hinges, so beware when making you pattern. with careful measurement and drilling, you could actually use all three holes in the plate. Mine is set to the spring hinge pattern, and the non spring hinge pattern is off slightly, so only the middle hole lines up and thats just barely....

pictured is hopefully enough pics to help someone that wants to make their own... It works great(although you do need an H frame press-I used the one at the local machine shop)
pin press main.webp
close-up.webp
backside.webp
 
Fantastic! How bout I just mail my hinges to you. ;)

Reminds me of my father in law the old Yankee Carpenter...inventor of a million and one jigs on the fly. And all the while everyone else (or at least me) is just standing around wondering what to do.

Anyway, great post.
 
Seems like a lot of work Cruiserbrett? I posted my technique in my hinge rebuild thread. Hammer, vice on the floor, a clamp, pilot shaft, chunk O metal with a hole in it to set the hinge on, that pins out of there in 2 seconds.
breaking hinges.webp
 
I tried about 4 hinges by fixing them in the vise, with a stopper plate(with hole) and got frustrated b/c only one pin would come out. Plus, now its a simple matter of dropping the hinge inplace and bolting it up, so its a quick and repeatable process. I guess I can knock out lots of hinges....

In fact, even with the jig, I had to use a surprising amount of pressure on a few-to the point I was standing to the side of the press, hoping not get hit by flying parts. I imagine it has to do with rust on the knurling, since the less rusty ones seemed to put up less fight...

Also, I have 3 FJ55's and know folks with lots more, and the material and lathe, bandsaw, and drill press time was free.
 
cruiserbrett said:
I tried about 4 hinges by fixing them in the vise, with a stopper plate(with hole) and got frustrated b/c only one pin would come out. Plus, now its a simple matter of dropping the hinge inplace and bolting it up, so its a quick and repeatable process. I guess I can knock out lots of hinges....

In fact, even with the jig, I had to use a surprising amount of pressure on a few-to the point I was standing to the side of the press, hoping not get hit by flying parts. I imagine it has to do with rust on the knurling, since the less rusty ones seemed to put up less fight...

Also, I have 3 FJ55's and know folks with lots more, and the material and lathe, bandsaw, and drill press time was free.
Click to expand...

OK, OK, you called me on it gentleman like so guessin now I have to hat in my hand admit I must have been lucky, big hammer helpled! OK, OK, just another half truth....out wit it din..NICE JIG DUDE, I said it, there, truth is what is really burning me is the weld work, gotta get that going, very nice!
 
Brett, make sure you're finished with it by the end of July so I can borrow it when I pass through San Diego!

What did you do to take up slack in the hinges? Did you redrill them? Bush the inner knuckle? Just replace the nylon bushings?
 
Also, I have 3 FJ55's and know folks with lots more, and the material and lathe, bandsaw, and drill press time was free.

Terriffic :idea:
For a multitude of hinge rebuilds, that's a knuckle saver fo sure. I used copius amounts of heat on my hinges, mounted on my vise. Once I had a plan on how I wanted to reassemble the pieces, using stainless bushings & pins, it went pretty smoothly. Are you going to use the Napa pin kits? I had to modify a couple of them as they were too long for the upper diagonal shaped hinges.
 
Brett; have you thought about making up a batch of these babies for those of us w/o your welding talents; if so, count me in on purchasing one; I have crapped up a couple with the BFH
 
X2!!!!!
 
Eric Ellis said:
Or it travels the country like my daugghters school class project. :lol: It really shouldn't sit idle too long. ;)
Click to expand...


That was the plan, I still need to make some new pins for my hinges, so for now its going to call San Diego a home, but will travel once I am done...


I can tell you that the amount of time and materials if I were to build a few more would not be worth it, since It took about 4 hours to build, and what would have been about $30 in material... getting the pattern and offset correct and repeatable in a timely fashion would require another jig, something I am not going to do.
 
cruiserbrett said:
That was the plan, I still need to make some new pins for my hinges, so for now its going to call San Diego a home, but will travel once I am done...


I can tell you that the amount of time and materials if I were to build a few more would not be worth it, since It took about 4 hours to build, and what would have been about $30 in material... getting the pattern and offset correct and repeatable in a timely fashion would require another jig, something I am not going to do.
Click to expand...

Well, I'd sign up on that list for sure. But I'm not sure it should ever leave home. I know it is a great post.
 
Brett, how about I pay you a visit in late July and I'll rebuild my hinges right there?
 
I spoke with the owner of the machine shop, and he said I could use their press on the weekends, and they have a blasting cabinet, so maybe I could rebuild hinges and send them back to you? I am looking into have a run of new pins in the correct length/diameter made, with knurling, so that would complete the process, since some of the hinges arent worth rebuilding unless you have a new pin b/c the hinges wear the pin out when the bushings are gone.

So, I am guessing hinge pins to be about $4 each(low production run costs are going to have to cover cad/programming fees) (if someone is good with solidworks or autocad and they could design the hinge on cad that would save about $100 according to the machine shop I talked with)

Bushings(plastic) per hinge is $3

I figure that plus about $7-10/hinge would make it worth my time to rebuild them(I know that most hinges would take about 15 minutes max so that $7-10 is high, but that is to offset slightly the chance that the 30 year old part takes 30 minutes b/c of some unforseen issues...) Interest?

What I wont do is press in the bronze bushings. there is too much variance in the hinge ID to accomodate an accurate .003" press fit, so it doesnt make sense to deal with them due to possibility of damaging the bushings... It would take setting up and cutting a reamer for the correct ID, reaming each hinge then building a stepped press shaft to prevent damaging the bushing while pressing, as the thin flange would most certainly distort while pressing...

cruiser_guy et al, if you are in san diego, I will be happy to rebuild them with you
 
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