Parliament hinges

[john.s]

Hi All,
Have been fitting reclaimed internal doors - lovely 1940's five panel jobs that I got on ebay and had stripped. Decided to do a couple as bifolds as space is tight, so had to cut them up and insert central spines - all going well but a last minute decision to go for parliament hinges seems to be causing trouble. Never been good with hinge/lever/mechanical things so someone will prolly tell me what a muppet I am, but here goes...
An original door...

Doors succesfully re engineered...

But I have a massive gap at the hinge, seemingly caused by the nature of the hinge, it seems as though each leaf shouldwrap around the pin and come to the centre, but they don't - like this there will always be a massive gap unless I bury the hinge deep deep into the frame won't there? Obviuosly this door is not quite closing because it is hitting the door jamb on the other side from the hinge, due to it being displaced.

Was going to paint them, but seeing how amazing the wood is, me thinks a bit of Danish oil might be in order (once I have managed to stain the new pine to match!)
john.s

 

[Schoolmarm]

Is the hinge inside out? If not, yes you will have to chop a rebate in the frame, and possibly in the door, but I don't know what a parliament hinge is 8)


been to look at parliament hinges and found this;

http://www.bernards.co.uk/hinges_faq.htm

but it only tells you what type of hinge to use and why. :roll:

 

[john.s]

No, the hinge is not inside out - because there are only countersinks for the screw heads the way round I have it, and the other way it hardly opens back at all.
john.s

 

[chuckey]

I would "dekink" the hinge in a vice. Straighten each half, individualy then as a closed pair with a thin piece of postal card inbetween them. Use card on the vice jaws to minimise any scratching and hope they are not to badly damaged while you do it. The hinges will certainly look very poor if rebated to get the closing edge to have a reasonable gap, though if the hinges are straightened the door will appear to shrink by the amount of the gap you recover. With your handle on the edge as per pic, you will need a bit more clearance on the edge nearest to it.
I have cut some cheapo 6 panel B&Q doors in half, padded up the central area to get the widths of the stiles right and hung each door with two brass cabinet knobs in the centre. Yeh, they looked OK until the doors warped!! :evil:
Frank

 

[Penners]

Like Schoolmarm, my first thought was that the hinges had been fixed the wrong way "out".

But you're obviously confident that this is not the case. In which case, are you sure that they aren't just badly made hinges?

Would they fold flat (ie: two faces in contact with each other) before you fitted them?

 

[SBJ]

I think that you might expect this with the geometry of parliment hinges. Unlike a standard butt hinge the gap wont close until the door is in the closed position as the pivot point is not in the same plane as the door. Can you close the door by putting the lock side in first and then popping the centre in? (if you get what I mean?).

Like others have said, its probably worth taking the hinges off and checking that they are alright, the correct way round, not twisted etc. Make sure that the hinges are seated correctly, sitting flush with the frame and the door. Then check any thing else you can think of - does the door fit :wink: ?

If you cant find anything wong after all that get some butts!

 

[john.s]

Well I have solved the problem of the hinges, I think it does come down to the fact that the plane of the hinge is offset to that of the door (by their very nature), and what I found is that the exact rebate for the hinges is absolutely critical. It seems crazy, but by setting one hinge leaf in as little as a mm or so, and having the other (door side) angled out very slightly, the massive discrepancy at the closing end dissapears. I've never been very good with hinge type things, so prolly not explaining it very well, so, here is a picture...

It's not a great picture and is a different door to previous pics (as the first one was the experimental one and did not come out so well), but you can just see that the front of the leaf that is mounted on the door is angled out, no idea if this is correct but it works. There is still a bit more of a gap than usual on the other side of the door (the side that closes) but not too much and I think that is how it has to be.
Good luck to anyone trying this, it's worthwhile if you are short on space.
john.s

 

[Flyfisher]

I think the key is to be sure that the hinge pins are exactly in line with each other (or all, if there are more than two hinges). Imagine a long pin connected through each hinge - if that imaginary pin would be dead straight and vertical then the door should swing properly. Easy to say but harder to do in practice, in my experience anyway.