Milescraft 1213 Hinge Mate 300 - Complete Door Hinge Installation Kit with Latch & Strike Plate Templates. For use on Doors and Jambs

Complete kit for door hinges and strike plates. I used this on the door for the deadbolt plate and I used it on the jamb for the strike plate. It is easy to set up and works to make a perfectly clean mortise for the plates. I’ve always used chisels and they has worked fine but never leaves the rounded corners like this does with the included router bit. Overall very happy.

Here's why I gave this product 5 stars: - You can produce GREAT quality mortises with it. - It's EASY to use. - It's a GOOD VALUE. What I like: I cut mortises for 10 door latch plates yesterday, without taking the doors down off the hinges, and they all came out perfectly. The template was large and solid enough for my full-size router. What I didn't like: The measuring target on the template is about an inch above the cutting area, so in my case I had to project the center of the latch hole to the center target on the template. I used a laser level, but I'm sure you could also do this with a measuring tape. Also I dropped it once and one of the knob/spring/cam assemblies came apart. It was simple enough to reassemble and tighten the little setscrew that holds everything together, but it shows that this is a DIY homeowner type tool - it doesn't seem to be designed to tolerate abuse. If I had lost any of the little pieces I'd have been in trouble. This is a great kit and I'd recommend it to a homeowner or to anyone who would use it occasionally - and carefully.

I've been a carpenter for 24 years and have use many versions of this template by other companies. They are meant to be cheap and easy while having decent results. There are 3 things about this kit that make it really flawed. The first thing is that it can't be use on an existing jamb with casing on. The adjustable nubs on the back are more than 5/8 of an inch. Casing usually has a 1/4 inch reveal. That is why these jigs have had 1/8 inch nubs on them since the beginning of time. I'm not sure why they advertise this as being able to do existing jambs. I could remove the nubs and use it if I lined it up correctly but I feel that I shouldn't have to do that. The second thing is that even if I do remove the nubs to use on a jamb it can only be used on a door with 3/8 stop or less. The jig has to set partially over the stop and is raised only 3/8. This will be okay for most jambs but not in older houses where the stop is 1/2 inch. All they had to do was raise it another 1/8 and it would have worked in all door jambs. And thirdly, I am having a difficult time fitting the plastic inserts. The fit is simply too tight and I can't get them to lay flat. I am going to warp the metal trying to force it to lay flat. I also hate the "case" and the fact that even for a chance for it to work I had to spend 15 minutes carefully opening it. Like I said, this is a simple design that many companies have used. It should have been easy to improve upon but in my opinion Milescraft not only fell short but made it worse. I hope I can send it back even tho I had to destroy the packaging to open it. I originally gave this 1 star. After using it I would like to update my review. 90% of the doors I do are 1 3/8 with 3 1/2 hinges. I install only a couple a month and rarely need to mortise the jam. So what I did was remove the silly adjustable knobs and screwed the jig to a 3/4 x 2 1/2 x 12" board. The length needs to be long enough for clamps to not interfere with the router. I then inserted the 3 1/2 template insert and mortised my fence to a hinge depth. This gave me an exact mark to line up with my hinge marks on the door. I just line it up and clamp and rout. Much faster and precise than holding the jig with one hand and trying to screw it to the door with the other hand, plus no screw holes. The template inserts need a little attention before using. I pushed the insert in place as far as I could then turned the jig over to where it was laying on the insert and used a thin board to gently tap the frame down to the insert. After it was laying flat I took it back apart to remove the plastic shavings from having such a tight fit. Now it snaps in and out perfectly. I planed a bevel on the knob side of the door and when I routed the latch plate I had to use small tapered shims on the low edge of my fence before I clamped it for the template to lay flat on the beveled edge of the door. Not a big deal and better than screwing it to the door.

Bought this for the huge amount of templates that come with it, the price and the template router bit thats included. After reading some reviews, didn't have terribly high hopes for the product, but figured it'd be good enough for government work for a custom basement door I had to build since it was a weird size. To my surprise, this product worked great! I didn't experience any of the problems other people had, and in fact it looks like they updated the product based on complaints. They have screws included instead of nails, and the template fit in the jig very snugly. They created a beautiful finish on the door and I couldn't be happier. The included bit worked great for me, no flexing from what I can tell. It was better than I expected considering I have some bits that were more than the cost of this entire jig! The finish was good, better than whats needed considering hinges and plates are going to be covering the mortise. The only complaint is the templates are such a tight fit, they dont always fit perfectly flush and even on the jig, but if you put some downward pressure on your router, it worked fine.

Great tool, built pretty good out of hard plastic. I just did the cuts on a door and door jamb , followed the instructions on the package and everything went well and it looks so professionally finished. They provided a mortising router bit in the kit as well. Be careful, set the depth of your router prior to starting the job so You dont strike the template with the router bit and then You will be saying that the tool is built cheap because you will take a chunk of it with the spinnig bit. This tool in my opinion is built out of plastic for a reason, if it was made out of steel, You will damage the bit and probably hurt yourself if You strike the template. I hit the template slightly by mistake and it did shave a little bit of the plastic but it was on the one side that You dont use wich was ok with me. I'm thinking of tracing every template on 1/2" pexiglass and make my own out of this material. Dont believe what some guys wrote in the reviews, they werent careful enough and hit the template, if You are careful like me , You will rate this tool 5 star as well, plus lets not forget this tool cost less than $25. Happy shopping fellow amazon shoppers and good luck with your new tool.

Here's another good idea with mediocre execution. I like the idea of one base frame with a variety of templates for different hinges and strike plates. I don't like that the metal base frame is a bit flimsy and you have to use the included nails or better yet use your own #6 screws. A simple screw clamp would be better. I don't like that the templates likewise are flimsy plastic (not that I don't think a more robust plastic would be fine)and they don't fit securely and flat into the frame which if you're not careful can cause the router bit to route to an uneven depth. All in all it works for light duty work. I would imagine it would be fine in the long term if you treat it gently.

This is a pretty decent kit. I've used it to make three doors so far and it is easy to use and reasonably accurate--more accurate than the 5 pre-hung doors I just put up. Some of the templates fit pretty snug so you have to make sure they are seated fully so the router will get a consistent depth, but once you've used a template a couple times it goes in smoother. The tabs for aligning the jig to the center of the door are a little wobbly, so you need to watch the position while aligning and then get one of the screws in place. I may make a design modification I make to the metal frame to make the tabs a little more firm, but it isn't too hard to get it to work fine now. I was making several doors to fit in existing frames, so had to align the hinges with the existing spacing. This wasn't too difficult--just measure, mark, re-measure, and cut. Along with a 2-1/8" and a 1" hole saw for cutting the latch holes, it took me under 30 minutes working by myself to rework a door blank in my garage once I knew how to do it. The first door took longer since I was going slow to figure out the method.

Works Great if you have any idea what you're doing. As for the 1 and 2 star reviews, clueless users. 1. If your templates are red, you didn't purchase the 1213, they're black. 2. If the cut out in your templates are not the stated size, that's because they're not suppose to be, the extra space is for the bearing to ride along the inside edge. The mortise will be cut out at the correct size. 3. The cutting edge of the router bit should never come into contact with the template, if it shatters your template by hitting it you have no business using a router. 4. The screw holes in the side of the door are no big deal, use a little wood filler. The hinged side of the door is rarely ever seen and no one will ever notice it. Use clamps on the jamb instead of the screws, no holes. 5. If none of the templates fit your hinge, why would you purchase it ? The hinge sizes that it will fit are clearly stated. Or why wood you purchase it and then purchase a hinge that the templates won't fit ? This is most likely another case of someone who thinks the cut out in the template is too big, refer to #2. 6. If the instructions for your templates are only correct for outswing doors, you are definitely clueless. The instructions shouldn't need to tell anyone to screw the template facing the opposite direction to install the hinge in the opposite direction. The template itself shows you which direction to place it on the door. 7. If your steel frame will only adjust for doors up to 1 3/8" in thickness, what can I say, you're beyond clueless. Actually the steel frame will only adjust down to 1 3/8" in thickness, try turning the knobs in the other direction so they point at the 1 3/4" and then you can mortiss a 1 3/4" thick door. Interior doors are made 1 3/8" thick, exterior doors are made 1 3/4" thick. The frame is made to mortiss 1 3/8" and 1 3/4" doors, it isn't that difficult to figure out how to operate this thing.

Brilliant product and service

Love this set of templates as there is a template for everything required in order to core a door. Works great and easy to use!

me parecio un poco caro cuando lo compre, pero vale la pena, haces los trabajos mas rapido y con un terminado mas preciso. Soy carpintero y creo que vale la pena la inversion.

Can't tell from the description, but it would seem that standard US hinges are far wider than those in the UK. I guess you could make your own spacers, but may as well make your own template if that was the case.

I bought this product to help with a large door building project I had. Coupled with a good compact router, you'll get professional results when making slots for hinges or strike plates. There are several templates in the package for many different door combinations. I did not give it perfect marks because the screws provided with template to fasten it to the door were just bad. I ended up using a couple of short, fine drywall screws instead. There are also some instances where this template does not work. For example, installing a bullet strike for a closet door...there are no templates for the smaller strike plate (I ended up using a larger one and centering the plate manually in the larger slot. It would be handy having a template for a mortise style lock, but this also is a limitation. One last thing, if you are cutting a slot near the edge of a door, one of the screw holes will not mount so this is a limitation of the tool. This happened when I installed my bullet catch and also if installing any thing that needs to be on an edge of a door like a flush dead bolt.