That $60 barrel hinge jig set me back a full week of work

Picked up one of those cheap multi-angle barrel hinge jigs online thinking it would speed up my cabinet door installs. First three doors came out fine, then the fourth one the bit wandered and tore out the hinge cup, ruined a $140 maple door. I lost the cost of the door plus two days fixing the alignment on the other five doors with a router template I borrowed from a buddy in Tacoma. Should have just spent the extra $40 on the brand name jig my local supplier carries, has anyone else had these cheap jigs drift on dense hardwood?

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anthony_campbell8829d ago

Man, I feel your pain on that one. I had the exact same thing happen with a cheap jig I grabbed off Amazon, bit drifted on some hard maple and tore out a full hinge cup on a custom door I'd already finished. It's like they're fine for soft pine or plywood but the second you hit real hardwood, the whole thing just flexes and shifts. You mentioned the alignment issues too, that's the part that killed me because it's not just one door, it's every single door you did before you noticed. I ended up having to redo three cabinet doors and reface the frame on two others because the cups were all sitting at slightly different angles. The $40 I saved on the jig cost me about $300 in materials and a weekend I'll never get back. These cheap jigs are a gamble and I learned my lesson, now I just borrow the good router template from my buddy too instead of trusting that harbor freight special.