Shopsmith Forums

JPG,

They won’t like mine. Round head stove bolts through 2x4 present in door and wall, with fender washers and a tac-weld on nut inside, and a tax-weld to the bottom of hinge pin making pin rotate with the section of hinge.

Not impossible to get into, but not easy to do.

JPG wrote: ↑Fri Feb 26, 2021 7:37 pm Only thieves/robbers like outdoor hinges.

I used to think the same. Nevertheless, when I had to replace my workshop’s exterior French doors, I opted to replace them with outswing doors, to create more usable space inside the workroom. I figured that if someone wants to break into my house, it’s less work for them to break a window anyway.

But while installing the new doors, I noticed something unusual about the hinges. The jamb-side plate of each hinge had a hole stamped in it. And the door-side hinge plates each had a protruding stamped tab, which fit into the jamb-side hole when the hinge was in the closed position.

At first, that was a head-scratcher. Then I realized that the purpose of these features was to solve that exact security issue. Even on French doors, if the astragal bolts are engaged, the doors can’t be opened or removed even if the hinge pins are removed. Those stamped tabs work like little deadbolts, unless the door is already ajar.

Pretty clever!

Outdoor hinges are mounted with dead doornails. Double clinched wrought iron nails can't be pulled out from outside. Or so they say.