Drill w/guide or router?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Here's one I've been going over for the last 6 months.

We have sliding pocket doors that separate our dining room and our family room. There are two of them 30 inches wide and they meet in the middle to form one 60 inch opening when open and a solid "wall" when closed.

When they are open, they disappear nice and flat into the walls.

When they are closed, they meet in the middle - and - slowly open up as they sit and drift away from each other.

I bought some rare earth magnets that are 3/4" in diameter and grip together with a whole bunch of force. I can't pull them apart without having to pry them.
One in each door should be more than enough. If it isn't. I'll just add another set & so on. I have 6 individual magnets so I'm pretty sure I have enough.

Which brings me to - I have to drill holes in the edges of the doors. I have a Milescraft Drill Mate and a plunge router mounted on one of Tamar's trim router bases to choose from. I can also whip up a guide of some kind on the drill press.
For the router jig - I can add some wider pieces to it and make some side pieces like the Festool jig in this thread:
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....ol-Mortise-Jig

Since depth and location on the door are pretty critical, I'm leaning towards the plunge router.

I'm open to anything though.

Anything that can be done while the doors are in place that is. I can't take them down to work on them. My wife would cut 1/2 of my beard, hair and moustache off if I did that - - even if it worked...

[Zachary Hoyt]

I would just use a Forstner bit in a cordless drill on the low setting, after poking a hole in the exact starting location. To me marking the holes to line up exactly would seem harder than drilling them.

[Jimmy Harris]

I'd do whatever you feel most comfortable with.

Personally, I would just make a doweling jig. I can't recall seeing a premade one for 3/4" dowels. I know I've looked before for a project once, but probably not that hard. Anyway, I just made mine out of scrap wood, drilled the hole on the drill press, and attached two boards to either side to keep the center alignment. On this one, I put some brass inserts (brass pipe with 3/4" inside diameter) in them, but I was making a lot of holes. I've made other jigs and skipped the inserts, which work fine if you're not drilling a bunch of holes, which will eventually wear out the walls and can cause your holes to become angled. Then put some tape on your bit to mark the correct depth and get to it!

The good thing about something like this is you're probably going to have to glue it in, and probably with some kid of epoxy. So, if you're a little too deep or slightly crooked or whatever, you can reposition it and let the epoxy fill in to fix your mistakes and still get it aligned and looking good.

Two words of advice. One, make sure you get the magnets faced right, so they attract and don't repel. That's an easy mistake to make while you've got other things going on. And two, start off by taping a pair of magnets to your doors to see if a single pair is enough, or too much. Just a dry run before you commit to anything. You may need to offset them to reduce the strength, or add a second or third set to increase them. And you might find you need them in specific area to work best. I have a magnetic catch on one of my doors to hold it open (unloading groceries), and when I first set it up, a single magnet held with too much force to comfortably close the door. So I had to offset it slightly, so it doesn't hold as strongly.

[Edward Weber]

It may end up being a magnet on one door and a plain plate or washer on the other.
I think a forstener bit is the easiest way to go. Drill one door and use a dowel center in a washer for marking the opposing door. I would also use blue tape on the entire area to be worked on, makes for easy marking and cleanup.

[Cameron Wood]

Layout on the doors on masking tape, drill as described above, Forstner or Speedbore (are these still made?) bit, glue with a dab of polyurethane glue after scuffing the magnets with sandpaper.

Plunge router sounds complicated and risky for this.

[Jamie Buxton]

I use magnets on doors quite a bit. The important thing is that the magnets must touch. A gap drastically reduces the force. So for your job, a good depth stop is essential. My best depth stop is on my plunge router.

[Michael Burnside]

It may end up being a magnet on one door and a plain plate or washer on the other.
I think a forstener bit is the easiest way to go. Drill one door and use a dowel center in a washer for marking the opposing door. I would also use blue tape on the entire area to be worked on, makes for easy marking and cleanup.

This is exactly what I would do as well.

[Kent A Bathurst]

This is exactly what I would do as well.

I've been successful with flathead screws. Like, say, a #12. If that won't hold, then march up the scale - 14, 16. Also - by definition, these are adjustable for depth. "Over-sink" it, and back it out until the attraction works.

This is for when I don' want a "bang" on closing - rather, just enough to hold position

[Rod Sheridan]

Forstner bit in a hand held drill is all you need, put masking tape on both doors so you put layout lines on with a square and pencil, mark a Center point with an awl and drill through the tape, super easy

Regards, Rod

[Ralph Okonieski]

Make a jig to drill straight. Use a short piece of 2x4, use a forstner bit to drill through, then cut the 2x4 to center the hole and add fence to each side . This should then center the hole, provide a relatively straight guide. With a handheld drill, it should be fairly clear if the angle gets off perpendicular. Of course, the steps could be done differently to meet the tools you have on hand.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I think a jig will not work well with a Forstner bit because of how much smaller the shank is than the cutting head, but maybe there is a way I have not thought of.

[Bill Dufour]

I would use a drill in a countersink cage. Less weight then a router and depth set to within 1/1000". This job is really what they are designed for. Only problem will be drill diameter is limited.
I would plane a hunk of wood to door thickness and drill a guide hole in it. nail little bit of plywood on both sides and use it like a doweling jig. You can use. a story pole off the ground or ceiling to locate it.
Bill D
BilL D

[Rich Engelhardt]

I use magnets on doors quite a bit. The important thing is that the magnets must touch. A gap drastically reduces the force. So for your job, a good depth stop is essential. My best depth stop is on my plunge router.

Exactly my conundrum.

[Bill Dufour]

A countersink cage is accurate to 1/1000" per click. So far better then most wworking machines. It is designed to sink countersinked fasteners dead flush to an aircrafts skin for aerodynamic reasons. Just run it with a regular electric drill motor no need to run out and buy a pancake drill or anything special.
Bill D
https://www.browntool.com/Listview/t...2/Default.aspx

[Doug Garson]

Methinks you and many of the posters are overthinking this. Typical magnets are about 1/8" thick, no need for a drill guide or jig to keep the hole perpendicular to the edge of the door. Magnets used in this application don't need to be located within a few thousands of an inch. Mark both doors, blue tape is a good idea and center punch matching locations. Drill using a Forstner bit to approximately the required depth, check and adjust the drilling angle if the hole isn't perfectly square. Check the depth and drill further if required, if you drill too far you can use thickened epoxy or washers to make up the required depth. Note that magnets power is increased if they are backed by a steel disc, some magnets come with steel cup which you attach with a screw thru a tapered hole or you can just just a flat washer.