Last month I started sharing a new type of post highlighting some “unidentified hardware objects,” like a thick hub shoe or a ratchet release assembly. Have you ever looked at a piece of hardware and wondered…“What IS that?”
When Mark Kuhn and I were in Colorado to do some training for the current cohort of Allegion’s Early Careers Program, we went on a field trip to a local high school. I’m sure you can imagine the two of us excitedly pointing out automatic door bottoms and auxiliary fire pins, while the specwriters- and sales-reps-in-training looked on with intense interest. 😀
I noticed some heavy weight hinges on a pair of doors, and then things got a little weird. Here are the doors and a closer view of two of the hinges:
If you’re an intense scrutinizer of doors like I am, you might notice that these two hinges are different:
Both hinges are ball bearing hinges. The hinge on the left is a standard weight ball bearing hinge, and the one on the right is a heavy weight hinge. You can tell by the number of ball bearing housings on the hinge barrel – 2 housings vs 4.
It’s very unusual to see both types of hinges on one door, because in addition to having more ball bearings, heavy weight hinges are thicker than standard weight. I like to think that Mark and I wowed the group with our lengthy discussion of the variation in the hinge thickness – 0.134-inch for standard weight and 0.180-inch for heavy weight. (I have no idea how those numbers stay in my head when I can’t remember what I did yesterday.)
The prep in the frame and the door is different for these two hinge types. The doors and the frame would have been prepped for either standard weight or heavy weight hinges, so some of the hinges would need to be shimmed or others would stand proud of the hinge prep. And now you know (if you didn’t already), what those little housings in the hinge knuckles are for (ball bearings) and how to tell the difference between standard and heavy weight hinges (2 ball bearing housings vs. 4)!
If you’ve seen any unidentified hardware objects lately, use the Photo Submission page to send me some photos!
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What does the other side of the doors look like??
With all the bolts on them?
Hi Charles –
One set of closers was removed and new ones installed, and both the old and new thru-bolts are showing on the pull side, along with two thru-bolts/door for the top latches of the panic hardware.
– Lori
Notice they put the two HD on the top on one door and on the bottom on the other door ??
I’m more concerned with why they put the HW hinges at the top on the RHR leaf and at the bottom on the LHR leaf. Very strange.
Wow – good eye!! And now I know what a ball-bearing housing is. Thank you!
I don’t think the installer knows the difference between standard and heavy weight hinges. If she/he did, they might have put all 4 standard weight hinges on one leaf. That being said–the gaps appear to be pretty good.