Mortice door knob nightmare!

minibbb

Hello all

Ive just had a nice new internal door fitted in my lounge and am very happy with it, what im not happy with however is my £10 chrome victorian style mortice knob I bought from homebase.

The knob rotates/operates fine off the door but as soon as its screwed to the door the handle is ridiculously stiff and no amount of loosening screws/ tweaking its position seems to help. I have read the reviews for the knob and similar cheap mortice knobs which are sprung and they say very similar things. I now have six small holes where ive tried to fit the damn thing! Luckily these are hidden by the baseplate.

The only thing I can think is that as the screws have to go in at a slight angle they are pulling the base plate slightly out of alignement which is fouling the spindle perhaps?

Can anyone suggest a good quality replacement? I was going to get a howdens one as thats where the door is from by sadly they were out of stock!

Watsy

What I think is happening here is that there is a plate behind the handle which is fouling when the handle is screwed on. There is obviously a hole made for the spindle to pass through but you may need to make a larger hole at the back of the handle to let the plate rotate freely.

When you have the handle off, look at the back of it and see a bit that turns when you turn the knob. You need to make a hole to allow that part to turn when it's fitted. If it works fine off the door, it should work fine on the door, it's just been poorly fitted.

As for the holes you're making as you fiddle about with it, fill them with matchsticks or cut a few pieces of an old timber scrap you have lying about as your screws wont get any grip and the handle will pull off easily.

leveller2911

Without the knob scewed on the door use a large screw driver in the lock spindle hole and turn it to push the latch back. If the latch pulls back ok then its not the lock/latch.. If the knob is sprung and rotates fine in the hand then the knob is fine.

Check to make sure the spinde rod turns freely when through the lock (without the knob on) and is not snagging on the timber around the hole. If its free and not snagging then I would put money on the lock/latch not being fitted square in the door.Check this by putting a small square on the door next to the spindle to see if the spindle is square to the door ie 90 degrees to the door.If its not then theres your problem.

What may be happening is when you screw the knobs on they are forcing the spindle back square to the door and not allowing it to turn freely.

[Deleted User]

Spindle too long so that it presses into the knob as you tighten the screws?

minibbb

Thankyou so much for your replies, some really helpful suggestions there!

I shall get cracking with it when i get home from work and hopefully get to the bottom of whats wrong with it!

Biggles

The square spindle may be slightly bent/distorted, try sliding it out, turning it 1/4, then reinserting it. If that changes things, try turning it 1/2 then 3/4 till you find the best position.

minibbb

Only managed a quick look at the doorknob this morning, I picked up a howdens one to try which feels much heavier/better quality. I took off the old handles to check the spindle wasnt being fouled on the door and to make sure that the mechanism on the back of the knob wasnt catching it the hole.
Both seemed fine. When I offered up the new handles to the door and slid them onto the spingle again the handles didnt want to turn easily. This is making me think that the latch may not have been fitted entirely straight! I literally only had two mins before work to check it so will have a proper look later on!

leveller2911

minibbb wrote: »

Only managed a quick look at the doorknob this morning, I picked up a howdens one to try which feels much heavier/better quality. I took off the old handles to check the spindle wasnt being fouled on the door and to make sure that the mechanism on the back of the knob wasnt catching it the hole.
Both seemed fine. When I offered up the new handles to the door and slid them onto the spingle again the handles didnt want to turn easily. This is making me think that the latch may not have been fitted entirely straight! I literally only had two mins before work to check it so will have a proper look later on!

Oh my life.......Your existing door knob must me rubbish if Howdens Ironmongery looks like better quality....:D

From what your saying I would say my previous post is correct..Let us know how how you get on.....