Rescuing Old Hinges

The casement hinges are your basic standard assembly, six screw, five-knuckle steel door/cabinet variety. They were made, most likely, 100 years ago at the Stanley Works in New Britain, CT. Some of them have the SW ‘sweetheart’ maker’s mark. The rest bear the words Stanley Works, USA.

 

 

Although the hinge leaves are steel, the pins are solid brass. Brass and steel are compatible. Brass doesn’t rust. Good for exterior. None of the pins put up much of a fight when I used a punch and small hammer to tap them out from the bottom. Likewise, the casements readily let go once the pins were out.

 

The hinge leaves were attached with #8 slotted zinc woodscrews. Naturally, the leaves on the windows were covered with multiple coats of exterior paint. Their mating leaves were protected by a strip of copper weather stripping. Those screws were mostly rusty. Fitting the heat gun with its focus attachment and relying mostly on the point of a utility knife blade, I was able to get most of the evil paint out of the clogged slots. With a well-fitting standard screwdriver, the extractions went well. To access the screws hidden under the weather stripping I used tin snips cutting just enough to gently bend the copper reveling the screws. The copper bends back in place well enough. The jury is still out on replacing all of the original copper with new. 

 

 

To safely remove the paint from the hinges, they stewed in a crockpot with some Dawn and baking soda. Although I started this operation on my workbench, there was some off gassing so the pot was relocated to the garage for the duration. The crockpot will never see food again.

 

 

Ten hours later the 26 hinge leaves were well done.

 

 

Now it was time for picking and brushing. Virtually all the paint scraped off easily. Soft like cream cheese. I bored out the hinge knuckles with a long, quarter-inch-wide wire brush fitted to a drill motor. From there it was back to the wire brushes on the buffer.

 

 

Two coats of Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer and several coats of Satin Black enamel later they’re ready for another ninety years. The original zinc screws will be replaced with #8 slotted solid brass screws. I found an exact match at boltdepot.com.