Bosch 83038 Deluxe Door and Jamb Hinge Template Kit

List Price: $374.00 Discount Price: $239.95

Features:

• Door and jamb hinge template set for metal or wood stops
• Centered connecting rails for good balance; transfers directly from door to jamb (and vice-versa) with hinges on either side of door
• Aluminum construction
• Includes deluxe hinge template, regular and extra large top gauge assembly, template guide, bit, handy metal case
• 1-year warranty

Accessories:
Vix-Bit 5VIXBIT Self Centering Pre-Drill Bit for 7/64-Inch Hinges and #5 and 6 Screws	Vix-Bit 3VIXBIT Self Centering Pre-Drill Bit for 5/64-Inch Hinges and #2, #3, and #4 Screws	Fine Woodworking	Bosch 83039 4-Hinge Conversion Accessory Kit	Porter-Cable 42234 Corner Chisel

Customer Reviews:

I won't buy from Bosch again! [Posted on 2004-06-08]
We have a high end millwork shop and often build large quantites of custom doors and jambs. I recently purchased a Delux Bosch hinge template kit to speed up production of our doors. The template itself is a very good product and works well, however the kit arrived with a router bushing and bit to mortise 1/4" radius hinges. Before opening our millwork shop, I was a commercial/residential contractor for 27 years and have not seen a 1/4" radius hinge for 20 years. The standard hinge for door manufacturers is a 5/8" hinge. I spent 4 hours going through the enclosed instruction manual and calling local tool suppliers trying to find out what I needed to cut a 5/8" radius hinge. There is no mention whatsoever in the instruction manual refrencing what is needed to cut different radiuses. The next day I spent another 3 hours on the internet and Bosch's website trying to determine what I needed to cut a 5/8" radius hinge and while Bosch does reference different parts for the template by part number they do not tell you what the purpose of these parts are. I contacted one of the largest Bosch distributors in the southeast and drove 2 1/2 hrs to their place of business. After working with 2 salemen and the owner for 3 1/2 hours we finally determined what was needed to cut a 5/8" radius hinge with this template. The solution to this problem was for me to purchase a fourth router( Bosch of course), a bushing and bit at an additional cost of $285.00. Including the time and travel expense I lost trying to mortise 47 doors, I could paid for 35% of the cost of a production mortiser. To make this short, I will not purchase another Bosch Tool until they drastically change their, instruction manuals, website and cataloging of their tools. I CAN"T AFFORD THEM!!!!!!!
Steve Gibson
Tropical Hardwoods, LLC

Pretty rinky dinky [Posted on 2005-06-23]
I have used this templete for awhile, it works but the accuracy of it is not very good. Each templete is a little different in height from the each other which gives you different depths of cut. The one that is off the most is the fourth one I needed to buy. The hinge setting pivot that adjust the width of your door is very loose and some keep falling off their pivot. It is made with a cheap little rivot that does not hold up to use at all. I have heard the older models where better and that they cut back and made newer cheaper ones.

It could be a lot better, I was almost thinking of making my own templetes that would be more reliable and accurate. Its hard to beleive that they would sell this on the open market.

I have used the Porta-cable, even thou the Bosch is easyer to set up the porta-cable is built a lot better.

Problems routing for a 5/8" radius hinge [Posted on 2006-08-19]
I purchased this Bosch 83038 and proceeded to route hinges. Well I started fine tuning for a 3 1/2" hinge with a 5/8" radius. I haven't been able to find the correct router bit and templent guide. I read one of these reviews and found where a 1 1/4" router bit and a 1 3/8" templent guide will do the job. This combination produces a perfect 5/8" radius but the Bosch 83038 does not have sufficent adjustments for a 3 1/2" hinge. The closest I can get is by setting the hinge pin at 3 1/2" and completely removing the 2 screws and the plate on the fine adjustment. This produces a router pattern which is about 1/8" two large. I bought this kit inorder to produce perfect hinges. I was able to get within 1/8" with my old method. I'm currently in the process of elongating the 2 holes in the fine adjustment plate. I'm dissapointed with the lack of information provided by Bosch. You would think that Bosch believes the 5/8" radius is some rare cut. For information I'm using a Porter/Cable 7529 plunge router.

One of the worst tools I've ever owned (updated) [Posted on 2007-05-30]
If you are simply looking to see whether or not I think you should buy this tool, my simple answer is "NO".
Here's the long answer:
We used to work for a very large custom millwork company, and for a long time we used the Porter-Cable template. Our boss was careless, and regularly nicked the template with the router. Over time, replacing full single hinge templates got costly, so we switched to the Bosch kit because of being able to replace smaller parts. That kit worked quite well and solved those problems.
Since then, we've left that company and started our own. Using our knowledge from the previous company, we chose the Bosch 83038 kit over the Porter-Cable.
That leads me to my need to write this review.
Upon first impression, this kit comes in a nice, sturdy box. When I took the template out, and tried to get accustomed to it, I noticed that the spacer rails did not fit into the templates. After a lot of filing, they finally slid in. I then found that if you slide them past the opening, they lock up again on the raised lettering on the template itself. After more filing, this problem was fixed.
Next thing I noticed, the top gauge assemblies. The stop tab is made of a very malleable metal, and one actually came out of the box twisted. This doesn't make for any kind of repeatability.
I went to set up my router (a Ridgid router, which I Highly recommend) to mortise. Bosch claims that this kit is fully compatible with the "competition's" template guides. While this is true, the provided router bit does not work (safely) with a Porter-Cable style template guide with a ring that screws on from the inside of the router base. In order to get the right mortise depth, the bit has to be inserted with enough of the 1/4" shaft exposed that you seriously risk bending the shaft and/or throwing the bit. If you plan on using this kit with a non-Bosch router, be prepared to use a longer bit.
Getting to actually using this template kit, I had to make wooden rails to accommodate the windows I was mortising, which isn't a huge deal. after that, I noticed that there is no depth setting for 1 1/2" thick doors, so I had to shim the template every time I used it.
The spring loaded nails are most definitely stronger that those on the Porter-Cable. The trade-off is that the larger diameter at the top makes it trickier than it should be to pull the nails out with a standard claw hammer, as the cutout in the claw won't fit around it.
I had spent about a day of mortising and hanging windows, and came to one that gave me problems. I mortised it, and when I hung it, the reveal at the top was 1/8" larger than all the rest were (with the same jig settings). I came to find out that the screw that locks the top gauge assembly had loosened and the gauge had moved. This left me having to hand mortise the hinges 1/8" higher, and do a repair to fill the lower portion of the mortise.
One of the big selling points of this template is that you can get parts for each of the templates if you nick them. I have mortised many doors now, and work at a pretty fast rate. I've never nicked a template. Just don't be careless and you'll be fine.
All that said, this kit has caused me nothing but headaches. We will be switching to the Porter-Cable kit.

_____________________________


This is an addition several months later.
We now also have the Porter Cable template guide, and I use them for different purposes. I find that the Porter Cable is MUCH more adjustable and accurate. The Bosch is slightly better for 6-8 or 7-0 doors, but I don't like it for any other sizes.
We noticed a large problem with the jamb stop (provides the proper gap at the top of the door). It uses a rivet as a pivot point, so you can rotate the stop to fit on both the left and right hand sides of a jamb. We thought that the metal tab (the part that was rotating) was twisted, as door pairs were not being hung evenly. It turns out that on both stops provided, the rivet is not straight, so no matter what, the tab will be higher on one side than the other.
This may not sound like a big deal, until you see the results. When I've hung door pairs, one door always hangs at least 1/8" lower than the other. This is VERY noticeable.
I've managed to fix this problem, but it involved serious modification and using the stop entirely differently than intended.

I would not buy this product again if I had the choice. None of the critical components worked the way they should have out of the box. This resulted in many hours trying to fix the problems with the template, and many hours trying to fix the problems this template caused.
Buy the Porter Cable instead.

this jig sucks [Posted on 2007-10-21]
the 83038 simply sucks. i had a handfull of doors that i had to hang,and figured that i might as well go out and finally get me a nice jig.so i spent the $275.00 the local lumber company wanted.i hung 4 doors and on my 5th door pieces started falling off(the piece that serves as a stop against the door).i was surprised on how cheap this tool is made.well anyway. i took it back and bought a vintage stanley at a pawnshop that needed a few replacement parts.its quality is incomparible to the new bosch .

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