What's inside
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What Actually Goes Wrong on Site
A door hanging kit fails for two reasons: you brought too much and can’t find anything, or you brought too little and have to improvise a hinge mortise with whatever is in the van. A standard internal door is 35mm thick, 1981mm tall, and needs 2-3mm clearance on the hinge side, top, and latch side, with 5-8mm at the bottom for floor covering. If you can’t pare a hinge recess to a consistent 3mm depth, scribe a straight line, and plane an edge without taking the door out of square, you will fight binding and latch misalignment all day. The kit below covers that work without turning your bag into a workshop.
Measuring and Marking: Don’t Skimp Here
Most hanging errors start before you cut. A 300mm (12-inch) combination square is the one tool you will use on every door. Use it to mark hinge positions from the top of the door, transfer hinge outlines from door to frame, and check that your planed edge is still square. A cheap stamped square that is 0.5mm out over 100mm will put your hinges 1.5mm out across a 75mm hinge leaf. That is enough to make the door twist in the frame. Test any square against a known straight edge before it goes in the kit.
You also need a sharp pencil (0.5mm mechanical holds a line better than a blunt carpenter’s pencil for hinge work), a 5m tape with a 25mm wide blade that doesn’t fold when you reach across a door, and a marking gauge or cutting gauge. A wheel marking gauge gives you a single, repeatable line for hinge depth and for scribing the edge to be planed. A mortise gauge is nice for double lines but not essential for doors. Add a small bevel or sliding bevel if you hang anything on an out-of-square old frame, but for new linings you can leave it behind.
Cutting and Trimming: One Good Plane Beats Three Mediocre Ones
You will almost always need to trim something. Even a “perfect” door blank often needs 0.5-1.5mm off the hinge or latch edge to hit your clearances. For that, a low-angle block plane is the most useful plane in a door kit. It is one-handed, works end grain if you need to ease the top or bottom, and can take a controlled 0.1mm shaving when sharp. A No. 4 smoothing plane cuts faster for heavy trimming but at 2kg+ it is extra weight you rarely need if you only hang 1-3 doors at a time. If you regularly fit solid-core fire doors that need 3-4mm removed, bring the No. 4. Otherwise the block plane plus sharp technique wins.
For crosscutting the bottom of a hollow-core door (never cut more than 15-20mm off without checking the internal block), a sharp 22-inch panel saw with 8-10 TPI crosscut is enough. A tenon saw is more accurate for small notches but too short for a full door bottom. Whatever saw you pack, it must be sharp. A dull saw crushes the veneer and chips the face, especially on cheap molded doors where the skin is under 3mm thick.
Chisels and Hinge Mortising: Sharpness Is Non-Negotiable
Hinge mortises are where a dull kit shows. A standard butt hinge is 75mm or 100mm long, about 3mm thick, and the recess should be flat, square-walled, and no deeper than the leaf thickness. Go 0.5mm too deep and the door will pull tight to the frame and bind. Leave it proud and the gap on the hinge side opens up to 5mm+.
You need three bevel-edge chisels: 12mm (1/2″), 19-20mm (3/4″), and 25mm (1″). The 25mm cleans the long side of the mortise in one or two pushes, the 19mm works the ends, and the 12mm gets into the radius corners and cleans the strike plate mortise. A quality bevel edge chisel set that holds an edge at 25-30 degrees will outperform a large cheap set that rolls over after two mortises. For MDF linings and softwood, cheaper chrome vanadium steel is fine if you hone it. For hardwood frames or oak veneered doors, spend more — the edge retention pays for itself in time not spent resharpening on site.
Pack a small sharpening stone. A 3000/8000 combination waterstone or a diamond plate 600/1200 grit with a strop is enough to bring an edge back in 60 seconds. Skipping this is the most common failure mode: people bring four chisels but no way to keep them sharp, then start levering and crushing the timber instead of paring.
Add a lightweight wood or nylon mallet. Using a steel hammer on chisels mushrooms the handles and gives you less control. If you must use a hammer, hit with the flat face and keep blows light.
| Tool | Compact Kit (1-2 Doors) | Full Kit (All Day / Multiple Doors) | When Cheap Is Fine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block Plane | Yes – low-angle, sharp | Yes + No. 4 for heavy stock removal | Cheap body is OK if blade steel is decent and sole is flat |
| Chisels | 12mm, 19mm, 25mm | Add 6mm for strike plates | Budget set works in softwood if you sharpen often |
| Combination Square | 300mm, cast head | Same + 150mm for strike work | Don’t buy cheap – accuracy matters more than finish |
| Marking Gauge | Wheel gauge | Wheel + mortise gauge | Mid-range is fine; plastic adjustment slips over time |
| Saw | 22″ panel saw 8 TPI | Same + flush-cut saw for trimming plugs | Mid-price hardpoint saw is disposable and sharp out of packet |
| Drilling | Brace or hand drill + bradawl | Same + ratchet screwdriver | Bradawl and PZ2 driver matter more than the drill brand |
Drilling and Fixing: Pilot Holes Save Doors
Hardwood lippings and MDF frames split without pilot holes, especially within 15mm of an edge. A bradawl or 2mm gimlet starts screws accurately, but for hinges you want a proper pilot: 2mm for 30mm x 4mm hinge screws in softwood, 2.5mm in hardwood. A small hand drill or brace with a set of bits from 2mm to 4mm weighs little and doesn’t need charging. If you use a cordless drill for pilots, you don’t need to duplicate it in the hand tool kit.
For driving, a ratcheting screwdriver with PZ2 and Pozi #2 bits is faster and more controllable than a traditional Yankee for hinge screws. Bring a second PZ2 bit — they round over and then cam out, which chews the screw head and leaves you digging a screw out of a fresh mortise. A nail punch is useful for setting pins if you need to adjust a frame, and a small claw hammer (12-16oz) covers pinning and easing linings without being too heavy on the belt.
Packing It So You Can Work
Weight and access decide whether you actually carry the kit to the door. A common mistake is a single deep tote where chisels end under the plane and the square. You spend more time digging than hanging.
For site work, split the kit. On your belt: tape, combination square, pencil, chisel 19mm, block plane holster if your belt allows, and screwdriver. Everything else lives in a shallow, rigid tote or tool roll that opens flat. Chisels go in a roll with edge guards — unprotected edges nick each other and dull in transit. The plane gets a blade retracted or a wooden sole guard. The saw stays outside the tote so it doesn’t crush your gauge.
Total weight target is 6-8kg for the hand tool portion. At that weight you can carry it up stairs with the door and still have one hand free. If you are over 10kg you have duplicated power tools with hand tools. Leave the extra plane, the full socket set, and the framing square at home.
Pack in the order you use it. Top of the bag: square, gauge, pencil, knife. Middle: chisels and mallet. Bottom: saw and plane. Sharpening kit in a side pocket, not buried. At the end of each hang, wipe shavings off the plane sole, check the chisel edges with a thumbnail, and give the square a quick wipe. A door kit that lives damp in a van with MDF dust on the blades will rust overnight and need an hour of restoration before the next job.
What to Upgrade First
If you have $100-150 to improve the kit, spend it in this order: first, a square you trust; second, a diamond plate to keep chisels truly sharp; third, a better block plane blade. A premium chisel set helps, but a sharp mid-range chisel beats a dull premium one every time. The fastest way to tell if your kit is ready is to pare end grain on a softwood offcut. If it slices cleanly without crushing or needing heavy hand pressure, your edge is ready for hinges. If it skates or tears, stop and hone before you touch the door.