Locks in Metal Doors for Dummies

Bolt with drive-in latch

One of the hallmarks of the clueless freelancers at the former eHow.com was an inability to see potential problems with the "solutions" they concocted. We long ago stopped counting the times we found one of them trying to say that a technique that would work fine for situation A would also work for situation B. That's what tripped up today's nominee, who – at least according to her eHow biography – should have known better. She's returning DotD Emily Beach, here to tell readers of HomeSteady.com "How to Install Locks in Metal Doors."

Beach, who penned this post while still using the pseudonym "Bambi Turner," claimed in her bio to be working on "an Architectural Hardware Consultant certification from the Door and Hardware Institute." Based on her previous post on the topic, however, her pending certification was tenuous. This post isn't a lot more encouraging... in part because Emily says that,

"Metal doors are often used at exterior openings to provide added security and durability. These doors consist of a foam or cardboard core surrounded by a thin metal skin, which may be up to 1/4" thick. The edges of the door are often make [sic] with wood to add strength, though this is not always the case."

First, that's a weird way to describe a hollow-core door and second, a foam interior is for insulation. Second, a quarter of an inch of metal is pretty damned thick, thick enough that a 7-by-3 foot steel door with a quarter-inch "skin" on both sides would weigh over 400 pounds. So no, probably not that thick. Third, wood stiles and rails on a steel door aren't for strength, they're to stiffen the door and make installation of hardware easier.

Bambi, errr, Emily ran into problems because she figured that the instructions for installing a lock on a wooden door would be the same as a metal door. Oh, she found someone telling her to use bi-metallic hole saws to cut the metal, and she figured out how to use the template that comes with your lock. That's all well and good...

...but Beach finished by telling her readers to,

"Install the latch plate on the side of the door to cover the side of the lock body."

Ummm, no, that's not what the latch plate does: its function is mostly to keep the bolt centered in the drilled hole instead of moving around. Besides, if the edge of the door is metal, you can't install a latch plate; you have to use a tube-shaped metal guide (called a "drive-in") that fits into the drilled hole and prevents the bolt from wobbling.

You'd think someone getting door "certification" would know this stuff; Emily didn't – hence her Dumbass of the Day award.

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