Accessories

Don't waste your money
I'm a homeowner who has installed a LOT of door locks. When faced with a project to install 7, I thought this tool would at least take away a little of the pain. It didn't. In retrospect, all it did was make the easiest part of door lock installation no easier than it already was. I used it for the first 2 locks, then put it in the yard sale box.

The fit of the hole saws is sloppy, and the tool hides the hole saw so you can't see where you are or where you're headed. It's just as easy and even more accurate to mark the two drilling points and drill the holes without any "guide" to hold your drill straight for you.

The hole saw provided for edge boring is 1". That's fine if your locks call for a 1" hole, but mine were all very popular Schlages that called for a 7/8" hole.

The edge guide assumes your doors are either 2 3/4" or 1 3/8", as almost every door ever built is. Guess what? One of the doors I used this on is a gorgeous custom made panel door that turns out to be a scant 1 1/4"! So of course the edge bored hole isn't in the middle of the door. Who would've thought. Now, if I hadn't been using this gizmo I would have found the center of the door edge, marked and drilled it, and had it properly centered.

If you have a lot of door locks to install, consider buying router templates for routing recesses for the strike plates. Also, buy your locks first to see what diameter hole saws you'll need.

Made a tough job easy
I recently purchased a 1930's home, and the first thing we wanted to do was change the locks. When I removed the old lock from the solid wood door, it was smaller in diameter than the standard locks of today. But since the hole was already existing, it would have been hard if not impossible to center the bit perfectly to enlarge the existing bore.

By using this jig, I was able to line it up perfectly. First, I aligned the small hole on the side of the door (which was the right size) and put the smaller bit in there to align it, clamped it down, and boom! The larger hole was perfectly aligned. All I had to do was drill.

All the parts are solid and well made, and the bit cut through the door like butter. Clearly this tool has limited use - it only does one thing. But the one thing it does, it does very, very well.

Need separate mandrel for smaller bimetal hole saw
I agree with mandrel limitation. I can't separate the adapter from the mandrel and can't use it on the smaller bi-metal hole saw. There is only one mandrel plus adapter. Once I used the adapter plus mandrel on the large bimetal hole saw, I couldn't separate the adapter to fit the mandrel to the smaller bimetal hole saw. To fit the large bimetal hole saw you need the mandrel plus adapter. To fit the small bitmetal hole saw, you need the mandrel without the adapter. There is no hex around the adapter to make it easy to separate. It was also difficult to separate the mandrel from the bimetal hold saw. You will have to buy a second mandrel to use this product without agravation.

Satisfaction with a smile.
I own another unit that was more costly than this door installation kit; however, it is designed for wooden doors and not bi-metal.

I own plenty of DeWalt tools that I am very happy with, and it was a natural for this selection.

This less-expensive tool allows me to use either unit as required.

Good Quality Homeowner Jig, But with Mandrel Limitation
In general, I agree with the previous reviewer.

Our home has older (50+ year old) doors, and I have used this to replace worn-out doorknobs (entire mechanism).

As there was an existing face-bore (in the no longer standard, smaller size of 1 1/2"), some jig was needed to correctly drill the current 2 1/8" standard face bore ... you can't stabilize a hole saw without one if the mandrel is in the air.

That said, I also agree about not getting a perfectly centered latch hole in our doors that are a little under 1 3/4" thick. But, it's certainly more than good enough. The error of perhaps 1/16th inch can be corrected in positioning the strike in the door jamb.

The limitation is in the mandrel: the larger threaded adapter for the 2 1/8" saw is ROUND! It is not hex, so you cannot remove it with a wrench (like you can with a normal mandrel), and ended up using another (better grade) mandrel for the 1" latch bore hole saw. I eventually got the adapter off ... when it was all but welded to the 2 1/8" hole saw, from which I doubt I will ever get it separated.

Other than that, I could not have been able to replace the older hardware (as described above), and so give this a slightly better rating. (Purchase was at a local hardware store, at a slightly better price).

The competing Irwin product looks interesting as the router template has the potential to save a lot of time in chiseling the inset for the latch in the door edge.