How to Drill a Door Knob

Installing a lockset in a wood door begins with drilling the holes in the door slab for the cylinder mechanism and the latch bolt. The majority of residential locksets have a standard cylinder diameter and latch backset, which helps to make the necessary drilling nearly universal for all door knobs. In addition, accurate positioning of the hole locations for installation is made easier using the printed template that is provided with all brands of lock hardware. Accurate drilling will soon have your door ready for the new lockset.

Tape measure
Awl
Power drill
1-inch wood-boring drill bit
2 1/8-inch hole saw
Hand square (optional)

Instructions

- 1
  Remove the lockset hardware from the packaging and locate the lock's boring template.
- 2
  Measure vertically from the bottom edge of the door on the lock side and place a pencil mark at 35 inches. This is the standard lockset and door knob center line. The height can be adjusted if a different knob height is desired.
- 3
  Align the boring template provided with the lockset center line, and puncture the template center points for the cylinder and latch holes using an awl. Reverse the template and mark the cylinder hole center point on the other side of the door.
- 4
  Bore the horizontal lock cylinder hole, aligned with the center point marked in Step 3, using an electric drill and 2 1/8-inch hole saw. Drill the hole just slightly more than halfway through the door and drill the balance of the hole from the other door face to minimize surface chipping around the hole's edge.
- 5
  Bore the latch hole in the door edge, using a 1-inch drill bit, aligned with the latch center point. Use a hand square against the door's edge to align the drill bit horizontally while boring the latch hole. The boring of the lockset holes is complete and the lockset can be installed.

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