SEARCH & DESTROY FIRE TRAINING D.I.Y. HINGE-PULL TRAINING PROP

Greetings from Search & Destroy Fire Training, and from Metro-Detroit! This is a short PDF with pictures about the hinge-pull training prop we use in our forcible entry classes. A couple friends of ours wanted to build their own prop similar to this one. So I thought I’d put some photos together and make a how-to PDF. Feel free to share at will with anyone and everyone you know in the fire service. We all get better when we all know more and have more hands-on experience. This prop is just ONE WAY that it can be done. I would never claim that it’s the best or most elegant design out there. I’m far from the best carpenter around, but this prop was simple, fairly inexpensive, and took me one afternoon working by myself to build. I’d be very surprised if you couldn’t improve on our design in some way. If you do build your own, I’d LOVE to see the results! Post pics to the Search & Destroy Fire Training facebook page, or email pics to: seanjwilson@hotmail.com . Our class is typically a traveling road-show, so for our purposes we deemed it best to incorporate it into our conventional forcible entry prying prop. It can also be removed from the prop and attached permanently or semi-permanently to a wall or solid door. All the hardware that you see for the prop, if bought new, will cost you under $100. For tools, you’ll need a drill-press, a 7/8” bi-metal hole-saw ($20-25 at Lowes/Home Depot), and a good cobalt 7/16” or 1/2" drill bit. Probably wouldn’t hurt to have a good hand-drill too if you plan on mounting to a wall. For hardware, I used three 3/8”x5” hex bolts (grade 5 will do, but grade 8 are better), two pieces of 3/8”x12” threaded-rod, and numerous 1/2" USS washers and 3/8” hex nuts.

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If you have to buy them, the two 48” uprights that you see will be your greatest expense. The ones pictured here are 11 gauge steel, measuring 1-1/2”x3”. These two pieces of 48” long steel will go for about $50 at a good metal supply shop. We used steel of these specific dimensions to accommodate our conventional prop better, but if you plan to mount this to a wall or door, 2”x2” box steel will work just as well, and be cheaper. You may even be able to buddy up to someone in your motor pool or DPW that’s got access to welding stock. If you’re building it for your FD, tell your chief to take it out of the training budget!

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STEP ONE: Connect the uprights. Using a drill press and either a 7/16” or 1/2" cobalt drill bit, drill out the box steel from side-to-side in three places. One a few inches down from the top, one a few inches from the bottom, and one dead-center in the middle. An easy way to do this cleanly is to drill out one of the pieces at the top first, then clamp the two together and drill the second piece of box steel going thru the same holes as the first piece. Then, connect the two pieces with a 3/8”x4-1/2” or 5” hex bolt. Now you can drill out the holes at the bottom of the steel, connect those two with a hex bolt, then drill out the middle hole. During the drilling process, don’t use washers between the pieces of box steel when connecting them. The picture on the right shows the finished product with four 1/2” USS washers between the box steel for spacing to allow the insertion of the hinges. Don’t use these washers while you are drilling as they may allow for some slight movement at a time when proper alignment is key.

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STEP TWO (OPTIONAL): Drill wall-mount holes. Using the same 7/16” or 1/2” cobalt bit, drill all the way thru the top and bottom of both upright, from front to back. When we attach this prop to our conventional prop, we use two lengths of 3/8”x12” threaded-rod that travel between the two uprights themselves. There is very little “give” in our conventional prop due to its weight, so we have that luxury. But should you choose to mount this to a wall or a door, you may also choose to mount it more securely by having a hole drilled thru the top and bottom of each piece of box-steel. This will be a more secure mount on a wall or door, and allow less side-to-side motion. I wouldn’t say it was absolutely necessary, but it’s not a bad idea to have it connected at four points instead of two. It will spread out the amount of force applied to the wall or door if nothing else.

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STEP THREE: Drilling out the hinges. Use commercial-grade hinges, as these will last longer. I chose to use 4-1/2” hinges because they are a common size that I often acquire on doors that are donated to us from a local door and window company. They are large enough to drill two 7/8” holes without touching the existing holes in the plates. They make larger hinges, but again, these are a common size and inexpensive to replace should you need to buy them ($6-7 at Lowes/Home Depot). They will last a good long time, but eventually they will be sacrificial and new ones will have to be made. First, drill a master hinge that will be the template for every other hinge and for drilling out the box steel later in the next step. Mark this template and set it aside to use months or years down the road when you need to make more hinges. Don’t use this template hinge in the prop, as it may not be a good template by the end of its life. Again, use a 7/8” bi-metal hole-saw to drill two holes into each hinge. For placement of the holes, try pick two spots toward the back of the hinge-plate. Try to avoid cutting into the small existing holes with the outer rim of the hole-saw. Unless you have a hole-saw with fine teeth, this can grab and throw the hinges even when clamped down. It’s usually easiest just to avoid them. Use plenty of oil when drilling these out.

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STEP FOUR: Drilling out the box steel. The 48” length is plenty of room for two hinges to be installed (and more if you like). Pick one spot high and one spot low. Use the master hinge as a template for marking the box steel for drilling. Try to keep the holes as close to the prying face as possible, this allows the hinge to stick out far enough to be grabbed by the halligan fork. Keep both pieces of box steel connected with hex bolts and without washers between them. Drill thru both pieces of box steel at the same time. This may involve moving the tray of the drill press up and down in order to do both, or having to flip the connected pieces of box steel upside down. So long as you keep the pieces connected, and start in the pilot hole that the pilot bit of the hole-saw made, flipping it over shouldn’t be an issue.

Keep holes close to prying-face

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STEP FIVE: Connecting the pieces of box steel for use. After all holes have been drilled in the box steel, disassemble them and reassemble them with four (or so) 1/2” USS washers to act as spacers to allow the hinge-plates to be inserted. Tighten all hex bolts and nuts completely. You can use any flat washer that fits, I like the USS for this because they tend to be wider, thicker and more squared-off than SAE washers.....so for this I think they make better spacers.

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STEP SIX: Mounting. Again, we mount ours to our rather heavy and very sturdy conventional prop most of the time. We don’t do it very often, but when we mount it on a door or a wall, we usually use the four holes that are drilled into the top and bottom of each piece of box steel. But you can mount it to the wall the same way we mount it to our conventional prop if that suits you. We have two holes drilled into our conventional prop that we insert two pieces of 3/8”x12” threaded-rod into. Longer pieces of threaded-rod can be used if necessary. The same could be done on a door or wall. The threaded-rod travels in the space created by the USS washers used as spacers between the pieces of box steel. We like this method of mounting because it allows us a little “play” in that we can slide the hinge-pull prop up and down a bit, adjusting the height of the hinges. Tighten all nuts completely.

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STEP SEVEN: Sawing dowels and setting up. Buy 3/4" pine or generic hardwood dowels. Do NOT buy oak dowels! Cut dowel rod into 4”-long pieces. I like 4” pieces for quick set-up, but very often the 2”-long nubbins that are left after the 4” pieces are broken work very well (although they slow re-set time). I recommend saving the 2” pieces and re-using them. At about $3 for a 48” dowel, if you cut them into 4” sections, that’s about 50 cents per force. Although they slow re-set, re-using the 2” “debris” will stretch your budget.

4” long = quick set-up

Re-use me!

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STEP EIGHT: Test force!

• Strike the hinge with a flat-head axe or the halligan, pushing the hinge either downward or inward into the frame. In the real world, this will pre-stress the hinge-screws.

• From either above or below (depending on the height of the hinge), fit the fork over the hinge

with the bevel toward the “door-frame”.

• Pry AWAY from the frame, have your partner help you if necessary.

• Once the hinge is partially pried out, switch the halligan fork so that the bevel now faces out, away from the “door-frame”. This will change the fulcrum point, and give you additional leverage. Once again, pry AWAY from the frame, and finish pulling the hinge.

• Save those leftover nubbins for later use!

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Bevel toward door-frame

Bevel away from

door-frame

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SEARCH & DESTROY FIRE TRAINING

SEAN J. WILSON & SCOTT A. GARDNER, LEAD INSTRUCTORS

5150 HAMPSHIRE DRIVE / SHELBY TWP, MI 48316

586-231-1478

SEARCHANDDESTROYFE@ME.COM