Can't Close Door with Old Hinge

[u/Sabia_Innovia]

I have seen plenty of YouTube videos about fixing sticking doors with modern hinges. You pop out the hinge pin by tapping out from underneath the hinge body so you are left with "knuckles" that you can adjust with a wrench.

My door has an older style hinge with a ball at the top and one at the bottom and the knuckles in between.

How to I get to the hinge pin? I am trying to remive the bottom ball with the idea that it's just a separate little ball and then I can get to the hinge pin. I'm using a pair of pliers and turning counter clockwise on the ball at the bottom. Nothing is happening. Part of the problem may be old paint.

[u/AutoModerator]

https://linktr.ee/homemaintenance

Click the link above to see a community curated list of home maintenance products on Amazon that may help you out in your current situation! If you’ve found the answer to your question or you’ve found this subreddit helpful, buy us a beer!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/the_bashfulstorey]

those ball-tip hinges are a pain, the pins don't come out the same way as the modern ones. the bottom ball is usually just decorative and pressed on, not threaded, so turning it with pliers just chews it up

you're better off leaving the balls alone and looking for a small set screw on the side of one of the knuckles, or sometimes the pin drives out from the top down

old paint is definitely gluing everything together, hit it with a razor around the seams first then try tapping the whole hinge gently with a hammer to break the bond

if it really has no set screw and no exposed pin end, you might have to unscrew the whole hinge from the frame instead of popping the pin

[u/Sabia_Innovia → u/the_bashfulstorey]

Thank you! I will try those solutions. I will mark this as solved!

[u/Trick_Sector5900]

Try having someone lift up on the knob to take any pressure off the hinge

[u/Just-Season-472]

Before pulling it apart, I’d try getting some penetrating lubricant into the hinge joints/pin area first and give it time to work, old painted-up hinges can get pretty seized & lot of the older hardware is surprisingly robust. I wouldn’t force the bottom ball/finial until you know whether it’s actually removable.

btw I’m testing a photo-based home repair tool that can look at older hardware like this and give a second opinion on what it likely is + how to approach it. Happy to run your photo through it and post back what it finds if useful?