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I recently installed a magnetic door catch for my interior solid core double door (on the passive door to keep it in place). I used a spade bit to drill holes a certain depth for the magnets to sit inside of and is secured with a screw (1 hole in the door and 1 hole in the door jamb). Cross section looks like this:

Cross Section

The magnet in the door is nice and snug, but the one in the door jamb is a bit loose. I'm able to slightly pull it away from the jamb and it can sort of wobble in place, but it is technically secured as it doesn't fall down even when the magnets are engaged (for now...). Here are some actual photos of the magnet in the door jamb and the 2nd and 3rd photo show how there's some give:

Magnet

Magnet Loose 1

Magnet Loose 2

I tried tightening the screw with a screwdriver but the screw seems to just spin freely, so my best guess is it doesn't have enough material to bite into but I'm not sure.

How would I go about troubleshooting this?

TheRedMaverick
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3 Answers3

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Sounds like the threads (that the screw cut in the wood) have worn out. Adding some wood material in the hole can often resolve the issue.

Remove the screw and magnet. Push a toothpick or two into the screw hole, and break it/them off so they do not protrude above the face of the door. Holding the magnet in position over the hole, pass the screw through the hole in the magnet, and tighten the screw so the screw threads cut into the toothpicks. The extra wood material (now around the screw threads) in the hole will jam the screw in position so it can be tightened.

If you tighten the screw too much, you can pull the toothpicks out of position. To fix that, remove the screw and toothpick piece(s) from the hole and try again with new toothpicks and less torque on the screw.

DavidRecallsMonica
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16

If the simpler toothpick approach does not work, drill a hole for a hardwood dowel and glue that into the hole so you have something stronger to screw into.

Pete Kirkham
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Depending on the length of screw, you could have screwed through the remaining material of the door jamb, potentially not much wood depending on the depth of the countersunk hole you drilled for the magnet, and are just spinning in a gap between the door jamb and the framing.

This could potentially be fixed with a longer screw.

Josh King
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