Jambmaster

[justinh]

It's a tool that has been around awhile.  I had other priorities so it wasn't until recently that I picked one up.  Wish I had made it a priority sooner. 

Very well made of heavy aluminum extrusion.  It's modular and completely adjustable.  Once you understand it, setup takes around a minute.  Changing between common door sizes with the standard spreaders takes around a minute as well.  It comes with extensions for door widths up to 72" that take a bit longer to swap out and install.

A video from the company. 
Their install time once setup is accurate.

In use it performs as advertised.  The "shims" are blocks 1" x 3 1/4"( for a 4 9/16" jamb) that get hot glued inside the template pockets.  You trim the blocks down with a router.  The blocks end up level and square to the wall the jig is referenced off of.  With accurate setup of the jig and an accurate depth setting on the router you can size down both the hinge and strike side of the RO to perfectly accept the jamb.  The jamb slides into the opening with no resistance, but no side play, and will be plumb and square to the wall.  Makes casing install a snap.

I've run it on a few openings and so for I'm impressed.  The pics are from a reno with some pretty funky framing.  Kinda like trying to trim an Escher.  Pic one shows blocks glued in. Pic 2 is of a couple of the "shims" trimmed down to square and plumb the opening.  That RO had a nasty twist to it. The installed jamb didn't.  Pic 3 is a pocket door in a 2x6 wall I ran it on just to try it.  Ran the blocks solid over the split studs and once routed the centers over the door pocket were cut out with a hand saw.  The split jamb installed dead square, plumb and in line with each other.

I've installed a couple thousand doors shimmed with conventional methods.  For a one off I will likely continue to use them.  For multiples this is much easier and lends itself better to production/ assembly line type install methods which cut down time without compromising quality.  Just passing on the tip.  Some may find it useful.

 

[adcolor]

Looks fast!

 

[Chicks82]

Justin how well does it work with wider jambs? Lots of 2x6 construction with interior sheer and other fun things where I am.

 

[harry_]

$535 USD.

Seeing that I am now doing my pre-hungs with a cordless nailer, it more or less loses me with the hot glue gun and the router.

I'll have to think long and hard about this one.

 

[cubevandude]

Definitely a production tool.  Thanks for sharing. 

I remember when I was around 14 and on a new house build, my dad would hang 2 doors a day as he hung the jamb first and then machined the door to fit the jamb opening.  Never made sense to me when I started hanging doors, I made the jamb fit the door and could hang quite a few more doors in a day.  When I was 18 I trimmed condos one whole summer and started doing it in my sleep and waking up tired, I was glad when that job was over.  If you haven't guessed by now, my Dad was a contractor.  I got to spend a lot of time with my father, I guess I was lucky as not too many sons can say that today.  They don't know their creators.  Sometimes I can still smell the old port tobacco he smoked in his pipe and when "Burgers and Fries (and cherry pies)" comes on the radio it takes me back to my teens and heading to the job in the morning with my dad in the Chevy van.

 

[HeatSeeker79]

This tool is really genius because it compensates the out of dimension problems you will run into with rough openings (out of plumb, studs are twisted out of plane with each other, etc) especially in homes with some age to them.  I wish the demonstration video could be updated so that you can see what exactly it is that the tool is correcting once the blocks have been routed.    I bought this tool about 2 years ago and if you set your spreader bars width correctly and you get set your vertical uprights really plumb and you don't let the Jambmaster move/shift then you're going to have a MUCH easier time with the rest of the steps setting the door.  I have set several doors now that were 1-shut perfect that required no afterward tweaking after everything was in place.  It's like you spend a few minutes prepping the opening with this tool, but you're going to save yourself several minutes after the door is in the rough opening.  Setting doors in new homes is much easier/faster b/c you everything is usually perfect to begin with but after a home has some age and the foundation has settled some, the rough openings are pulled out of alignment in one way or another and that is what this tool is correcting.  You're not manipulating the studs.  The plywood blocks are correcting any out of alignment problems of the studs.  That being said, this tool is really nice to have for guys who do remodeling who set doors in homes that have settled and have imperfect dimensions in the framing as a result.

I wouldn't say this tool has any "cons."  There is one thing that I did not see in the instructions or demonstration video that addressed this but if you have a home that has settled, and the floor is not level and you set the JM in place, then all four bars of the tool are going to be out of level/plumb as well.  For example, if you are looking at a rough opening and the floor is higher on the left than the right and you set the Jambmaster on that floor, then all 4 Jambmaster bars will also be out of level/plumb b/c  the floor it's sitting on is tilted.  Don't try to correct this issue by using the bolts that are located on the vertical uprights to push the vertical bars into plumb.  That will cause the vertical bars to bow slightly.  Correct this issue by shimming something under the feet of the bottom spreader bar until the bottom spreader bar is perfectly level.  If you level the bottom spreader bar, the rest of the rack is going to move with it into proper level/plumb (or at least very close).  That is one thing that I wish they would add to the instructions of the Jambaster or maybe even making the feet that are located on the bottom spreader bar adjustable using a threaded bolt so you could level the bottom spreader bar when it's on an out of level floor.

Other than that, this tool is I think the best door setting tool out there.  If you set doors in new homes for a living you probably won't appreciate it as much but for the remodelers, this tool is definitely going to make your life a lot easier.