A couple of days ago, I received a bit of a shock when I was in the basement shower room. A shock not from water or electricity you understand, rather a loud "thump" from behind me. On turning, I discovered that the door had fallen off its hinges.
On further inspection, it turned out that the topmost of the three "bisagras" had snapped, the middle one was partially missing and the lower one was (failing to) take all the (not inconsiderable) weight of the door - and letting it down against the floor.
I left it to its own devices for a couple of hours while I mused on the problem over a cup of tea, then went to do battle - more in hope than expectation that I could fix it.
I took the remnants of the broken hinge off and took a photo (annotated with size and spanish name you see) then gave it a good looking at .
After much "persuasion" (grips, pliers, hammer, vice and "drift") I managed to get the little cap off and discovered that it housed a (at one time removeable) steel pin. Now I would not put a steel pin in brass, nor would I fit "interference fit" caps on such a device, but it was obvious that the pin and the brass had more-or-less fused, resulting in metal fatigue on the mounting.
I lambasted (almost flagellated) myself for being (irre)responsible for the poor maintenance of the hinge, but, in all honesty, and while I regularly oil the outside hinges, it never occurred to me that the door hinges would need oiling or greasing (but logically if any where to need it, it would be the ones on the door of the shower room we use daily).
"luckily (ok, by great skill), I managed to take the hinge from the centre of the three (unused as no pin(??) and replace the top one with that. Chuffed was not the word, especially when SWMBO remarked on how well the (oiled) door now worked.
She had naffed off shopping to Gib today, so I took myself to the hardware store in the centre of the village, run by a little guy named "Antonio" and various members of his family. This is the shop where I purchased a bunch of supposedly "unobtainable" replacement light switches, so I was pinning my hope on his backroom cave. No Antonio, but his wife looked at my photo and guessed at my poor spanish requirements - then disappeared into the cave . while I waited--- and waited. Then she reappeared with a box of said hinges, even the correct manufacturer. Then she threw me a curve ball. "Estas son por la derecha, correcto?)
Shazbats - the bloody things are "sided" - and right was wrong. Back to cave for a few more minutes, then reappears with another box of left-sided ones. Brilliant! Bought two of each, as I like to be prepared (and one hinge hardly justified the effort she had put in). Flushed with success, even manged to source some bulbs for the cooker-hood, then went merrily on my way, musing on the proportion of left or right opening doors we had.
But....
Decided to fit the new hinge (L or R) when I got home. Bit of a struggle to get it to bed into the cut-outs and then discovered why it had not been in use. The "barrel" was too tight on the door and put the door ever-so-slightly out of line - resulting in it not closing properly.
Bodged a fitting to make it look ok and gave up. Carpentry not in the brief for today.
... and I think the left / right stuff is purely down to the holes being countersink on different side (so why not do both sides we wonder?)
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