Following continuing great success with the Ryobi Door Hinge Template (my review here ), I thought I'd try another of their widgets. The Ryobi Door Latch Installation Kit  is a bizarre looking device to cut the recessed hole necessary to receive a door latch plate. I've tried doors with other tools, a plastic micro router template and the classic hammer and chisel attack. Neither was fast or easy. I got passable results, but it was tedious.

This device by Ryobi claims to work for all latches, scoring and chiseling the recessed hole in wood doors, with no measuring required.  It also includes two screwdriver bits for the integrated driver. I guess that's to save the horrendous burden of slipping a screwdriver in your pocket?

It's a funny looking tool for sure; it looks like a Lightsaber * crossed with something hanging from the Bat Belt. Looking at the packaging in Home Depot, I couldn't figure out how the thing would work, but since I liked the Ryobi Hinge Template kit, and it was still working well, I picked it up. It didn't hurt that it was about $10.00. If it totally stunk, I'd not be heartbroken (unless it wrecked the door of course.

Well underway with the door replacement project (3 down, 3 to go), I've gotten pretty good at planing the door to size, painting, hinge mortising, hanging the door, and drilling out for the hardware. The door latch tool comes in at that point, with the door hung. The first step is to score the outline for the latch so the chisels won't go too far. The Ryobi has a reversible scoring tool built in, with both round and square latch plates.

Scooooooooooooooore!!!!!!!...ing tool.

I needed to use the round-cornered scoring tool, so I popped it back in the handle. It gets placed against the door ege with a yellow protrusion sticking into the hole I had drilled for the latch cylinder. I liked how I could see the door edge through the slots in the handle. It made it easy to line up. Then,... WHACK with the hammer. 

Wackety whack! (repeat)

It cut a nice, smooth profile into the door edge. Later, I learned that I should have smacked it until the tool handle rested on the wood. I was hesitant, thinking it would be too deep, but it was just an illusion from the curved handle of the tool. Not a big deal, it's easy to put it back in place an smack it again. 

Next, I put the round headed chisel into the center hole and tapped it downward with the hammer. Again, I took it easy. I was nervous about blowing out too much wood and wrecking the door. It cut nice and precisely, breaking off cleanly at the score line.

It's not a real blog post without at least one visit by Sweetness  is it?

Flipping the thing over, I tapped it upwards to clean the top section out.

It was easy to flip back and forth between cutting (up /down) and tapping the scoring tool in. Now that I've done one successfully. I'm confident enough to really smack it in next time. It was much neater and quicker than my old-school chisel experience.

The recessed area was clean and even. I slipped once on the first upstroke and nicked a little chunk out of the wood face on the upper right, but nothing I can't touch up later. Next time, I'll knock the scoring tool in deeper, right off the bat.

Bottom line, I really like this tool. Even with being a first time user, I got better results in much less time than I had in the past. The quality seems good for my needs.The plastic is just fine after I whapped it with a hammer a few times. The cutting edges are sharp, but not made from standard heavy-duty tool-grade steel. It's more like a stamped steel / heavy sheet metal type material. It's nice that they included a rubber cover to keep the blades from getting nicked (or maybe fingers from getting nicked). I have four more doors to cut, so we'll see how it goes. I'm optimistic. I can't fault anything at all at this price level. For about $10.00, I'm 100% sold. 

Grab one at Home Depot: Ryobi Door Latch Installation Kit

* I didn't see it in the instructions, but Gracie was able to figure out the Lightsaber function on her own.

Gracie, Workshop Jedi

UPDATE: They've updated the unit for a nice electric lime green and tweaked the shape a little.

This is not a sponsored post. I selected the tool and purchased it with my own hard earned cash. The post does contain affiliate links for sourcing.