Any good tricks to share?

[StartAgain]

Howdy.

Almost finished the entire houe reno and I am now down to the fiddly but fun bits such as putting on door handles etc.

I am replacing the crappy old Strike plates with brush chrome that match the new handles. However the old plates were much larger and thinner - leaving me with a ugly recess.

I was going:
1. Chisel to cut out the new recess so the new plates fit perfectly
2. Install the new stricke plate
3. Mask the strike plate
4. Fill the old recess with builders bog
5. Sand then paint with over the bog
6. Remove the mask
7. Voila!

Is this the way to do it or have any of you got a better idea from learnt experiences.

Cheers y'all

[pawnhead]

With the door slamming against it, it will eventually crack and fall out. If you chopped it about 5mm deep where you were putting the bog then you could drive a few panel pins in with the heads sticking out about 3>4mm, and bog over them.
Alternately, before you install the new strikers, chop out the old striker recess to about 5mm depth, cut a block of wood to fit the length, then with a chisel, split the block to a bit over the thickness and width required. Glue, and nail it in position with panel pins, and punch them. Using your chisel, pare off the excess so that it's flush, then sand. Or forget the chisel, and just use a hand plane or belt sander or ROS.
Be very careful when mortising the new striker so you don't break the block. A sharp chisel with a slicing action rather than belting it with a hammer, and gentle taps when removing the waste. Or use a router.
Also, be careful not to put the nails where the striker screws will go.

[Eli]

A razor knife with a brand new blade is a great, low-impact way to cut the edges of the striker mortise clean without hammer blows. Then you can push the chisel up to those lines by hand to clean out the inside. I'd go for the inset block of wood method as well. If you bed it in epoxy it'll never let go...

A mallet (I use a small brass one, pretty heavy for the size) is better than a hammer even, allowing you to use light blows but transfer a lot of force to the chisel. You have to smash a hammer by comparison.

[StartAgain]

See. This is why this site is awesome.

Never thought of making it a bit deeper and putting a piece of wood.

Much, Much, Much, neeter and cleaner I recogn.

Would Ply or Masonite suffice?

Cheers

[pawnhead]

Would Ply or Masonite suffice?

Yeh, that would be alright. If you sand through the veneer on the ply, and have the grain running perpendicular, then you'd need to fine sand it between paint coats. You can smear some bog over the exposed edge of the ply as a filler.
You may get some hairline cracks after a while, but the only way to avoid that would be to replace the jamb.