Tool Box Buzz

Door Holster – Holds Doors Steady While You Work

There’s nothing that impresses me more than seeing someone take a great idea and turn that idea into a real product. I recently learned of a cool new tool that impressed me. The Door Holster is a very cool new product invented by a carpenter, Sterling Condit, that wanted a device that would hold doors on edge for final door prep.

Sterling’s Door Holster is shown above in it’s folded up / stored position. As you can see it has lots of nice padding on the outside so that it can be set down on even the nicest surfaces (note the nice wood table it’s sitting on!). This tool is quite the mechanical device once you see it in action. As  you can see in the photos below the legs open up, a door is placed between the jaws which then clamps the door on edge.

Sounds simple right? Well the idea is simple but the mechanics of this cool device are far from simple. There are some really great features to the Door Holster that make it quite unique.

• The two legs fold down and lock in place by sliding the leg along a slot and pin which ultimately locks the leg in place (look careful at the  photo above and you’ll see the slot and pin to the left of the word “Door”.
• The weight of the door causes the two jaws to clamp against the door tightly (if you look closely at the photo you’ll see diagonal slots and pins that allow the jaws to move until they are clamped tight).
• When you fold up the legs they are locked into a closed position by slightly pushing down the jaws which clip another slot and pin in place to hold them secure.

As you can see the Door Holster is really handy when working on a door alone. In the picture above you can see me removing a hinge while the door is held on edge by the Door Holster. As  you can see in the photo below the design includes a really nice high density plastic pad where the door sits in the clamp along with padding on the jaws themselves.

Door Holster Uses

The Door Holster is a great tool for anyone that works with door installations. Whether  you’re installing hinges or locksets, cutting down or sanding doors, the Door Holster can be a great 2nd set of hands.

Overall Impression

The Door Holster is a really great idea and it’s very well constructed using heavy gauge steel and good padding. The mechanics of this tool are very simple yet effective. Anyone that’s work on doors has probably built a wooden version of this tool time and time again. Well now that’s not necessary with the Door Holster. Currently the Door Holster is priced at $149 which is a bit high. However, there’s no doubt in my mind that this product will come down in price once it hits mainstream markets.

Cudos to Mr. Condit for inventing, fabricating and making available a great US made tool! I think it’s a great idea and I’m sure you will too.

You can also check out some cool coverage of this tool on Cool Tools with Chris Grundy!

3 Comments

1. fred

   March 26, 2011 at 11:56 am

   Looks like a good compact-storing alternative to the door jacks that folks have made for years from scrap plywood, old hinges and carpet scraps – to do the same thing. We use ours in pairs – so 2 door holsters would really save some room in the trucks.

   Reply
   1. Todd Fratzel

      March 26, 2011 at 12:29 pm

      Exactly….that’s where his design came from. I’m quite impressed with the quality of them. They work VERY well.

      Reply
2. Bob M

   April 4, 2011 at 2:02 pm

   Great execution of design. I’ve used 2X4″s and scrap ply for the same purpose, but these are not always available on the job, especially when remodeling.As said, a bit pricy, but if it were down to about $100, I’d seriously consider buying one. The tool designer has thought of everything, except maybe using high grade plastic, or PVC, or something like that to bring down costs.

   Reply

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