Pro Woodworking Tips.com

Cabinet Door Hinge Consideration 

Cabinet Door Hinge Consideration

Hinge Consideration

Having deciding on a door type, the hardware becomes a consideration. We use European Hinges almost exclusively. They can be used on Traditional Cabinets, meaning those with face frames, or European Cabinets, meaning those with no face frame.  They can be used with inset , full or half overlay doors.

The advantage to European hinges is it's ease of installation, but more importantly, it's ease of adjustment. These hinges will be covered in detail on another page, but the beauty of them is the six way adjustments, to allow for perfect, yet quick installation. They have adjustment screws to allow in and out, up and down, and side to side adjustments. Very close to dummy proof. One hinge can be used for many applications, when combined with different base plates. The available options are mind boggling.

The machine shown above is a Blum machine, and will make very quick work of installing hinges. The second photo shows the drilling pattern for these hinges. The third photo shows the hinge itself, with the screw cap open, and the base plate attached. A simple lever will release the base plate. When this cap is closed, two cams squeeze against the side walls of the hole and lock the hinge in place. The fourth photo is the base plate for a current project.

We did a project for the Philadelphia Eagles which required over nine hundred hinges. Our projections when bidding the job allowed for two guys, for two full weeks of hinge drilling and installation, using a drill press. These doors were laminated and needed to moved and stacked several times in the course of drilling the three holes and screwing the hinges in, so the chance of damage to the laminate was a consideration. It was then we decided to purchase a hinge machine. While the machine cost about three thousand dollars, the results were impressive. The entire drilling and hinge installation time was less than two days for the same two guys. A nice advantage to the machine was it actually presssed the hinges into the door, and they were perfectly square to the door 100% of the time.

Obviously, in a home shop, buying one of these machines is impractical, but there are many commercial options in the way of templates, and jigs for making this a quick, accurate process. Even a drill press will work well, as the only hole which is really required is the large center hole. The smaller holes can be drilled later when screwing the hinges in. The smaller holes drilled by the machine are for plastic dowels, which are barbed, or ribbed. The machine will press the hinges into the holes without having to screw them in. (the screws are already in the dowels), and the press fit of the dowells will hold the hinge quite well. If you wanted to remove these hinges, you simple take out the screws from the dowels.

The hinges are available with or without these plastic inserts. If you buy them without the dowels, you simply screw the hinges on through the smaller holes in the hinge plate. The newer hinges don't even use the screws, as they have cams built into them, which will hold the doors quite well. Many brands of these hinges have a quick release built into them, so removing or installing the door takes only seconds, after the initial installation.

Multi Tool Rail JIG IT ® for Concealed Hinges Drill concealed hinges with ease and accuracy – whether you’re making one door or a hundred! Multi Tool Rail JIG IT ® for Concealed Hinges Dial-Up (0.73MB) or Broadband (3.60MB) Multi Tool Rail JIG IT ® for Concealed Hinges To order click here   Multi Tool Rail JIG IT ® for Concealed Hinges Drill concealed hinges with ease and accuracy – whether you’re making one door or a hundred! Multi Tool Rail JIG IT ® for Concealed Hinges Dial-Up (0.73MB) or Broadband (3.60MB) Multi Tool Rail JIG IT ® for Concealed Hinges    Link To full line of: European Hinges   Sample Hinge Blum 2-Way Nickel-Plated Face Frame Hinges

Specifically designed for use with face frames. These fully concealed 35mm face frame hinges offer 2-way height adjustments and side adjustments. Hinges are fully concealed and have 105° openings. Self closing. 35mm cup.See optional Blumotion Soft Close System for silent and cushioned door closure. Blum 2-Way Nickel-Plated Face Frame Hinges To order click here

Link To full line of: European Hinges

Return to Cabinet Making Tips index

Return to home page

Written by: Lee A. Jesberger  © 2006

Inventor of Ezee-Feed systems  ®

Website Created by: Lee A. Jesberger

  admin@prowoodworkingtips.com