I am making a cabinet for my niece. The case is 3/4″ Baltic birch the doors are reclaimed lumber glued to 1/2″ Baltic birch. So the doors are 1″ thick. I purchase some Richelieu cabinet hinges like the ones use in kitchens. When I used scrap lumber each being 3/4″ thick to practice , the part that would be the door was completely proud of what would be the edge of the case. No adjusting in the world would make it the door’s edge3 when closed flush with the side of the cabinet. Anyone have this issue before.
Second question. I am thinking of not using cabinet hinges and either using morticed hinges or a piano hinge for the doors. Any thoughts?
These are for a frameless cabinet.
Thanks.
Replies
Those are Blum hinges, you need to drill the large hole for the body at the corresponding distance from the front of the cabinet (the B spacing). https://www.richelieu.com/ca/en/category/hinges-slides-and-opening-systems/hinges-and-accessories/european-style-hinges/blum-hinges/clip-top/clip-top-hinge-170/1007584/sku-70T655180
If you mean the edge of the door extends out past the edge of the cabinet wall, I never had that problem. When using a commercial (plastic) drilling template, I found that the door was always shy of the edge. I thought it was a flaw until I realized kitchen cabinets sit right next to each other and the doors would grind into each other if they were flush with the edge. I was making a stand alone cabinet and wanted the door flush with the outside edge of the cabinet wall.
Did you use a drilling template?
I bought a cheap template that came with a fostner bit at Lowes when I bought the euro hinges (for overlay door on a frameless cabinet).
Did you get the inset hinges?
The array of types can be quite overwhelming.
1 inch thick doors will be heavy and might risk finger injury. Might be better to reconsider the design. 1/16" veneer will look the same but weigh a lot less.
The only way I see this problem occurring is if you have drilled the cup holes for the hinges too far from the edge of the test piece (or, accidentally turned it around after drilling.) Put the pieces together, put the L-R adjuster in the middle of its range, measure how far the edge of the "door" protrudes, and decrease the offset distance by that amount.
I highly recommend that you practice with 1" thick scrap before thinking you are good to go. I have had trouble using 7/8" thick doors with Euro hinges, as they are designed for 3/4" thick doors. Getting the doors close to the cabinet and getting them to open all the way to the designed angle are not compatible. And having the outer edge of the door stop the door from opening all the way leaves it very vulnerable to damage from the leverage of the door tearing out the hinge screws.
I would probably not use mortised hinges in this situation, as your screws would be going into the edge of the plywood case. Very prone to being split out; much more so than solid wood. Piano hinges would allow more screws, so would be at least marginally better.
Great point on the plywood splitting. I mostly use dimensional solid wood for what I am building and sometimes forget details when I am doing case work. Thanks.
To all,
Thanks for your ideas and help.
I discovered what the problem was after opening all four packages of hinges. In two of the packages were hinges for INSET even though the card in the package said overlay. :-( Once I tried one of the others they worked fine. The hinges are Richelieu so it surprised me that they were this wrong.
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