I am building a small cabinet, and ended up using mortised hinges for the doors. In the past, I just kept the barrels tight to the frame, and then marked and cut the mortises.
Today, one end of each of the two doors ended up jutting out in front of the face frame. I guess you could say the door wasn’t coplanar with the front of face frame.
I have never experienced this before, although I have to admit to having mortised hinges for only a dozen doors over the years.
I am now in the process of adjusting the mortises, and filling and re-drilling the pilot holes for the hinge screws.
Does anyone know why this happened and whether it is operator error or something with the hinges? I did switch two hinges to see if it was the hinge, but the door was still jutting out at the same location . I suppose small deviations in the mortises could do this, but I don’t remember ever having to deal with this before.
Thanks,
Rene
Replies
In cases like yours it is really helpful to have pictures. It is really tough to get a clear mental image based purely on words. Here are just a few of the questions I have.
Are the doors inset or overlaid?
What do you mean by co-planar? Do you mean the door is not parallel to the face frame?
"one end of each of the two doors ended up jutting out in front of the face frame" Are you saying one corner of the door is jutting out beyond the face frame?
Descriptions can be vague and subject to interpretation pictures help bring everything into focus.
Without them the best I can do is to say not all hinges can be installed the way you describe. Some due to construction, swing arc etc need to be held back slightly from the case. I can't say that is the case in your situation but it is sometimes the case.
Also and again I'm going off of a foggy mental image I have, have you ruled out that the doors have warped?
I'm guessing it's the hinge. Not to sound old and crochety but stuff is just not being made as well today. I'm assuming these are inset doors. Just thinking out loud here but maybe take two boards and apply double stick tape to both pieces, stick the closed hinge (probably on the piece representing the face frame just short of the barrel touching and then slide the other piece up to it keeping the two surfaces flat and even. Then flip them over and mark where the back edge of the hinge is on both pieces. That would be the lines for your mortises. If it's not the same reveal to the barrel it's the fault of the hinge not you. I'd probably never notice it and I'm pretty fussy. I guess if that's the case you'd have to orient the hinges somehow. Good luck.
It's actually pretty easy to check the hinges: when the leaves are closed, if they are even, they are good. If one is longer than the other, that is the source of your problem. I suspect it is operator error, in that when you "kept the barrel of the hinge tight to the frame", you may have held the hinge in slightly different depths in and out. When I am marking inset hinges, I use a marking or cutting gauge, set from the hinge leaf (I do check that all the hinge leaves are the same length; I have a stock of vintage NOS bronze hinges that I have to file the leaves on to get them all the same. So much for "They made it better in the old days.") Assuming consistency with the marking gauge, all the hinges will be set the same depth into the cabinet and doors. In fact, if the hinge leaves are the same size on each hinge, and not terribly different from one hinge to the next, they still should be fine, as long as for each individual hinge, the set-back is the same for each leaf. Of course, the cabinet will look better if each hinge knuckle protrudes the same amount.
I wasn't referring to "Antiques" but more to that the consistency in newer machining has gone down hill. That being said the only way the marking gauge will work is if EVERY hinge is the same but in this case they obviously are not. Lot of time to file them that exact. This may be sacrilege but a well made router jig is well worth the time to make if you have a lot of doors to do. Make the jig to what you think is shallowest depth and route them all out. Then use each hinge leaf as a gauge and sweeten the mortise with a chisel on the ones that are deeper making sure your barrel alignment is perfect. If it's just a tiny discrepancy you can route them to the deepest one and live with the deeper mortise showing. Better that than an uneven door or barrel reveal. A lot faster and more accurate than filing hinges.
Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the feedback.
I haven't checked the hinges for discrepancies, but I did check how deep I had set them in, and I was off by a small amount on two of them. I set the two offenders just a tiny bit deeper into the face frame, and it solved the problem.
I like the idea of using a marking gauge to set the depth into the frame and doors.
Thanks again
Yup. Hinges need to be the same depth. A marking gauge is a must. And it gives a nice groove to set your chisel into. That's a lot of good work on your part, and it deserves better hinges. Try Horton Brasses next time. The quality is amazing.
Thanks for the kind words and the tip. I took a quick look at Horton Brasses. That's some nice looking stuff.
I use the PB407 and 409s a lot. Best butt hinges I've ever used.
The PB407s are very nice. I ordered two packages of the CP-11s in semi-bright.
Not quite as nice, but a decent starting point to see what they are like.
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