Heavy Cabinet Door hinge and strut selection
I have a 28″W x 40″L x 4″ deep cabinet. It is made of 1″ pine common board from home depot. I am trying to have it hinged on the top with concealed Euro hinges and a gas strut system to keep the overhead cabinet style door open mounted on the wall. What full overlay concealed hinges can handle that weight and how many should I use? Also, how strong of struts should I use. I tried just 2 euro hinges from amazon and two 100N struts, but that doesn’t seem to do the trick. The hinges started to bend from the stress and the struts can’t seem to keep the door open. 200N struts didn’t seem to help either. It will be mounted on the wall and the door will need to open to be parallel to the ground. I am trying to hide the hinges so it doesn’t appear to be a cabinet, so that is why I tried Euro hinges
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Blum makes the best quality euro hinges I've seen. I'd probably use three on that setup. As for the gas struts, there are a million variations. There are different length, and they are sold by the weight they're rated to lift. It sounds like you need a heavier weight on the struts.
thanks. I will look into blum. 200 newton(45lb) struts x 2 would be enough I would have thought.
You could also avoid the expense of struts and go with a rod like what holds open the hood of a car. If access is only occasional it is a simple and reliable solution.
Hinges are rated for how far they will swing open. I know they have 100 degree, 110, 170, and probably several others. Is it possible the hinge is limiting how far your struts are able to lift?
The door is 18.6 lbs. Just put it on a scale
When using struts, springs and weighted assists there is the weight to be lifted BUT, there is also the ease of returning the item to the at rest position. that is, a couple of 45 pound struts will hold the lid open. Will the torque required to get the lid back down be too much? Changing the fastening positions can alter the effort required through leverage.
they are 95 degree hinges. I am only trying to open to 90. It opens to 90, then falls back down like the struts can't support it.
The torque might be too much. Two 45 lb struts don't seem to hold it open is the first issue. I figured I would cross the torque bridge if/when I came to it.
Looking at your picture again, the struts seem short. They attach to the lid only a few inches down from the top. The closer they are to the top, the more force that's required.
Disconnect the struts, and close the lid. Using two fingers, raise the lid to 90 degrees from the bottom of the lid. Take note of the effort involved. Now close the lid and use two fingers about 3 inches from the top, or however far down your struts are currently attached. You'll need a lot more force to open the lid. Torque = moment arm x force.
I think longer struts, positioned differently, will work fine.
I have some longer struts coming in the mail today. Hopefully that will solve the problem. I also added some more hinges for support.
As an update for anyone who cares, I was able to get the struts to work. I bought 15" struts instead of the 10" I tried first. I think they were just not long enough. I also added some longer hinges(home depot) closer to the ends of the drawer to help with torque. It appears to be holding much better now. The shorter, more compact hinges were not up to the task. Thanks for all your input! Now that the one for my brother is done, I am now going to start on my second one for myself and perfect it.
Good news. The 10 inch struts were clearly too short. Glad it's working out.
Haaaaa... I have given away a few first efforts to grateful folks.
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