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I am making a storage unit for patio cushions and I am planing to make it out of 3/4″ melenine. It will be outside but somewhat out of the weather here in Florida. The 2 doors will be somewhat larger(23″ wide)than your average cupboard and I want to use european hinges. What concerns me is the weight of the door on the little screws that comes with the hinges. Should this cause a big problem with sagging with 2 hinges on each door? Also I am starting to have second thoughts about melenine. I thought to waterproof the edges before applying the edge tape.
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The MELAMINE, needs to be completely out of the weather and humidity. My humble advice would be to rethink the building materials.
*To elaborate Perry, I'd consider solid wood for the application you mentioned or MARINE GRADE plywood (expensive). Marine grade plywood should easily be available in Florida; it's a special order item in Tennessee where I live. Solid wood alternatives would include Cypress, Redwood, or Southern Yellow Pine, all of which would greatly benefit from finishing with spar varnish, although this is a finish which will require regular maintenance and upkeep.Maybe Melamine covered marine grade plywood is available?? New one on me........
*Perry, I think if you build your cabinet out of Melamine you may have to junk it in a few years, due to it being ouside. Would you consider using MDO (medium density overlay)? This is exterior grade plywood covered on the faces with resin impregnated paper. It is used in making highway direction signs. It's meant to be painted. You might have to check around to locate it, as its not sold everywhere. Also you are probably right to be concerned with using European hinges (assume you mean cup hinges) mountee with those small screws on large doors made with something as heavy as Melamine or MDF. I think most of those type doors usually use the knock in or press in hinge screws, rather than screw in. In this, the hinge screw holes are bored oversize, and nylon plugs with little barbs are inserted in them, and the screws enter the plugs. I've never used them, but assume this is because screws don't hold too well inserted directly into MDF. Since MDO has a plywood core, it should be lighter and screws would grab a little better, so these type hinges might be OK; wouldn't hurt to add an extra hinge to each door. The Woodworker's Hardware catalog has a "Hinges per Door" chart to help calculate no. of hinges needed, calculated by door's size and weight. Address is http://www.wwhardware.com. Hope this helps.
*The hinges can be bought with the nylon dowels, or without, for screw on application: you have to specify. If you have a dedicated machine that will drill the hole for the hinge cup and the two dowel holes at the same time, you buy them set up with the nylon posts; usually the machine has a ram that will press them into place. If you don't have that equipment, screwing the plates on will work just fine; use a straight edge of some kind (board, level, whatever)on the back edges of the hinges to align them in the same plane, and screw them in. Use particle board screws, available from the hardware distributors. IF you use the right number of hinges for the door height and width (go by the charts, and err on the side of caution, a couple of bucks for an extra hinge isn't a lot to pay), you won't have any problems. Even in heavy commercial use, I have never, ever, seen properly installed Euro hinges fail.The big thing, also goes for carcase construction, is to use particle board screws (variously called Hi-Lo, Lo-Root, etc.). I hardly ever use anything else, even in wood.
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