Blum hinges

[George_N]

I’m building a router table from the plan in Bill Hylton’s book “Woodworking with the router”. There are drawers at the sides of the router compartment, for bits etc. and the lower part of the cabinet has doors. I thought I’d use a set of Blum hinges I “rescued” from a skip, to hang the doors. The problem is that the plan called for a rebate to be cut on the back edge, top and bottom of the doors so that they are a semi-inset fit into the opening. I drilled out the 35 mm holes and mounted the hinges. After hanging the first door I found that it wouldn’t open properly. I realise now that these hinges are made to work with doors that lie flat on the face of the cabinet rather than the partly inset ones I have made. Is there any way round this or will I have to make up a new set of doors. I hope at least some of that is clear.

Cheers

George

Sorry guys I've posted this in the wrong section...meant to put it into the General Woodworking section

 

[Paul Chapman]

George,

The Woodfit site has lots of information about fitting Blum hinges. Try this link http://www.woodfit.com/product_info.php ... ormation+1

Hope this helps

Paul

 

[George_N]

Thanks paul,
I might get away with putting a spacer under the mounting plate and maybe radiusing the back edge of the door if I need to.

cheers

George

 

[Paul Chapman]

George,

To avoid the risk of spoiling your new router table, you could also try using some scrap wood/MDF or whatever so as to see what works. Hope it all goes well.

Paul

 

[Argee]

There are three basic types of European hinges - 0 degree crank, 8 degree and 15 degree, which are used, respectively, for full overlay, half overlay and fully inset doors. Full overlay doors fit totally over the carcass. Half overlays are for use where the door only overhangs half the thickness of the carcass side and inset hinges allow the door to be hung totally within the carcass dimensions.

This type of hinge allows the door to open within its own dimensions, i.e., it will pivot inwards from the side as the door opens. For this reason, they are not suitable for partly inset (rebated) door applications, because the rebated section will foul the carcass as the door pivots - as you've discovered.

If I've understood you correctly, the only way you'll be able to use your "rescued" hinges is to remake the doors as full overlay, although this may not suit the design.

Another option is to cut the doors down to be fully inset (don't cut the hinge sides!), then get some full inset hinges. My preference would be option two, as you'll get brand new hinges - offsetting the cost of remaking full overlay doors.

Ray.

 

[Offcut]

Is there anyway of thicknessing down the door to make it thinner. This would allow the door to sit flush with the drawers but could use the overlay type hinge, if there was still enough thickness for the hinge!

Andy

 

[George_N]

My preference would be option two, as you'll get brand new hinges - offsetting the cost of remaking full overlay doors.

The hinges are of the full overlay type and look brand new, which is why I wanted to use them.

Is there anyway of thicknessing down the door to make it thinner. This would allow the door to sit flush with the drawers but could use the overlay type hinge, if there was still enough thickness for the hinge!

The doors are 19 mm birch plywood and the rebate is 9.5 mm so I wouldn't be able to cut them down that thin and still be able to drill the mounting holes for the hinge bodies.

George

 

[Scrit]

This was partly covered in an earlier thread How to build a builtin wardrobe in an alcove - the technique. If you mount the hinge cruciform plates on blocks that bring them up to the "level" as the frame (effectively giving you a frameless construction's offsets) the maximum door overlay you can achieve with 18mm thick doors will be around 17mm. or about the same as the thickness of a frameless carcass' sides. There should be formulae on the Woodfit site, or failing that there certainly on the Blum site.

Scrit

 

[George_N]

Cheers Scrit,
I remember reading the built-in wardrobe thread and the idea did occur to me last night when I was scratching my head over how to fix it. I think I will try a strip of ply down the inside of the cabinet, as suggested for the wardrobes. If it is a little thick at 19 mm I can plane it down a little.

George

 

[jasonB]

Hettich make a euro type hinge for rebated doors but you may ave a job tracking down a supplier who is willing to supply a small quantity.

As the doors are only ply I would be tempted to cut them down and make them inset doors with the appropriate Blum hinges or if you still want to use the ones you have then mount them on 18mm packers.

Jason

 

[George_N]

I had a go last night at mounting the hinge plates on 19 mm plywood strips and it worked reasonably well. The main problem I had was the back edge of the doors binding on the cabinet face. I rounded over the edge and it helped a bit...I think I may need a bigger radius, but at least the doors work and look ok.

cheers

George

 

[Paul Chapman]

Good to hear that it's going reasonably well, George

Paul

 

[Scrit]

I had a go last night at mounting the hinge plates on 19 mm plywood strips and it worked reasonably well. The main problem I had was the back edge of the doors binding on the cabinet face. I rounded over the edge and it helped a bit...I think I may need a bigger radius, but at least the doors work and look ok.

Fi George

If the doors are binding either the overlay is too great or the cruciform is set too far in from the edge (needs to be about 37mm)

Scrit

 

[Offcut]

Any chance of some pics of your fine work

Andy

 

[George_N]

Any chance of some pics of your fine work

If I ever do any fine work I'll be sure to post the pictures here first :wink:

George