Invisible 'Soss' Hinges - Advice Required

[OPJ]

Hi all,

For my mum's extending 'butterfly-leaf' dining table [I should refrain from calling it my competition entry, now! ], I'm looking to use three (maybe four) Invisible or 'Soss' hinges. The central leaf is likely to be 500mm wide maximum in two parts, each measuring 400mm in length (across the table's width).

Isaac Lord.

My top will finish at least 38mm thick. I bought a load of 2in. stock for this so, I could even be looking at a 45mm finish. As I've not used this type of hinge before, my question is this...

What size of hinge (from the Isaac Lord list) would best suit this job? Is there any reason I cannot use three of the smaller hinges? Once you go past item 208 (fourth down), the prices start to get scary! :?

Thanks for looking,

Olly.

 

[WellsWood]

I've only used these once, fro the doors on a posh sideboard I did a few years ago. I got mine from Hafele, and yes the prices do get scary 8-[
I haven't got the catalogue to hand, and anyway it's ancient as I don't buy from them anymore, but I seem to remember a chart which shows how many to use, and placement, for a given size of door. Might be worth having a look at their website, it may give you a clue at least.

 

[jasonB]

Each size of Soss hinge covers a range of board thicknesses, you need the right one for your boards.

Edit thats if you mount the hinge centrally, you can use a small one nearer to an edge, Soss's site gives sizes.

http://www.soss.com/pdf/SossCatalog2006.pdf#page=4

Jason

 

[OPJ]

Thanks for your help, guys. I'll give both those sites a look.

 

[Imperial]

You need to be super accurate fitting these, 2 different sized router bits in the same place, I see a little jig making in your future :roll: :lol:

 

[Chris Knight]

Like Bloonose says..

I used them for my tool cabinet and needed a couple of jigs to fit them. Soss sell jigs but they cost a fortune!

 

[oddsocks]

Thanks for your help, guys. I'll give both those sites a look.

I found this old thread from a search as I am looking to repair my Mother in Law's table where one of the original poor quality hinges for the hidden centre leaf has broken. I've come to the conclusion I need to fit the SOSS type hinges (the top is 24mm thick so it would be the 22mm -28mm thickness range).

OPJ what hinges did you eventually use?


Thanks

Dave

 

[OPJ]

Hi Dave,

The ones I used were stock code '208' on the Isaac Lord website. This was for a top that was 38mm think and they do work well. They're dead easy to fit, too, provided you have the correct diameter router cutter and set it up with care. The only downside was that I was fixing these in to end-grain so, I had to fix dowels in through the unseen face for the screws to bite in to. However, I appreciate that this may not be applicable in all circumstances.

Hope that helps, Dave. Best of luck with the repair job.

 

[oddsocks]

Thanks Olly, I'll order the same ones