Some advice re soss hinges please

[markturner]

Hi, we have just done a large project , with 2 rooms with a curved wall. Client has requested some shutters in the small window in one of the walls. I have made the shutters, flat on the rear, curved on the front following the curve of the wall, however she has specified soss hinges, the small 24mm ones ( a drama in itself, finding the correct sized cutter) I have done a mock up before fitting, as I can see its a "one shot" scenario - there is no adjustment on the hinges at all, so you have to be millimeter perfect, and I have to drill the holes in the frame recess freehand on site with a hand held drill. On the mock up, the hinges waggle a bit and I am worried with the actual doors, they will sag too much. There is only a very small clearance to the opening. She has some bigger soss hinges, but the next size is massive, designed for normal doors, not at all suitable for a small 250mm x 700mm door.

Is there a better alternative? She wants mirror on the back, so cant use blum hinges. Anyone have any tips for the soss hinges? I have never used before, despite being in the game 30 years!!!

Cheers, mark

 

[Chrispy]

Are you using the round bodied ones that push into a drilled hole or the larger oval ones the sit in a routed slot and then screw fixed, I find the latter much easier to fit and a bit stronger too.
Still can't picture what you are trying to do tho?

 

[scholar]

Mark

SOSs hinges are excellent and should not end up with any "waggle" if you have enough of them on each stile (follow the guidance).

Routing the recess needs to be much more than millimetre perfect so the only way you can do this is with a jig. It seems to me, having researched this extensively and ummed and aahhed for ages that you have three options:

- you can pay about £600+ for a nice aluminium routing template with inserts for the various sizes of Soss hinge - actually there are two sizes of template so you would need to buy both to do the whole range (I cannot remember if these come with the bush and cutters that you would need) eg http://www.locksonline.com/acatalog/rou ... -6773.html

- you can make up your own jig/template - I have done something out of mdf for some one-off jobs (in that case I made a mdf template sized for the best bush/cutter I had and added some little mdf inserts at either end to rout for the central deeper recess; it worked ok but I had to fiddle a bit as the tolerances worsened after a few uses.

- the solution I came up with was to use this as a justification for buying the Festool MFS routing template http://www.festool.co.uk/products/acces ... es-mfs-400 - I don't have any photos, but will try to explain. You need the 30mm guide bush that is a nice fit in the square insert of the template and a cutter that matches exactly the recess width required per the Soss instructions (I think they are all imperial sizes as Soss are US designed products) The width of the template is set to allow the square insert to just slide comfortably; the length is set depending on the recess length per the instructions for the Soss hinge, calculated for the 30mm bush and the cutter width. you need a reliable way of clamping the template tight and square to the side of your workpiece (I found that the supplied angle stops were not good enough to hold it really square so I made some larger ones out of some substantial steel angle brackets I had (spares off a Scheppach machine!)). You can clamp the brackets to the sides of the workpiece with some fairly long reach clamps. You also need some small blocks (I used mdf) to insert at either end to rout the deeper central recess, sized accurately depending on the data sheet etc.

The jig works by the router bush sitting in the round hole of the square insert and sliding along the length you have set up (this is not reallyy what the insert is designed for as it is really intended to be fixed to a point on the template and used for eg routing circles, but I assure you it works very well as I have described. You rout the deeper central recess first with the insert blocks in place, then remove them and rout the full length shallower recess.

Follow all the measurements exactly per the Soss instructions and do not try to second guess any of them (tried that!) - use a micrometer for set up.

I was really pleased with the outcome, once I had set everything up and done one mini prototype door. I have no quibble over the £200 or so for the Festool template after this.

I hope that helps - let me know if there is anything I can help with.

Cheers

Scholar

 

[markturner]

Hi Scholar, and thanks for the advice. I do have the Festo jig you mention but the hinges she has supplied are circular, not oval type, they are approx 24mm wide. My big problem in doing this is going to be the "frame" - its a window reveal of MDF, already fitted, so it will be almost impossible to get any kind of jig in there and clamp it. The doors are tricky enough as they quite narrow, about 35mm, with one face curved, so awkward to clamp.

They are these hinges here: http://www.soss.com/productdesc/barrel.asp

My worry is that they have no adjustment at all. I cant see how they would expect people to fit them absolutely millimetre perfect, especially when they need to have a very accurate circular hole drilled freehand and not be able to tweak them a little.

I guess I will have to just give it a try...

Cheers, Mark

 

[markturner]

Hi Scholar, and thanks for the advice. I do have the Festo jig you mention but the hinges she has supplied are circular, not oval type, they are approx 24mm wide. My big problem in doing this is going to be the "frame" - its a window reveal of MDF, already fitted, so it will be almost impossible to get any kind of jig in there and clamp it. The doors are tricky enough as they quite narrow, about 35mm, with one face curved, so awkward to clamp.

They are these hinges here: http://www.soss.com/productdesc/barrel.asp

My worry is that they have no adjustment at all. I cant see how they would expect people to fit them absolutely millimetre perfect, especially when they need to have a very accurate circular hole drilled freehand and not be able to tweak them a little.

I guess I will have to just give it a try...

Cheers, Mark

 

[scholar]

Mark

I can sort of visualise the situation.

I think you do need some kind of jig to ensure that the spacing between hinges is spot on both on the frame and the door, and also that the hinge holes are equally referenced off the front face of the frame and door.

For the 15/16ths hole, I would think a forstner bit is what you want and a jig with guide holes made with the same bit. presumably there is some way of making a jig out of a piece of timber the length of the door and a batten to locate against the front face of the frame and door - if you cannot clamp the jig in place, you may have to screw or nail it in place temporarily (a nail gun is probably he best way of fixing it reliably without it moving as you fix it).

Good luck

cheers

Scholar