Sizeing face frame from european hinges....Help!

[Michael Donahue]

Hey folks! I'm building a cabinet roughly 4' wide that will have 3 doors. I want to use 1/2" overlay concealed hinges but I'm not sure how wide to make the stiles of the face frame so that the edge of one door doesn't hit the adjacent door while being opened. I can't seem to find any measurements for this while looking around online.

These are the ones I want to use...
http://www.woodcraft.com/images/products/146560_230.jpg

Could I get away with 1 3/4"? I don't want to go too wide because that will restrict access to the inside of the cabinet. Thanks for the help!

[Jamie Buxton]

Your hinges may have different specs, but they look like Blum C38N hinges, and I have specs for them. The minimum reveal is 9/32" for a 3/4" thick door. That is, if you buy them for 1/2" overlay, the minimum face-frame width is 25/32" -- yep, just a tad over 3/4".

[Chip Lindley]

1-3/4" FF stiles should work for you with 1/2" overlay hinges. The pic you include, shows the inside of the door stile very closely in plane with the inside edge of the faceframe stile. (this has been my experience also) This being the case, the door rstile roughly protrudes 3/4" over the front of the FF stile when opened. This gives you 1/2" space between the face of the opened door and the adjacent closed door. Only problem you may encounter is if both doors are planned to be opened at the same time. But still, there is roughly 1/4" space between the face of two opened doors.

If any doubt, buy your hinges, build a mockup, attaching hinges to both sides of a 1-3/4"-wide piece of "FF stile material'. Bore two pieces of 3/4" "door material" for the hinge cups and attach. Test the fit to see if you are pleased or not. Adjust the FF stile width to 2" if needed!

[Bill White]

with 1 3/4" stiles and rails. I normally use 2" stuff 'cause that's what I've always done (have ya heard that before?).
Bill