How to fix cabinet

[Lori Kleinberg]

Hi all, I made this cabinet a few years ago for my son and daughter-in-law.
216816 216877
There were 3 shelves on each door and in the center compartment.
They filled it up with videos and dvds and everything was fine.
Then a couple of months ago the screws for the piano hinges started to pull out.

I've looked at different hinge options, but just can't seem to picture in my head the best fix.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Chris Rosenberger]

It may seem to simple, but longer screws would be my first option.

[Todd Burch]

Not that I can SEE what you are talking about with that micro-photo... ;) ...but it looks like the screws might have been screwed into the edges of the plywood. Is that correct? Was there any solid wood edging on the plywood?

Longer screws may work, or they may just delay the inevitable again, depending on how much use the "thick doors that look like they could be taxed with a lot of weight" get.

You could route-out into the edge of the plywood and inlay a piece of solid wood without disturbing too much of the finished piece.

[Kevin Presutti]

The construction of the carcass and the doors, but it appears the construction would be plywood. If you are going into end grain on the plywood of the carcass I would suggest a taper drill, longer screws, and put a dab of construction adhesive in the hole and run the screw in. As far as the door goes looks like you have 1x material but if possible I would repeat the same process. If the existing holes are somewhat stripped out I would whittle a plug to titebond the plug in, then re-drill. I have done all these and had great success. Good Luck!;)

[Lori Kleinberg]

Thanks for the quick responses. The screws holding the piano hinge, do go into the plywood edge. I do know better now, but that was the first piece of furniture I ever made. Followed plan directions not realizing how weak the holding power of the plywood edge.

I did think about adding hardwood edging, but there is no way I could ever match the finish color, because I experimented trying to come up with a color to match some of their other pieces.

I thought about maybe using 3 butt hinges per door with longer screw and maybe some loc-titeon those screws or thick CA on the plywood edges.

[Todd Burch]

You can repair this without having to refinish.

Take off the doors and piano hinges.

Take a 1/4" router bit (straight), with a straight edge guide, and cut a 1/4" deep mortise along the length of the plywood edge, centered as best you can, into the plywood edge. After the grooves are cut, fill the mortise with hardwood of your choice - gluing it on all three sides.

When glue is dry, reattach piano hinges and doors.

You'll never have to mess with it again.

[Doug Herzberg]

Take a 1/4" router bit (straight), with a straight edge guide, and cut a 1/4" deep mortise along the length of the plywood edge, centered as best you can, into the plywood edge. After the grooves are cut, fill the mortise with hardwood of your choice - gluing it on all three sides.


There's an old landlord trick for stripped out screw holes in door jambs. You fill the holes with wood glue and stuff in a bunch of toothpicks (made of hardwood), then reinstall the hinge. I would think you could drill out each screw hole with a 1/4 inch bit, then glue in a 1/4" hardwood dowel. You'd be screwing into end grain, but I think it would be strong enough. I'd rather use a drill than a router on the edge of a plywood box.

Just my $.02.

[Lori Kleinberg]

Thanks Todd and Doug. I really like your idea Todd :), its sounds like it would be really secure. I want this to be the first and last time I fix this. Also I don't want those doors falling off with the grandkids around it.

[Todd Burch]

There's an old landlord trick for stripped out screw holes in door jambs. You fill the holes with wood glue and stuff in a bunch of toothpicks (made of hardwood), then reinstall the hinge. I would think you could drill out each screw hole with a 1/4 inch bit, then glue in a 1/4" hardwood dowel. You'd be screwing into end grain, but I think it would be strong enough. I'd rather use a drill than a router on the edge of a plywood box.

Just my $.02.

I've done this before with dowels and it works great. Last time I did it was for the cup hinges that the builder screwed into the edge of the MDF face frame in the laundry room.

However, for a couple runs of piano hinges, fixing one hole at a time would be pretty time consuming.

[Gil Knowles]

Lori
What i have done is take the existing screws out and fill the holes with expoxy.
I found that it works quite well, as others have suggested you might want to use longer screws.
Gil

[Terry Beadle]

Another idea...

Empty out the cabinet. Drill some 3/8ths holes three quarters through the plywood from the inside of the cabinets. Plug with oak dowels and flush cut after glue sets.

Then using longer screws, pre drill the screw holes through the inset dowels and install new longer screws.

What this will do is give you good secure cross grain screw mounts and not require finish matching. You could stain the dowel ends if you are concerned about looks from the inside of the cabinet walls but from the looks of how many tapes ( etc. ) the side walls of the cabinet are not seen anyway.

Also you would not have to put a oak dowel for each screw hole in the piano hinges. Maybe every three to four inches would really give enough strength IMO.

[Jerome Hanby]

I think this sounds like the winner! Great idea.


Another idea...

Empty out the cabinet. Drill some 3/8ths holes three quarters through the plywood from the inside of the cabinets. Plug with oak dowels and flush cut after glue sets.

Then using longer screws, pre drill the screw holes through the inset dowels and install new longer screws.

What this will do is give you good secure cross grain screw mounts and not require finish matching. You could stain the dowel ends if you are concerned about looks from the inside of the cabinet walls but from the looks of how many tapes ( etc. ) the side walls of the cabinet are not seen anyway.

Also you would not have to put a oak dowel for each screw hole in the piano hinges. Maybe every three to four inches would really give enough strength IMO.

[David Larsen]

Strength in numbers! Drill more holes in the piano hinge and add more screws to the hinge. The additional screws will help carry the load. As far as the one that is loose or pulling out, just epoxy it in to hold it there and rely on the additional screws to carry the load. Use similar screws and they will look like they have always been there. To me, this would be the easiest and least intrusive solution.

[Myk Rian]

I would use a 1 1/4" sheet metal screw to attach the hinges.
With a proper drill hole, it won't spread the plies apart. I use those screws for MDF also.

[Jim Underwood]

Another vote for Terry Beadle's method. I've successfully used this method for anchoring screws in plywood for a couple of projects. It may be a bit tedious and time consuming for all those screws in the piano hinges, but it will work.

This won't work for your piano hinge but when joining parts into the end of plywood I use Confirmat screws. They'll still split the plys if you're not careful, but they'll work when nothing else will.