Piano Hinges !!

[ian maybury]

I've just spent a large part of a day searching for and another half driving to pick up a decent quality piano hinge - only to find that despite catalogue claims that it was the usually lightweight rubbish.

Has anybody got any suggestions for sources for good quality piano hinge? Preferably in Euro make which might be available over here.

There's two problems with the flimsy variety that is commonly available. The leaves are so thin (maybe 0.5mm) that they bend at the slightest excuse, and the screw holes are exactly opposite each other in the opposing leaves so that the they touch when the hinge is closed. There's not enough thickness in the leaf to countersink, and normal screws have too thick heads which result in the leaves being bent when the hinge is closed.

I've bought stock hinges for the job, but does such a thing as a decent quality piano hinge actually exist?

Thanks

ian

[Todd Burch]

When packing up the shop, I found I have six 6' piano hinges, of very heavy duty caliber. I bought them from Allegis when I was making drop down tables for hallways, back in the "day".

Looks like they have a distribution center in Germany. http://www.allegiscorp.com/locations.aspx

Todd

[Jamie Buxton]

There's a trick to using the typical piano hinge. You must countersink the wood to get the screws to seat properly. As you've observed, the hinge itself is thin -- thinner than the height of the flathead screws usually packed with the hinge. I drill all the pilot holes, then go back with a countersink and just hit each hole a tad. Then the screws seat properly, the hinge is held tightly to the work, and the screw heads don't touch when the hinge closes.

(I'm talking about the piano hinges we get here. Dunno if the same applies to Ireland.)

[Sam Murdoch]

Here is a good U.S. source - and as you can see they offer different thicknesses among the varying lengths and widths
http://www.mcmaster.com/#piano-hinges/=ma6jrn

Also Hafele has a good selection http://www.hafele.com/us/external/catalog/pages09-02/303.pdf

[ian maybury]

:rolleyes: As ever the choice in the US amazing, with McM to the fore. That is one amazing company.

Allegis looks promising Todd.

The hinge i bought was a Hafele 32mm wide (when opened out flat) nickel plated steel item Jamie - the only type they had in stock in the size. It cost a worryingly low €7 for a length - which is 3.5m which meant shipping in another wasn't a realistic option.

The flaps are very thin, maybe 0.6/0.8mmm - so not thick enough to use a countersunk screw. No screws supplied either. The issue I ran up against was that even if i countersunk/recessed it into the cabinet frame as you say so that the two leaves were parallel the space between them for screw heads was less than for any screw i could find. Worsened by the fact that the holes overlapped so that two heads had to fit in the space. The best screw i could find was a flat headed 3.5mm dia item much like a self tapper.

Am i missing something??

ian