Blum hinge question

[Brandon Richter]

I am using a blum concealed euro hinge for an inset door, panel cabinet. Both door and cabinet material are 3/4" (19mm) and reveal is 2mm. Based on the worksheet, I am using the hinge 71B3750 with a 0mm plate. With a 5mm setback this places the door perfectly in the opening.

I constructed these cabinets so the cabinet bottom serves as the stop for the door. The bottom is proud to the front trim by 3/4", creating a 3/4" square rabbit that the door fits into. The door must sit right on the stop in order for the door front to be flush with the frame.

The hinge works fine and the door opens, but only to 90 degrees. At exactly 90 degrees, the style edge of the door is parallel to and pressed tight against the stop. The door will not open past 90 degrees, although it's a 110 degree hinge.

So is the blum drawing included the excel planning sheets incorrect? It shows clearly that the inside style edge does not protrude behind the plane formed at the back of the closed door.

Or was I supposed to design knowing that the reveal extended to the area behind the door in addition to the gap between the style and frame?

The cabinets are already installed and finished, so redesigning to include a reveal between the door and the stop is out of the question. Is there another way to deal with this? Use a different hinge manufacturer? A thick-door hinge? I am baffled especially because nothing like this is mentioned in the blum documentation (brochure or xls macro).

Has anyone experienced an issue like this? Or does anyone know how to get in contact with Blum? I sent an email via their website but there is no other option for technical support. Thanks.

[Jeff Duncan]

First of all, not to sound like a jerk, but why would you ever build and install a kitchen without fitting everything first? That's woodworking 101, make sure everything works before you finish it:eek:

As far as your particular problem, if I'm understanding you correctly the inside of your door is flush to the inside of the cabinet stop? If so you cannot do this with that hinge, it's specified that you need 1.5mm gap behind the door. I just looked it up and it's right there in the specs so......:confused:

You may want to look at maybe a 155 degree hinge which pushes the door out of the opening. Though you'll want to do a test run....(ahem)....before installing them on the entire kitchen:o

good luck,
JeffD

[Brandon Richter]

Below is a photo of the door opened 90 degrees.

Please show me where in the spec it states the reveal applies to the back of the door also. I believe the spec for this hinge is page 10 of the cliptop/blumotion brochure. For good measure a screenshot of the planning tool is attached also. Note the definition of the reveal in the diagram... I have been in and out of all blum material I can find and nowhere does it say anything about the reveal applying to the back of the door.

FWIW, I have used this hinge many times, though never with a stop that runs all the way to the hinge edge of the box. I find it really hard to believe I am the first person to run into this type of issue!263030263031

[Jeff Duncan]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/webkit-fake-url://5223FB2A-CE41-43C6-AD0A-C669D2A90736/image.tiff

I'm not to good with copying images from pdf's....if it works this is the page below your hinge on the pdf....:rolleyes:

If not....google your hinge number, download the pdf, look at the page directly below your hinge....you'll see the specs clearly state "minimum gap behind door". I don't know about the current catalog as mine's from 2010 and doesn't have your hinge listed. I should get a new one, but I have a habit of asking my hardware supplier what I need for what I'm trying to do, and he knows the stuff inside and out.

good luck,
JeffD

[Joe Samorodin]

I do this all the time but I make the face frame material thicker then the door, there has to be a gap behind which then either gets a blumotion or bumper

[glenn bradley]

Ouch. I do see the problem but, with assembly complete, I'd be tempted to notch the stop for clearance. If an alternate hinge is a guaranteed fix, I would do that but, I'd want to see it work before I started a mass-swap effort. Even if there were 20 stops to do, I would opt for some quick chisel work over swapping hinges but, that's me.

[Brandon Richter]

As a note to anyone else experiencing this problem, I found that decreasing the bore from 5mm to 4 or 3.5mm, there is enough other dimensional play in the hinge to compensate and allow clearance for door to open.

My lesson is learned...reveal applies to back of door as well. Blum should update their xls macros as that is the primary design tool I used which makes no mention of this issue.

It's a shame the couldn't design the hinge movement such that a 3/4" door doesn't require a rear reveal. It makes the cabinetmakers job a little more difficult...otherwise you can do an entire job with ply and s4s 3/4" material. With the rear reveal, it means another material thickness is required.

thanks for your help.

[Alan Bienlein]

Just saw this thread. When ever you do inset with the blum hinges your stop for the door should be set an 1/8" further back. This allows for adjustment of the door and room for a bumper. At work I always need to remind people about that extra 1/8" clearance thats needed.

[Sam Layton]

What Glenn said. You could notch it very careful, touch up the finish, and no one will ever know.

Sam