Hinges for Wine Cabinet Doors

[tim walker]

I am building(still) a wine cabinet that is a total of 90 1/2" tall and approx 60" wide. The upper portion will be raised anel doors. These will be about 14" tall. The lower doors will be stile and rail with double paned glass for insulation. T he doors will be 1 1/2" thick. The unit will ahve a coolong unit installed that will keep it at 55F. The stiles will be 3" wide and approx 65 " long and the rails will be approximately 21" wide and 4" tall.

What hinge system would you recommend? I don't like piano hinges so would prefer more innovative. Doors should open fully.

Thanks all and happy holidays,

[Doug Shepard]

Cant get much more innovative than these http://www.soss.com/

[Jamie Buxton]

1 1/2" thick, and 90" tall, eh? That is very much like a standard (interior) house door. Why not use conventional butt hinges just like the ones on those doors? They're strong, they open a long way, and they're readily available. Why are you looking for something innovative? Is there some other design issue you haven't mentioned?

[Roger Everett]

Tim:
For doors the size and weight (glass weights a lot also ) of yours, I would definitly go with butt hinges. Something like a good quality 4", bearing hinges wouldn't be a waste of money for a heirloom pc.
You asked last week about gasketing, and I was a bit busy this past week. I used a fairly closed cell foam gasket , About 3/8 X 1/4". I had tried about 3 gasketing systems on a mock-up and the foam was the winner. I made a 1/2 X 1 3/4 door stop ( rounded over on backside ) and bought 3 times as much gasket as needed. After fitting the gasket, I secured the doors and went inside to fit with the right amount of pressure to secure the door stops, which I marked and installed with countersunk brass screws. Bearing in mind that to avoid pinching gasket as door is closed, the stile on the inside of the hinge side of door needs to be slightly relieved ( rounded), and the door stop- gasket system ( on hinge side) need not be as snug as top and bottom. To secure doors I used brass adjustable double ball catches on the active door 9R ) and made an astrigal ( rabbeted to allow for gasket) on the passive (L) door, which I secure with a brass slide bolt, so that you first open the R door, pull down bolt then open L door, although you could use double ball catches on both doors. If I'm not clear here e-mail me.
For the wine racks, I made them out of straight grained redwood heart. Not being a wine drinker, I had to do a little research, and found their are basicly 2 sizes, with most being of the smaller size. So I incorporated about 20% of the larger size( which would also hold std. size bottles). I also left a section in the center for bulk storage. You might refer back to you other post for my pics. of this.
One thing I did, that you might also consider is to buy the cooling unit and have on hand before you start, because if the unit you're getting is similar to what I used, it fits in somewhat like a window AC unit ( only except for grill, on the inside ), and you will want to allow for the cased opening and bracket support in designing the structure of the back of your pc.
HTH
Roger http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=26797