Re-Drill Hinge Cup?

[Ryan Stollewerk]

Help! I already built and painted slab doors for a cabinet job with 3/4" overlay hinges. The hinges I originally spec'd were the Blum Compact that calls for 3mm cup distance off the edge of the door. However, these cabinets have end panels that come out flush with the face of the door. With 7/8" stiles and 3/4" overlay, I was hoping to have an 1/8" reveal between door and end panel since that's the look the customer wants. I found out the hard way that Blum Compact hinges require more than 1/8" for the door to swing open. So I went to my local cabinet hardware store and found a different style by Hardware Resources that uses a 0mm face frame plate. Unfortunately, in order to achieve the full 3/4" overlay, the hinge cup needs to be drilled 5mm off the edge. The 2mm difference is causing the doors to rub at the center and not fully close and also creates too big of a reveal between the end panel and door. Is there a solution for this or do I need to re-drill the holes? I thought about notching the face frame 2mm for the plate to sit to make up that distance but am concerned about how clean this would look. Any input is appreciated!

[Bruce King]

Shims somewhere?

[Ryan Stollewerk]

I think I need the opposite effect of a shim. I need to spread the doors apart to create a larger reveal between the two doors and a smaller reveal between hinge side of door and end panel.

[Ron Selzer]

glue a plug in the existing hole and drill a new hole where needed would be what I would try.
Good luck
Ron

[Adam Herman]

plug and redrill. i have had to do it as well. use a drill press or similar when redrilling. a little paint or finish after you plug and noone will ever know.

[Ryan Stollewerk]

Rok Hardware makes a 35mm plastic plug that I can get cheap and fast off Amazon. Do you think this will work when I redrill?

[Steve Jenkins]

I’ve used a hole saw in the drill press to cut a plug. Take out the center drill bit so you don’t have a hole in the middle of the plug. I think it was 1-3/8” hole saw.

[Jon Nuckles]

The plastic plug will be pretty easy to see, plus you'll have to move the hinge location up or down to drill a new hole. I've plugged a couple with disks I turned on my lathe. If you choose the wood carefully, they are almost impossible to see. Plus, you keep the same hole height so most or all of the plug is hidden when you drill the new hole and insert the hinge.

[Jamie Buxton]

Don't bother plugging and redrilling the big hole -- the 35mm one. Just use any straight bit in a router to remove the 2mm on the side of that hole which is away from the door edge. Then you can put the hinge in the widened hole at the distance from the edge which would be produced by the 5mm boring distance. The 35mm hole is really just clearance for hinge parts. It doesn't matter if it is sloppy big. You'll need to move the holes for the screws 2mm. Those screws are what hold the hinge to the door, so doing a cheesy job is no good. I'd drill out the existing holes to plug them with face-grain plugs. The plugs will be hidden by the hinge.

[Lee Schierer]

Since the doors will be painted, fill the existing holes with PC-7, Bondo or JB Weld. Let it set up and drill new holes at the proper location. Most of the filler will be removed, but a perfect 2 mm crescent will be left to relocate your hinge cup.

[Ryan Stollewerk]

Since the doors will be painted, fill the existing holes with PC-7, Bondo or JB Weld. Let it set up and drill new holes at the proper location. Most of the filler will be removed, but a perfect 2 mm crescent will be left to relocate your hinge cup.

I wanted to plug the holes with wood even though most would be drilled out when bored to the correct distance off the edge. If anybody ever needs to fix their mistake and wants to use wood, use a 1.375” wooden dowel that’s used for closets. It fits perfectly into the 35mm hole. Just cut to width (1/2”). Hope this helps!