cabinet door hinges

[bob stotts]

I built my wife a frame and panel sideboard with full inset doors. I have bought the new blum hinges 120 degree, and now she would like to have pull out drawers on the bottom.I know this hinge willn't work, do they make one that will let a drawer pass? I see that rockler has a 170 degree hinge would this open enough to let a drawer pass? I need to keep the inset door arrangement it is what the other cabinets I built have, oh yes this is a frameless cabinet. thanks bob

[Chris Padilla]

In my experience, some times you just gotta bite the bullet and purchase something (i.e. your 170-degree hinges) and try them out with some scrap to see if it will work. If they do, use them or purchase the quanitity you really need. If they don't, well save them for another project...I'm sure they'll get used some day. :)

[Don Abele]

Bob, I built a miter saw table with tons of storage below. The left side has a double door cabinet section that has an adjustable shelf in the middle and a shelf on full extension slides at the bottom. I used 170 degree blum hinges (3/4 overlay though) and the shelf slides out no problem.

One error I made - if you look closely at the right door, I initially put the lower hinge right where the shelf slide was at. Had to move it up several inches. The remaining 35mm hole is to remind me, once again to measure twice. :D

Be well,

Doc

[Chris Padilla]

Doc,

That looks like a belt sander tipped on its head!

I was looking at my itty-bitty 3"x18" Makita (BTW, never buy a 3"x18" belt sander...difficult to find belts) and thinking the same but to lay it on its side.

[Don Abele]

Chris, actually it's tipped on it's backside :p . I made this jig about 10 years ago and it works great. At the time I couldn't afford a dedicated unit and this took about an hour to make. It has worked so well all these years, I currently have no plans on buying a dedicated unit. I have since built several add on tables for other tasks. One improvement I made later on was to drill a hole into the forward handle to secure the sander to the jig after I square it to the small table (after I noticed something I was sanding was not square). This is an old 4" craftsman sander and this is all it is used for. The hole under the table is for my shop vac hook up - catches a lot of the dust.

Be well,

Doc

[Todd Burch]

Bob, in this situation, use the hinges that you want, or already have, and simply make the drawer box narrow enough that you only have to open the doors just over 90° to pull the drawer out. Otherwise, you will eventually ding the door by pulling out the drawer and it hitting. Make some side cleats for the drawer slides that attach to the cabinet sides. It works just fine. It's a pain to always have to remember, and to tell other people, how to "operate" your cabinet. Make it idoit proof by making a narrower drawer box.

Todd.