Kitchen cabinet hinges/installation

[Bill Dempsey]

Not sure if this is the right place for the question, mods move if necessary.

I'm usually a one off furniture builder, occasionally shop cabinets and such. I've got a relatively fully equipped shop.

Now I've been tasked with making shaker drawers and doors for my daughter's kitchen refacing project. The plan is 1/2 inch overlay shaker doors (13/16 thick), meaning the doors are, in total, 1 inch wider than opening. About 26 doors in total. So I have to work in more structured way than my usual one off methods. I've made a sample door and its been "approved". So now on to the actual project. My lack of knowledge centers around hinging and mounting the doors. So the questions:

With 1/2 inch overlay and the desire for very good to excellent soft close hinges, where to find them? Brands, suppliers? Degree of opening? 105* enough? Then the install, drill press and stop system for installing the cups or a commercial Jig. If jig, what brand works out best.
As for mounting the doors, my thought is to make a story stick and shop made drilling jig, but fully open to other ideas.

Any and all help and advise most appreciated. As you could guess, not much room for error on this job.
Bill

[Lisa Starr]

Bill,

I use a drill press with a fence and stops for drilling the cups in the doors. For the cabinet portion, a couple of quick shop made jigs are the easiest way to mount the mounting brackets. Look for hinges with 3-way adjustment, as they are more forgiving during install. You don't mention whether these are frameless or face frame style cabinets. Depending on the cabinet style, some of the hinges protrude into the opening quite a bit. Sometimes blocking out the cabinet side is preferable to the protruding hinge. I prefer 110 degree hinges, but that may just be me.

[Mark Bolton]

Salice is the brand we run with two speed soft close which is very nice for thin/wide doors. Dont use clip-on/wrap hinges that leave a massive gap behind the door. Grass makes some really nice hinges as well but a bit will lean towards your availability.

[Jim Dwight]

I usually use inset doors and I also use my drill press to drill the holes in the doors. Be sure to creep up on the depth, particularly if the hole will potentially intrude into the area for the panel. If you will route the edge of the door, that can also be a conflict with the hinge hole (on the outside). But it is basically easy.

I am also doing a cabinet or two at a time for me or my kids and I often just put the hinges on the door and put it in the opening with shims for spacing and screw the plate to the cabinet. But a jig is a good idea.

The adjustability of these hinges is perhaps their most apealing attribute. So if the doors are exactly where you want them once mounted you normally can turn a few screws and fix it.

[Bill Dempsey]

Sorry, cabs are face frame

[Jamie Buxton]

You can buy cup hinges intended for overlay doors on face frames, but they leave a big gap between the door and the face frame. It is better to use regular hinges, intended for euro style casework. Use wood blocking behind the face frame to give the hinge something to mount to.

[Jamie Buxton]

If you want the soft close mechanism built in to the hinge the max opening angle is 110 degrees. If you want to use hinges that open more, you can add the soft close feature with a separate part. For instance Blum offers one they call blumotion for end panels. Part number is 970.1002.

[Cary Falk]

I just got done with my kitchen refacing project(49 doors and drawers). I used Blum soft close. I used the the Kreg cup hinge jig do drill the holes. Super easy and fast.

[Justin Rapp]

With a face frame and 1/2" overlay you can use something like Blum 38N355BE08 Soft Close 1/2 overlay Blumotion hinge. I just used the 1 1/4" overlay version of this for the vanity I am building and liked them a lot. You will want a drill press with a good fence and a good quality forstner bit. I believe these called for 1 3/8". There are jigs available for setup but the instructions below give you the measurements and it's really easy once you do a few. If you don't have a drill press, Rockler sells some kind of device you can hook to a hand-drill.


https://www.wwhardware.com/media/ins...-blumotion.pdf

It is best to make a door stile or two out of scrap wood of equal width and thickness of your actual door to do some tests to make sure your measurements are good. The first time I made a door frame (didn't bother with the panel) out of 3/4 MDF to learn.

Depending on the side of your doors, you might need either 2 or 3 hinges. To mount the doors once the hinges are installed on the doors, I don't use a jig, I just measure. Here is some steps, however your measurements might be different depending on your doors.

With the hinges installed on the door:

1) Center of hinge is 3 1/2" from the top or bottom of the door
2) Overlay is 1/2"
3) face frame mount screw will be 3" from the top and bottom of the face frame opening
4) Mark face frame and place a spare hinge on the face frame. Ensure the center of the adjustment slot is on the 3" mark made in step 3.
5) use a self-center drill bit (for the hinge mentioned above, it's a #8 screw for the frame side) and drill the top screw hole
6) mount the door on the frame with the top hinge screw being careful not to let the door swing.
7) place the lower hinge in place and drill the center mount screw hole with the self-centering bit - and than install the screw.

*** make sure you take note on the face frame of any existing holes from hinges and work around them when you decide placement of the hinges on your doors. You don't want to end up in old and maybe stripped out screw holes on the face frame.


There are plenty of sources. Find the hinge model you want to use and look for the best price. Some stores sell the hinges with screws, some sell without screws so that would be a separate item to add to your cart. I use www.cshardware.com but this time last time I found them on Amazon for a better price.


Good luck and enjoy building!

[Bruce King]

Most all kitchens will have some cabinet doors that hit a wall or the fridge when open. Order some Blum hinge limiters. Takes one or two per door. They are very small pieces that fit in the hinge cup behind where the fixed hinge arm is when open. Install before hinge is mounted, snaps in place. It changes a 110 degree swing to about 85 degrees. This also is enough to keep the knob or handle from hitting. It’s hidden in this picture in location described above.