European hinges?

[Rick Fisher]

Up here ( Canada ) European style hinges are the norm.. I am in the construction business and never see face frames ..
The top brands are Blum and Salice .. See lots of them .. Snap on hinges are the most popular, there are others that need to be screwed on.. Installers dislike them..
They are actually a pretty simple device, easy to adjust and install, but if you stare at them too much first, you can get confused.. lol

In cabinetry up here, its normal to install the mounting clip in the holes for the adjustable shelves.. I actually think that once you use them on a project, you will like them ..

[Timothy Juvenal]

+1s on the vix bit and 1-3/8" forstner bit.

The 90 or 95 degree hinges are used where you need the door to stop @ 90 degrees open, such as next to a wall or next to a deeper cabinet; they are also used with flipper doors.

The hinge bodies are available with different amounts of "crank" for use in inset, 1/2 overlay, and full overlay applications.
You can also adjust the amount of overlay by using different thickness baseplates. Baseplates are available in a wide range of thicknesses.

The clip-on hinges are handy, as they allow you to quickly remove or replace a door with little effort.

When figuring your hinge offset ( the distance from the edge of the cup hole to the edge of the door), set the hinge to the center of it's adjustment, and adjust your offset using a test piece until you have the door gap you want. 3/32" is typical for the gap between overlay doors, or between an inset door and faceframe. The cup drilling offset is typically around 1/8" - 3/16", that is, the 1-3/8" or 35mm hole you will drill for the hinge cup will be a lot closer to the edge of the door than one might assume.

Drill press definately should be used to drill for the hinge cup, in order to get your offsets and depths correct and uniform, but I've drilled them by hand on site when necessary, and it works fine with a sharp bit, but i wouldn't want to do a whole kitchen that way.

It's a good idea to make your door stiles and rails a little heavier than 3/4" thickness, say 13/16" or even 7/8", when using cup hinges, as the point of the forstner bit is prolly only 1/16" or 3/32" from the face of the door stile when the cup hole is being drilled to it's required depth. The hinge geometry works fine with the slightly thicker door parts. IIRC, they make hinges with different geometry for doors over 7/8" thick, not positive on that one.

Also, the hinges are available either free-swinging or self-closing. Use the free-swinging hinges if you need to use touch-latches. Use the self-closing hinges if you want to use the soft closers. Soft-closers are easy to install and adjust, and add value in the customers eyes.

Recently used the Salice hinges on a big kitchen job, and they were top quality. Every bit as nice as the Blum, with as wide a range of options available.

Timothy

[Dick Bringhurst]

Hi Ken, the first thing is to carefully read the instructions, something I'm sure you're good at considering your former employment.

Number two is to go metric, buy a metric tape and use the 32mm system that the hinges are designed for.

Number 3 is to buy a high quality 35mm bit for boring the hinge holes.

A few years ago I finally went with the remainder of the world and changed to using the metric system for cabinets, I adopted the 32mm system and have been very pleased.

Good quality Euro hinges are a pleasure to use.........Regards, Rod.

the 35mm bit should NOT have a center spur, it can go all the way thru depending on the depth of the wood. Test on scrap. Dick B.

[Leo Graywacz]

the 35mm bit should NOT have a center spur, it can go all the way thru depending on the depth of the wood. Test on scrap. Dick B.

How thick are your doors? Most 35mm bits are 1/2" deep with a 1/16" long center point. Only time I have ever gone through a door is when the adjustable stop on my Delta drill press slipped. It was on a matched grain plywood kitchen. That thing got thrown across the shop and replaced with two simple nuts and a rubber washer. Hasn't failed me yet.

Are you thinking of a spade bit instead of a forstner bit?

[Randall Houghton]

Ken
I would recommend that you find a Blum dealer in your area and aquire a catalog and any hand out sheets they have that show the various configurations for doors mounted with cup hinges. This will show you the various relationships between the door and the hardware components. This an easy system to use once you understand these relationships. My experience has been(over the last 20 years) that you can not always count on the reps to steer you in the right direction when buying hardware. I've used Lee Valley's hinge boring jig for 20 years, never had a problem with it and thought it was a steal since I've drilled several thousand holes for hinges with it. Hope this helps.
Regards
Randy

[Mark P. Miller]

Or just download the catalog, if you don't want to wait.

http://www.blum.com/pdf/BUS/1046_hin...6_hinges_b.pdf

It is an extremely informative and well written document. I learned a lot when I first worked through it.

The Blum "Clip Tops" line has a hinge that will work for most conventional applications. The back of the catalog is cool too because it shows all of the jigs and tools that they sell to help prep for and install the hinges. A useful one, IMHO, is the simple little "mounting plate template". It's handy and cheap for those of us who just do occasional cabinet work.

[Von Bickley]

All of the new cabinets that I see in our area are using the European style hinge. I have some friends that have a cabinet and door business that I deal with. When I build a cabinet, I take the doors to them and they drill the holes and provide the hinges for $7.00 per door.

There hinges will work for 1/2" overlay or I can add a 9/16" strip inside the cabinet and use the same hinge for an inset door.

Love having these hinges that you can make adjustments to if needed. European hinges are definitely the way to go.......

[Robert Chapman]

You cannot go wrong with Blum hinges. As Von starts to say above - they are adjustable - usually in three planes so you can really get your doors exactly where you want them on/in the cabinet. This adjustment feature makes Blum hinges pretty forgiving.