I am planning to reinforce the inside edge of the 3/4 in. plywood face frame (cut from a sheet of ply so the inside edges are not square) of some kitchen cabinets with a strip of hardwood so I could attach/screw the newer style hinges to the edge (see attached).
What thickness should I make the strip (1/2, 3/4, in., etc), and what is a good overlay dimension for the new door to hide this (1/4 in. , 1/2 in.)? The wood strip will be either maple or poplar and would only be attached to the hinge side so that shouldn’t increase the width of the new doors too much, and the cabinets will be painted.
Also, I could attach the strip with nails and glue or small biscuits.
Thanks for the feedback,
Brian
Replies
What is "newer style" hinges?
Cup hinges (Euro hinge) ?
Full overlay ?
Might make a differance also to know the size and what the doors are going to made out of.
Your description is somewhat vague, but I'm gonna guess that you want to install a cup style concealed hinge where there were overlay (exposed) hinges. If that's right, save some work and use face frame mount euro (cup) hinge. These are my favorite
http://www.salice.com/uk/prodotti.htm
If I'm way off base, a picture would help us all. BTW, 1/2" is a common overlay, but it really depends on the frame and look you're after.
I can help, just need more info.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
I reread your post and think I know what you have. A frame with door openings routed from a sheet of ply, right? Many of these I've seen are particle board and not ply, often 1/2" thick, so frame mounts like I suggested probably won't work without mods.
I've backed up the frame with hardwood like you're suggesting the full hinge side, glued and nailed from rear. That's the best solution I came up with and I didn't love it. I did go back and drill and insert a dowel on a couple of high usage doors. I think that's holding up OK.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
I never know how much detail to include in the forum so I'll try to describe it better. The cabinets are in a 30-year old house that were custom so they are 3/4" oak? plywood and the face frame is cut from a sheet of plywood with holes that were saw-cut from it looks like a jigsaw. The doors are lip molding that is mitered around the plywood, so they look like overlay doors from the outside but the ply back insets into the saw-cut openings slightly when they are closed. I'm concerned that the screws from the new cup hinges and new overlay doors would not hold up well in the edges of the plywood so I'm looking for a way to strengthen the edge. I would miter the hardwood and attach it all around the inside of the frame and make inset doors, but the existing cutouts are not square so that would require a lot of trimming and fitting to make them square.
Other than the plywood edges on the inside and the outdated doors and hardware the cabinet "bones" are in good shape and the existing layout is good, so I'm looking for a simple way to strengthen the edge in order to use the cup hinges and the overlay doors.
Here are a couple of pics that show the cabinet construction a little better; the frame layout can be seen in the background of the drawer pic.
Gotcha. I've hung lots of doors on ply frames during refaces with no problems. You can use these 'cuz they have 2 screws attaching to frame.
http://www.thehardwarehut.com/collections/salice-excentra.php
I hear your concerns, but experience tells me it works if the ply is sound.
The Salices really are a good hinge for frame mount, and I've tried a bunch. I like Blum clip for conventional euro mounts, but their frames mounts not so much.
Your drawers need help :)
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
Edited 3/26/2009 6:23 pm ET by PeterJ
any other hinges like this that open further than 106 deg?
If there are, I haven't used 'em. One problem is the hinge has to "cantilever" door away from frame so the door doesn't hit on the front edge, a lot of mechanism in a small space.
106 (or there abouts) is actually a nice amount of swing and typical of most Euro.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.