I would like to use European-style hinges on a cabinet I’m building, but I’m pretty confused about the varieties. Could someone please explain the differences in full overlay and partial overlay (I think I understand the flush and inset ok)? What would be typical applications for these overlay hinges? How do you measure the widths of the two doors on the cabinet when using these hinges?
The hinge that mounts on the side of the cabinet stile (rather than on the inside wall of the cabinet) — does it adjust as much as the others? And again, how do you measure door width if using this particular hinge?
I know this is a lot to ask, but I’d appreciate any help you can provide.
Many thanks!
Replies
It’ll be difficult to condense this, but here goes. Sorry in advance for intermixing metric and the inch system. First I’ll try to tell about hinges and plates on Euro, frameless cabinets, and then I’ll tell a bit about face frame plates.
First and critical: for all but special doors and hinges, I drill 99% of my 35-mm hinge cup holes so the hole’s outside edge is 3-mm from the outside edge of the door – that’s referred to as the drilling distance. So what I’m about to tell you is based on this standard.
What happens when you pair different hinges with different plates? I use four basic Salice (brand) Series 200 hinges: the first three are overlay types, and each can open 120-degrees. They include a full (¾-inch) overlay, a ½-inch overlay, and a 3/8-inch overlay hinge; and the fourth, also a Series 200, is their 94-degree opening inset hinge. The two plates I commonly use are Salice’s Domi, snap-on series in a 0-mm height, and a 3-mm height (other heights exist, but I only rarely use them). The height of the plate moves the door’s edge that far from its overlay value.
So, if you pair any full overlay hinge (installed with my prescribed 3-mm drilling distance) with a 0-mm plate, the edge of the door will be ¾-inch outside the inside face of the end panel (where you installed the plate). If you pair the same hinge with a 3-mm plate, the edge of the door will move inward to be 5/8-inch from the panels inside face, leaving a 3-mm, or 1/8-inch reveal from a typical, ¾-in-thick panel’s outside face. This 3-mm reveal is the critical minimum distance you must allow between a pair of doors and a door and an applied end panel. Likewise, if you pair a 3/8-inch overlay hinge and a 0-mm plate, the door edge will fall at the centerline of ¾-in-thick plywood panel’s thickness. This is the pairing you’d use if you have two door edges landing on a 3/4-in-thick, section partition’s front edge. To obtain the requisite 3-mm reveal – or clearance – between the door edges, you’d use the hinge’s lateral adjustment screws to move each door edge 1/16-inch away from the divider’s centerline. A 3-mm plate will move a 3/8-inch overlay hinged door edge 3-mm from the divider’s centerline. The same math applies to a ½-inch overlay hinge and plate pairing. I don’t use those often on frameless cabinets, but they’re commonly used on face framed cabinets with ½-inch overlay doors. That means the doors overlay the face frame ½-inch – usually all around.
In a framed cabinet, you’d probably use a face frame base plate, fastened with two #8 wood screws to the inside frame edge. And yes, that plate’s adjustment parameter is about the same as the Euro style plate, however, Salice face frame plates start at 1-mm height, then 4-mm height, etc, which’ll force you to negatively adjust the door edge laterally, moving it 1-mm further outward from the cabinet’s inside frame edge to achieve your ½-inch overlay.
Whereas overlay doors mean Euro plate screw hole centers are 37-mm from the outside edge of the cabinet’s panel the plate is fastened to; inset doors mean the plate screw hole centers must be inset from the cabinet’s front face by the door thickness plus 38.5-mm, or about 58.5-mm for a 19-mm thick door – 59-mm for my usual 13/16-in-thick frame and panel doors. Remember though, that like lateral adjustment, you have depth adjustment to move the door in and out of the cabinet by about 3-mm to achieve alignment. You probably know that you also have about 3-mm of height adjustment available. For inset doors, I pair an inset hinge with a 3-mm Euro plate - you can't use a face frame plate, because it'll show.
To size door widths to a cabinet, I add up the reveals between doors and end panels, subtract that from the cabinet width, and divide the answer by the number of doors – if I’m after equal width doors. So, for a 48-in-wide cabinet with three doors and applied end panels, I’d subtract four 3-mm reveals, or about ½-inch, leaving 47 ½-inch, and divide that by 3, giving me three doors at 15.8333-inches (15 27/32) wide (bigger reveals? same math). If the same Euro cabinet had finished ends with door edges flush with the outside face of the ends, I'd subtract only two 3-mm reveals, leaving 47 3/4 inch, which would give 3 doors at 15 15/16-inches wide. For the two outside doors on that cabinet, if they're hinged to the cabinet ends, I'd use 0-mm plates and full overlay hinges. Inset doors would be calculated from the inside edge of the face frame and allow 3-mm reveals all around.
I hope this helps.
Gary W
gwwoodworking.com
Edited 1/3/2008 11:28 pm by GaryW
Gary --
I really appreciate the info on European hinges. It was exactly what I needed. Now I'm ready to tackle the project!Again, thanks.
Mike Fleming
Great! Now go to it and have fun.Gary W
gwwoodworking.com
It would be hard to improve on the information Garry has provided.
Ernie Conover
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