Hinge help?

Re: Hinge help?

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Can't help on hinges for this application. And I don't know about electric fireplaces. But if they are similar to a wood burning fireplace that cabinet location is a hostile environment for wood. If this area will get hot from the fireplace you will need to account for the fact that the wood is going to undergo substantial moisture level changes with the attendant changes in dimensions.

What is proposed to be stored in this cabinetry?

Re: Hinge help?

David Yoho

the drawing shows no face frame and I'm guessing the divider is 3/4". European cup hinges would be the way to go. One thing to be careful of is the inside part of the hinge is surface mounted and if you line up the hinges on both sides of that divider in the same vertical location the screws will probably hit each other.

Just be sure to pick hinges that work with frameless construction, amount of door overlay, amount of degrees to full open, and soft close or not.

Re: Hinge help? *LINK*

Sgian Dubh

Something like this type of hinge might work, e.g., two hinges per door hinge stile therefore four needed where the hinge stiles of the two doors are adjacent to each other. Set the hinges, for example, to the right hand door 100 mm (~4") up and down from the top and bottom edge of the door. Then set the hinges for the left door up and down 100 mm + the hinge length from top and bottom edge of that door. In other words, if the hinge knuckle length is, let's say, 50 mm (~2") then an opposite pair stacked one directly above the other would, when the doors are closed, almost give the appearance of a single hinge approximately 100 MM (~4") long.

I found the image of these hinges at Rockler: https://www.rockler.com/270deg-overlay-hinge

If this suggestion doesn't work, either because it's not practical, or because it is actually practical but visually unattractive to you, I think you could find a solution using one of what you call the European style hinges.

The type of traditional hinge that would be ideal is one that I've only ever seen in old cabinetry with doors much the same as your layout, e.g., in a library where books were kept behind glazed doors. These had a T shaped mounting plate that screwed to the front of the cabinet divider, and at the end of the long leg of the T there was an arrangement of a pair of leaves where one was attached to one door, and the other leaf attached to the next door. I've not come across a contemporary mass manufactured example of such a hinge. Nor, for that matter, have I seen a one-off version custom made to suit the needs of a modern door arrangement. Slainte.




Rockler hinge

Re: Hinge help?

GolfSteve in Calgary

Euro hinges are perfect for this. Almost every new kitchen (probably in the world) has a cabinet with this hinge arrangement. You can also buy euro-hinges that are specifically made to be mounted back-to-back on a 3/4" divider.

I recently made a bathroom wall cabinet that had two opposing wood doors with a mirror glued to the front surface of each door. The doors were hinged to a central divider. In my case I chose to butt two 3/4" cabinet frames together (giving a 1-1/2" divider to mount the hinges to), rather than using a single 3/4" divider. This meant I didn't have to worry about mounting hinges back to back or off-setting the hinges.

Selecting a euro-hinge for this application is confusing for a euro-hinge noob. To get minimum visible gap between the doors and to avoid the doors hitting each other as they open you have to be particular about specifying the door thickness and how far the hinge mounting plates are set-back from the frame surface. If the doors are too thick then they can bind against each other as the hinge opens. You are probably using standard 3/4" doors so you may not have an issue with most euro-hinges.

In my case, I used 5/8" thick wood with 4 mm thick mirror on top to be close to standard 3/4" thickness. I chose 110 degree opening full overlay hinges with blumotion soft close (this is very nice for doors that are frequently used). This gave me 2 mm reveal between the doors when closed. My doors weighed 25 lbs each with the mirror, so I needed three hinges per door This was close to the weight limit for 3 hinges, so I installed 4 just because.

There are on-line tools and spreadsheets where you input your dimensions and the software picks the hinge for you. Once you understand the nomenclature and understand how the important dimensions inter-relate, its easy. i.e. once you know what you are doing then you know what you are doing :-) Its not hard but it confusing.

Once you pick the correct hinge, installation is super easy and you will love the hinge adjustability.

p.s. when I look at your sketch I see that the door stile width is pretty narrow and it looks like your panel is set into a rebate in the stile. Pay attention to where you will have to drill the 35 mm (1-3/8") diameter holes into the door to fit the euro-hinge cups.

Clarification Part 1

Pat Evans

This is a bench/shelf/coat rack unit (don't know what to call it) that my brother and I built for my niece. She wants the fireplace to somewhat match since both will be visible in their open plan living area.

paint

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

That is not an easy project to pain. Share how you did it?

Clarification Part 2

Pat Evans

This is a front elevation of the proposed fireplace unit. The narrow stiles on the cabinet doors are so they mimic other stiles. Also, I don't want any visible hardware. The doors are only 1' 1 1/2" H x 1' 6 1/2" W. The rails are 3" so I should have plenty of room to mount hinges on them. Thanks for recommendations. I'm looking at Blum half overlay hinges but have more to do to educate myself.

BTW the fireplace section will be vented and I may try to find some way to insulate under the cabinet floor.

Re: paint

Pat Evans

It was a pain.

This is a two piece unit. We put the bench on a work table and painted it with a brush. We put the wall section, without brackets and shelf, on a table and painted it with a brush. We painted the brackets and top shelf separately and then assembled it.

This was built in my shop in NC and transported in my pickup to VA for installation. The bench is screwed to wall studs through a skirt beneath the bench seat. The wall unit rests on a ledge just below the back of the bench seat and is also screwed to wall studs through the panels.

Re: Clarification Part 2

Joe shelton

Rather than insulation, you might do well to use a deflector at the top span of the firebox. Since it is vented, there is a good chance the heat load will not be very high.

You should check carefully to determine the required vertical clearance from the top of the firebox to a mantel or other protrusion. A deflector can make a big difference about the heat flow.