How To Measure Cabinets for Doors And European Hinges
If you want to buy hinges please see European Hinges.
If you're like most people that visit the internet, you don't like to read. Sorry, the only way you're going to get anything from this is to read and understand it. This is for guidance only and we assume no responsibility for any mistakes you may make in measuring and calculating the correct sizes. Everything written here has been tested in our shop and works as written.
This is for European Hinges.
You will see terms used like, full overlay. half overlay, inset, gable mount and face frame mounting. Full overlay, full what??? This tells you nothing. Are you mounting on a Gable end, if so then is it 5/8", ¾" or maybe only ½"????? IS that gable shared with 2 doors or by itself? I can go on and on and confuse you more, I won't, if you're still here, lets get down to facts. Who cares why, chances are you only want to do this once and get on with life. If you are a cabinet guy I would suggest a good book and a day course from a hinge supplier in your area.
I'm going to pop in a few images that are elsewhere on our site to help you understand what I'm explaining here.
Face frame or frameless? With most of the hinges we have, it really doesn't matter. BUT, depending on the plate you want, there will be a difference so I'll show you below.
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FACE FRAME |
FRAMELESS |
If you are not comfortable with this little write up or you do not trust what you think you might know about hinges and measuring, I would stick with a hinge / plate combination that is for Face Frame application, even if you have Frameless. They are very easy to install, meaning: setting the distance back the plate has to be from the front of the cabinet box. They have little tabs on them for no frill set up. See image below.
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Face Frame Plate |
This plate will attach to the edge of your frame if you have a Face Frame or side of gable (box) with Frameless. It's hard to go wrong with this type of mounting. They cost a little more because there is more to them then the gable plate. But you're only using approximately 50 on a full kitchen. If you're using 100's a month, then buy a book, take a course, spend some time and save some money.
Ok, lets get down to it.
I'm not going to have you read for hours here and describe every hinge we sell, I'll explain the ins and outs of our best sellers. These will do 99% of the door hanging you'll come across in a normal installation.
Take our A675N hinge and the H30JQ plate:
This is a full overlay hinge with a 3mm plate. Don't run away now, let me explain that. This hinge needs 3 holes drilled in the door to mount, looks like this.
That is a 35mm hole and 2 8mm holes. If we drill, that is what you will get, all 3.
WHEN that 35mm hole is drilled 3mm from the edge of the door, this will happen.
With a A675N / H30JQ hinge plate combination the door will cover the frame ( or box in frameless) by 9/16". There is a magic # for you. So now you know how far the hinge side of the door will cover your opening. Lets keep it even and do the same for the other side, add another 9/16" ( of course you can add more or less here, but the hinge side "will" use up that 9/16") So the door will be 1 1/8" wider then the opening. What's nice about these hinges is that you have adjustments, app. 1/8" left/right, 1/8' up/down, 1/8" in/out. Don't get sloppy and want to use these, keep it for fine tuning and little screw ups.
The above is for one door on a single opening, hard to mess that up. But what about 2 doors on a single opening. Now, I can do a little math here, measure the inside of the opening, take off xxx and divide by 2. If you want to do that, go ahead, we re-manufacture doors every day for mathematicians, at their expense of course. I would do this. Get some masking tape and stick a little piece in the middle of the opening, this is for marking on. Measure to find the center of the opening and put a mark on the tape. Now make another line a 1/16" on each side of this. This will give you 1/8" gap between the doors when closed. We know the hinge needs 9/16" coverage. Start your measuring tape of at 9/16" and measure to the line that is 1/16" from the center mark, this is your door size. If you do not know how to start the tape at 9/16", then measure from the edge of the opening over to the "off center mark" and add 9/16"... OR put a piece of tape over there also and mark off 9/16" on it. Then measure between the 2 lines for your door size. You may be able to see the pattern here for measuring the opening now and minus xxx and split this is half, but I'm not telling you!!!
That's a full overlay with a 3mm plate, commonly called 5/8 overlay. But as you can see, it isn't. 5/8", if the hinge covered the full 5/8" and you had another door next to it, they would not open. So this is why the 5/8 Full Overlay covers only 9/16". Do this with the box next to it, AND,,,, there's your 1/8" gap.
Now lets have more fun..
We just did a Full Overlay and know it will give us 9/16" coverage on the HINGE SIDE with a 3mm plate.....
We can change the plate, same hinge, A675N, and get 11/16" coverage ( called ¾" ((12/16")) overlay ) See the 1/16" difference for the gap, or half the gap anyway? The plate for this is 0mm, our H00JQ. So, if this is what you need, change the 9/16" above to 11/16" and you're off to the races.
Want ½" you say, that's 8/16", the 6 mm plate, H60JQ will give you a 7/16" coverage. Let me put that together here for you.
Full Overlay Hinge, A675N.
6mm plate,H60JQ, 7/16" hinge side coverage. Called ½" overlay.
3mm plate,H30JQ, 9/16" hinge side coverage. Called 5/8" overlay.
0mm plate,H00JQ, 11/16" hinge side coverage. Called 3/4" overlay.
The above will also work for that little Ferrari Hinge we sell. It is a Full Overlay for 5/8", ( that's 10/16", so remember you will get 9/16" coverage on the hinge side ). This is a heavy duty seller also, doesn't have the clip on/off as the A675N does, but is smaller and a lot of shops love it for its size. AND price..
Now, use the B675N Half Overlay Hinge we have with the above plates and you can cut the #'s in ,,,,,, you got it,,,, in half. You do the math, I'm done. Good luck and happy door hanging.
You can remove the little plastic things ( dowels ) and screw them in place with only the 35mm hole having to be drilled. We drill only the 3 hole pattern.
If you're not sure what you're doing, stick with the Face Frame plate, even if you do not have face frames..
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