Help with Hinges

[pmc]

I was proud of myself that I figured out how to install a piano hinge for my keyboard drawer. Looks OK although I wasn't particularly pleased with the 1/8" gap between panels and the bulge of the hinge protruding. I'd have prefered an invisible installation if possible. But I'm used to it now.

Now I'm a bit stuck. I'd like to turn the bottom panel (below the coin door at knee level) into a door so I have total access to the PC inside the cabinet. So I bought a standard set of Stanley cabinet hinges. Looks like I'll have similar problems -- a gap and protruding buckles. I keep rotating these things and staring at it and trying to figure out an alternate installation.

Anyone know a different hinge or a technique for simple or invisible installation? I'm not thrilled with the idea of mortising MDF, so I'd prefer to solve the problem with hardware.

I suppose I can use those funky cabinet hinges with the cantilevered arm, but I bet they are expensive. Any other ideas?

Oh..... while I'm here.... I still haven't come up with a home-made marquee retainer. I figured I'd use 1/8" strips of pine as cleats. Any other ideas?

- Patrick

[Frostillicus]

Anyone know a different hinge or a technique for simple or invisible installation? I'm not thrilled with the idea of mortising MDF, so I'd prefer to solve the problem with hardware.

I suppose I can use those funky cabinet hinges with the cantilevered arm, but I bet they are expensive. Any other ideas?

Oh..... while I'm here.... I still haven't come up with a home-made marquee retainer. I figured I'd use 1/8" strips of pine as cleats. Any other ideas?

hinge - I'm used to my piano hinges showing - you really don't notice it after awhile, like you said.    To solve your hinge problem with the front door I would have recommended routing or chiseling out the wood (or mdf).   post a detailed pic of the area you want to hinge...that could help us more.

for the marquee retainer I picked up some cheap corner molding from home depot and painted it black.  I don't even think it's wood, it was originally white, looks like some type of hard foamcore or something.  It drills well and takes paint decently.  Got the idea from Oscar - he posted good results with similar materials.

[Amra]

If people are so paranoid about unslightly hinges, why dont they use ones that are invisible (to the naked eye).

If your interested, check out this website...

http://www.soss.com/

They are very nice, and many that would be perfect for cabs... all invisible!

[pmc]

If people are so paranoid about unslightly hinges, why dont they use ones that are invisible (to the naked eye).

If your interested, check out this website...

http://www.soss.com/

They are very nice, and many that would be perfect for cabs... all invisible!

I don't know about "paranoid" about it, but exposed hinges certainly takes away from the authenticity of a home-built cab. I want it to look like a real commercial cab. No one needs to know that the panel opens up but me.

Those hinges require mortising, but it looks like it comes with a router template so I feel good about that (versus a chisel). I'll check it out. You think they sell 'em at Home Depot?

[u_rebelscum]

I don't know about "paranoid" about it, but exposed hinges certainly takes away from the authenticity of a home-built cab. I want it to look like a real commercial cab. No one needs to know that the panel opens up but me.

FWIW, many of the real arcade cabs have "visible" (but hard to see) piano hinges.  They were hard to see because of location (helped by the bent metal CP plate), it being same color & material as the CP, the CP metal plate thickness being the same as the hinge, and the dark lighting in the arcades.  I think the arcade repair people liked the hinges because they make it easier to fix problems on the control panel (no need to find a table to put the CP while it was being worked on).  For example, the Pole Position cab I have has a visible hinge, but it is very hard to see unless I'm looking for it.

Of course, this was only true for metal control panels, so probably not relevent for you CP.

[pmc]

I found some no-mortising cabinet hinges at Home Depot for $6 a pair. More expensive than regular hinges, but they are meant for an inset cabinet door with near zero clearance all the way around -- so they swing the door out to make enough room to for the door to open -- no gaps around the door, and no hinge buckles showing. If they work the way I think they will, you'll never know a door is there.

We'll see what happens.

[hyiu]

hi pmc...

when you're done... can you post some pics ??

thx....

[Sasquatch!]

You could also go with a "European Hinge".  There are pics at:
http://www.workshopsupply.com/euro2.shtml

[pmc]

hi pmc...

when you're done... can you post some pics ??

I would. But they came out crappy and now I have to redo them some other way. Where do I start....

OK. I used a hinge that looks like this:

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS/EN_US/diy_main/pg_diy.jsp?CNTTYPE=PROD_META&CNTKEY=misc%
2fsearchResults.jsp&BV_SessionID=@@@@1437499678.1058146684@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccegadcildlimk
kcgelceffdfgidgjj.0&MID=9876&frmSearchStr=hinge

only that's not quite the same hinge. The ones I got were cheaper and simpler. The problem is that it expects to have the door flush mounted with the frame like most kitchen cabinets. My cab is a Defender look-a-like so all the front panels are inset about 3/4". The door panel is 24.5" wide, about 16.5" tall, and 3/4" thick. I don't think these hinges offer enough support for the door, but it mostly works.

The door opens perhaps 45-degrees before binding. I'm thinking about living with it. But I tried to tune it by cutting a bigger gap and chamfering the outside edge on the hinge side at 45-degrees. That helped a tiny-bit.

Now I'm thinking about regular cabinet doors and just painting the hinges black so you don't see 'em. Alternately, I might just use magnets to hold the panel on and just put two pull-handles on it so it comes off like a "hatch".

I have an entertainment center with a door that works the same way. I tried to steal the hardware for my door, but it won't work quite right on my cabinet. The door swings on a pin on the top and bottom and the pin is about 1.5" in from the edge. So the door closes perfectly and there's no binding since it's cantalevered on the pin. You never see a hinge because there isn't one.

So I'm sort of stuck and open for new ideas. I need this part done before I can start final painting (and while the cabinet waits to be painted, it's gutted and I CAN'T PLAY. That totally bites!

[pmc]

You could also go with a "European Hinge".  There are pics at:
http://www.workshopsupply.com/euro2.shtml

Yeah... that's what I did. Only I wanted the kind I didn't have to mortise -- but they work the same way. It's the inset that kills ya! See the pic below (from your link) that shows the kind of hinge I have been playing with.



Those cabinet hinges are all meant for "inset" or "overlay" cabinet doors and none can deal with additional inseting which appears to require different hardware altogether. I'm sure this a matter of hinge-physics which was really the root of my original query. I'm not even 100% sure if a hinge can be applied where I want it.