Popular Woodworking 2006-06 № 155, страница 50

Hinge Types

Unswaged Butt Hinge

Requires little work, but presents an unattractive gap between door and frame.

Door

Door

Lipped Inset Hinge

This wrap-around hinge allows lipped doors to recess within the space of the cabinet frame with little work.

Door -

Swaged, Mortised Butt Hinge

Shown in two orientations, this hinge minimizes the gap between the door and hinge, but requires the hinge be mortised into the door and frame pieces.

Non-mortise Butt Hinge

By using interlocking hinge leaves, the gap is reduced to ¹/i6" and requires no mortising.

A mortised hinge - the bane of many a woodworker. To avoid an unsightly gap between door and cabinet frame the hinge leaves must be set into the door and frame. As you can see, this requires a three-sided shallow recess. While a router and special jig can make the mortise easier, a chisel is still required.

Door Hinges

As with drawer slides, door hinges is a vast topic to try to tackle in a small area. So we'll focus on the most common types and actually break them into two areas: the more traditional butt-style hinge and the less discussed (but very useful) European hinge. ■ Butt Hinges

Butt hinges can be used to connect doors to face frame or frameless cabinets (see above and left) and there are hundreds of different styles and permutations. They include swaged, unswaged, mortise and non-mortise hinges and a variety of lipped/overlay/inset hinges for special applications.

Let's talk about the basic hinge first. The hinge is supposed to do two things: make the door swing and allow the door to fit the cabinet in an attractive manner. Swinging is easy; the fit is something else. Butt hinges are sold swaged and unswaged. The two variants are shown in the illustrations at left. An unswaged hinge is slightly less expensive, but if mounted without the benefit of mortising can leave a rather unsightly gap between door and cabinet. If mortised into the pieces the gap will shrink, but will not close to what I would consider acceptable proportions.

Swaged hinges will leave about a 1/8" gap between the door and case if used without mortising. Better, but still not

A wonder of technology - a non-mortise hinge. The leaves of the hinge are built to interlock when closed leaving no more than a Vl6" gap. Even better, all you have to do is screw the hinge in place. Wonderful.

preferable. Mortising will allow an airtight fit, but will require time with a router and chisel, or just a chisel. It can also be tricky to get the mortise the perfect depth to accommodate the hinge leaves.

Which brings us to non-mortise hinges. A recent addition to the hardware world, they're quickly gaining acceptance for their ease of use and finished appearance. These hinges have interlocking leaves that allow the door to close leaving just 1/16" gap between door and cabinet. That's an acceptable gap requiring only that you screw the hinge in place.

These non-mortise hinges are available in a number of styles to fit many different door profiles. Speaking of which, standard hinges wander into a dizzying array of choices when they become "wrap around" hinges. These hinges are designed to accommodate inset, offset, lipped and overlay doors. Shown at left is only one type of option in this area. Your best bet is to match the door profile to the hinge. And I mean match. Fit the hinge to the door. I can't count how many times I've purchased what I was sure was the correct hinge, only to head back to the store.

With all these hinges I recommend drilling pilot holes to accurately center the screws in the holes. Otherwise a slight shift of the hinge can throw the door alignment out of whack.

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