# New Cabinet Doors Won’t Close



## Hawkeye6 (Oct 12, 2019)

I am in the process of building a wet bar for my basement. This is the first big cabinet project I have done. I am having trouble with my upper cabinet doors closing all the way. They get to a certain point and then stop. I can push it in, but then it springs back out. This is not happening on every door and not on all of the touch points. I am using Blum 110 degree full overlay soft close hinges. The cabinets are frameless. I have attempted to use all the adjustments provided in the hinge to get the doors to lay flat but no combination works. I checked the doors for warping and I don’t see any. They are 38 inches tall so I thought that might be it, but it wasn’t. Any tips on getting them to close would be appreciated. Thanks.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Typically ....*

When doors won't close, the hinges are mortised too deep. Check the depth of your hinge pockets and add a cardboard shim if necessary.
:smile2:


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## danrush (Oct 16, 2017)

Hawkeye, this happens often on our cabinet installs. It could be a couple of things... 

First, be sure the hinge plates are screwed tight to the cabinet carcase and are spaced apart the exact same distance as the cup holes on the door. The base plates must also be parallel to each other. If one or more are set at a slight angle in the cabinet, the door will bind. When installing the door, the hinge arms should easily clip to the base plates without much effort.

Next and most common, try adjusting the hinge side of the door out using the screw furthest back on the hinge arm. It seems counterintuitive, but the handle side door edge will move the opposite direction from the hinge side, in and out. 

Next, it's rare, but occasionally the soft close brake in the hinge can be defective. Try turning them off, the door should close without resistance. If it does its a bad hinge brake. 

Hope this helps.


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## Hawkeye6 (Oct 12, 2019)

Thanks for the response. I checked the euro cup mortises and all were 1/2. To make sure I put in a couple of cardboard shims and hung it back up. Same issue. I also took the door that is working perfectly and comapred measurements to the others and they are almost exact. Maybe 1/64 or 1/32 different. I have also swapped out hinges and moved the doors around. The problem doesnt change. It follows the same doors everywhere. That tells me it is the mortise but i cant figure out what is wrong with it. Frustrating. In other small cabinet projects i have done i have not had these issues. Any other thoughts?


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## mmwood_1 (Oct 24, 2007)

Hawkeye, I use Euro hinges a lot and the most common and likely reason for this is exactly what danrush said:


"Next and most common, try adjusting the hinge side of the door out using the screw furthest back on the hinge arm. It seems counterintuitive, but the handle side door edge will move the opposite direction from the hinge side, in and out. "


The hinge side of the door needs to come out slightly because when the door gets to a certain point, the back side of the hinge stile is binding against the cabinet. You can check this by looking at the door profile from the hinge side and watch as you close the door. If the door frame touches the cabinet as you get almost closed, then it is binding. It has to move out a little bit. If the adjustment screw is already turned to its maximum and you cannot adjust it any further outwards, then your setback distance was a little bit too far from the front edge of the cabinet. The best solution in that case is to remove the mounting plates, fill the screw holes, then redrill them about 2mm closer to the cabinet edge.


Been there, done that.


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## Hawkeye6 (Oct 12, 2019)

Dan...using the back screw helped on some the the doors that were slighly off, thanks. I still have one door at the top that still sticks out about a 1/8 of an inch. I turned off the soft close and that didnt change the issue. I will say using your advice on the back screw has made them look the best. but still not perfect. I also checked the cabinet side of things and they appear all good. any other advice would be appreciated. I never thought building frameless cabinets would give me so many issues.


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## danrush (Oct 16, 2017)

If the door is really not warped and the hinges are good, then it's something funky with the cabinet. I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but confirm the cabinet faces are truly plumb. An 1/8" out of plumb will easily negate the 3mm adjustment tolerance of the hinges. 

In cabinetry, there's no such thing as a true cube, and all cabinets flex to some extent. 
Sometimes I even have to pull a cabinet out of plumb for a stubborn door. If you're confident that all other remedies noted in earlier posts won't help, try shimming out the opposing corner of the cabinet. Ex: if the door's upper left corner is proud of the face, shim out the bottem right corner of the cabinet. Note that this will change the other door's hinge adjustments. 

If the cabinet is in the middle of a run, you may not be able to shim it out. You might then have to go with mmwood's suggestion and pull the base plate and reinstall it a couple of mm torward the face of the cabinet. 

Patience really is your best friend here. More than once, I've been ready to pull the cabinet off the wall and toss it out the window, then I turn a screw a 1/4 turn and all is good with the world.


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## Hawkeye6 (Oct 12, 2019)

Thanks to everyone for their responses. Dan is right, patience is key. i will keep tweaking them but for now my wife is happy and i am happy, which means we are good. The internet is such a great resource for novice woodworkers. I love it.


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