# Fitting hinges



## dsdurkes (Oct 29, 2010)

Greetings to all. I have a bit of a puzzle and hope someone with more experience than I can help.

Using a discarded TV console (you remember, those pieces of "furniture" that enclosed the big TV tube), I decided to refit it and make it into a stereo cabinet for my daughter, who is into vintage audio.

So, after squaring the beast, I decided on inset drawers for CDs and the turntable, planning all the while to have doors on the front. 

I think I was a bit too clever for myself on this project as I can't figure out the right hinges to use to hang the doors.

Photo 1 is a front facing photo of the cabinet. Photo 2 is one of the closed drawer, photo 3 is drawer open and the last shot shows the problem. With traditional hinges, there isn't enough clearance to open the drawers. I could simple cut out a channel in the door frame but I thought perhaps I could use offset hinges to swing the door out away to get it out of the way when I opened the drawers. But I'm not sure. I would prefer to mortise the hinges.

The door frame is 3/4" (currently) and the inset space is roughly 1/2".

What would you do? 

Sorry to be so wordy - hope it's clear and REALLY appreciate the advice here.

Thanks

Don


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

You would have a bit of a chore to find a hinge to work with the way you have it now. My suggestion if you can do it, is to first set the drawers back into the cabinet to clear the backside of a door. You will likely have to trim the drawer front to fit inset.

Next would be to make a vertical spacer to set a mounting surface for a euro hinge. One way would be to use a zero protrusion hinge like this:








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Ordinarily, the spacing and setbacks are figured to afford clearances, like the following:
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## dsdurkes (Oct 29, 2010)

cabinetman said:


> You would have a bit of a chore to find a hinge to work with the way you have it now. My suggestion if you can do it, is to first set the drawers back into the cabinet to clear the backside of a door. You will likely have to trim the drawer front to fit inset.
> 
> Next would be to make a vertical spacer to set a mounting surface for a euro hinge. One way would be to use a zero protrusion hinge like this:
> 
> ...


Thanks Cabinetman! This is pretty much the same issue as you would have with one of your projects: *d_oak_box_b. *How would you hang doors on this cabinet if you had a mind to? VERY NICE box, by the way!!


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

dsdurkes said:


> Thanks Cabinetman! This is pretty much the same issue as you would have with one of your projects: *d_oak_box_b. *How would you hang doors on this cabinet if you had a mind to? VERY NICE box, by the way!!



Thanks for the compliment. The drawers in that tool chest are too deep to seat further back. I would have to cut them down to allow for the thickness of a door. In addition to that, there's not enough spacing between the drawers to utilize a hinge.

As the box sits, an overlay door could be installed using small butt (leaf) hinges that would use the 3/4" side as the frame. In that case, the door would actually sit on the face of the box. I wouldn't like that look. What it takes is planning from the start.

I've converted some old TV cabinets and standing armoires to be doors and drawers. Some of them take adding side pieces to facilitate the use of hinges, to make inset doors work properly.












 





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