Try cup higes for your ext cabiets Lear how to choose, istall, ad adjust these egieered marvels By Robert J. Settich DOOR CABINET SIDE PLASTIC INSERT HINGE MOUNTING PLATE HINGE CUP HINGE ARM T hey are kow by may differet ames: Euro higes, cup higes, 32mm higes, hidde higes, ad other aliases. Like secret agets, these fasciatig bits of hardware do their work quietly ad without drawig ay attetio to themselves. Istead, they keep the accet o your cabiet. I additio to ear-ivisibility, the higes also feature easy istallatio ad perhaps most importatly, the ability to move each door ito perfect positio. This is a quatum leap beyod traditioal cabiet higes that permaetly lock i the door s aligmet or lack thereof upo istallatio. The traslatio: by givig you the ability to perfectly straighte doors ad produce cosistet reveals, you ll appear to be a much better cabietmaker. 44 woodcraftmagazie.com Oct/Nov 2015 The beauty of hidde hardware. Whether you re buildig a sigle cabiet or a etire wall s-worth, cocealed cup higes eable you to create a sleek compositio of doors ad drawer frots. The hige has a 35mm-dia. cup that mouts i the door, creatig a recess for the hige mechaism whe the door is closed. The hige arm saps ito place o a moutig plate fasteed to the cabiet side or face frame.
Easy door aligmet Most cup higes are desiged so that the positio of the door ca be adjusted simply by turig screws o either the hige arm or the moutig plate a big advatage over other cabiet higes. Cup higes for frameless cabiets typically provide three-way adjustmet, as show here. Cup higes for face frames typically provide lateral (side-to-side) ad vertical adjustmet. I & Out Adjustmet Side-to-Side Adjustmet Up & Dow Adjustmet The 32 millimeter cabiet system 32 millimeter cabietry appeared i Europe at the coclusio of World War II, whe the eed for massive amouts of recostructio collided with severe shortages of materials. Elimiatig face frames from cabiets saved time, expese, ad lumber, while also simplifyig cabiet costructio. For eve greater efficiecy, maufacturers adopted a uiversal spacig of 32 millimeters The hole story. 5mm-dia. for the 5mm-dia. holes i cabiet sides. I both base ad wall holes, spaced 32mm apart, are cabiets, these holes do t just hold shelf support pis; they also compatible with shelf support correspod to istallatio screw spacig for cup hige moutig pis ad istallatio screws for plates ad drawer slides. Productio-style cabietry usually cup higes ad drawer slides. ivolves the isertio of plastic dowels ito predrilled holes, rather tha drivig hardware istallatio screws directly ito the case side. All the advatages that got the 32 millimeter cabiet system started still apply today, with eve more compatible hardware to choose from. If you have t give this cabietry style a try, cosider doig so o your ext project. Photos: Robert J. Settich; Illustratios: Greg Maxso Oct/Nov 2015 woodcraftmagazie.com 45
Choosig cup higes: You ll get it right if you ca aswer 4 questios The itricate structure of a cup hige is a world away from the simple aatomy of a butt hige. This ca make selectig cup higes itimidatig. But there s good ews here. Major maufacturers like Salice, Blum, Grass, ad Amerock have come up with cup higes for just about ay applicatio you ca imagie. To fid the right higes for your project, get the aswers to the questios below, the cosider ay special features that may also figure i your cabiet desig. 1.Frameless or face-frame cabiets? Cup higes origiated i order to streamlie the maufacture ad istallatio of frameless cabietry, so it s ot surprisig that you ll fid the widest selectio of higes suited to the this cabietry style. But competitio amog cabiet maufacturers created a demad for Euro higes compatible with other cabietry styles, icludig face frame cabiets. A cup hige desiged for a frameless cabiet will iclude a baseplate that mouts o the side of the cabiet. A face frame cup hige usually mouts o the face frame. Some face frame cup higes attach to a separate plate that s screwed to the face frame. Other versios are sigle-piece uits that iclude a faceplate flage. 2.Overlay or iset doors? Euro higes popularized the look of overlay doors ad drawer frots a sleek compositio of rectagles that covers cabietry casework ad displays eve gaps betwee each door ad drawer. The adjustability of cup higes makes it possible to get all the doors i a bak of cabiets perfectly aliged. If this is the look you re after, you ll eed to order overlay-style cup higes. But if your preferece is for iset doors, you have two choices. You ca pack out the side of the cabiet flush with the iside edge of the face frame, ad use a iset-style cup hige desiged for frameless cabiets. Or you ca buy a specialized iset hige desiged to mout o the face frame (see drawigs). DOOR FACE FRAME Higes mout to the frame. Face Frame CABINET Overlay 3 8" iset Iset Frameless Full Overlay Half Overlay FRAMELESS Higes mout to the cabiet iterior. Iset 46 woodcraftmagazie.com Oct/Nov 2015
3.What door opeig agle is right? Opeig agles for most cup higes rage from 105 to 120, which will suit may applicatios. However, there may be cases whe you wat a door to ope much wider: to provide easier access, for example, ito a deep corer cabiet. I that case, you ca fid higes that swig up to 170 (Woodcraft 142855, $18.99/pr.). But other times, you may wat to limit the opeig agle so that a door swigig toward a wall wo t bag ito it. I these situatios, you wat to fid a hige that ca be paired with a optioal restrictio plate. This modificatio will solve the problem by reducig the opeig agle to less tha 90. All higes alog the edge of a door should have the same opeig agle. Full Overlay 4.How may higes per door? Most average-size cabiet doors will swig very happily from a sigle pair of higes. But whe you upscale the door s size or weight, those higes may start complaiig or eve fail. You ca easily solve the problem by istallig additioal higes to share the burde. The chart represets geeral guidelies based o average higes. Weigh the completed door plus ay supplemetal loads, such as a spice rack you pla to attach to the iside of the door. If your door s height or weight lads i a borderlie area, roud up ad add a hige. Choosig the Number of Higes 100" 80" 60" 40" 20" Cabiet height 9-11 Door weight 12-20 21-33 2 3 4 5 Higes per door 120 opeig 34-48 Special features to cosider Cover caps. Available for some but ot all cup higes, cover caps will coceal most or eve all of the hige s attachmet ad adjustmet screws to give your project a sleek look. While this is t a priority i ordiary cabiet applicatios, it s defiitely a upgrade to cosider o curio cabiets ad other situatios where your hardware has high visibility. Plastic dowels or iserts. Stadard hige istallatio screws work well i solid stock ad plywood, but these fasteers lose stregth i medium desity fiberboard (MDF) or particleboard. If your cabiet doors or cases are made from these materials, you may wat to choose higes that iclude barbed plastic iserts that fit i predrilled holes. Tighteig the istallatio screw pushes each dowel agaist the wall of the hole for a firm grip. Soft-close higes or pistos. Cabiet doors that slam ca rattle both your erves ad your carefully-crafted woodworkig project. Avoid these problems with softclose techology such as Blumotio from Blum. This feature ca be built ito the hige cup, as with the 110 partial overlay hige (Woodcraft #152742). If your project has small or light doors, you ca easily switch off the soft close mechaism o oe hige. If you wat to upgrade existig cabiets to soft close without swappig out the higes, cosider a retrofit Blumotio solutio (Woodcraft #147965). You usually eed oly oe of these pisto devices per door, though large or heavy doors may require a pair. Oct/Nov 2015 woodcraftmagazie.com 47
Istallig cup higes: Three steps ad you re doe. 1. Drill the cup holes The metal cup i a Euro hige eeds to fit i a 35mm-dia. hole drilled i the cabiet door. Precisio is importat, so make sure you have a sharp, 35mm Forster bit ad a accurate techique for locatig each cup hige hole. Hole spacig is ot based o a ceterpoit but o the the distace from the rim of the hole to the door s edge. Uless you re buildig cabiets accordig to the pure 32mm cabiet system, vertical hige placemet is up to you. O a typical cabiet, I usually locate hige cup holes 3" from the top ad bottom of the door. Jigged offset. A jig makes quick, accurate work of layig out cup hole ceterpoits the proper offset from the edge of a door. This DrillRite jig is desiged for higes with a 5mm offset. (You ca also use it to mark the screw locatios for certai higes.) Other commercial jigs are available for differet offsets, or you ca make your ow. Fece offset. Alteratively, you ca set your drill press fece to create the proper hige offset by registerig a door agaist the fece. As a setup spacer, use a drill bit whose diameter matches the specified hige offset, placig it betwee the fece ad the edge of the 35mm Forster bit that will drill the cup holes. Stops add speed. Mouted o T-track atop the drill press fece, a pair of Swig Stops elimiates the eed to measure ad mark. Slidig the door uder the uused stop swigs it out of the way. A productio setup like this is smart whe you have more tha a few doors to hag. Lie em up. Before drillig holes for cup attachmet screws, make sure that each hige arm is perpedicular to the door s edge. If the rear edge of the cup is square to the arm, you ca use a straightedge to alig multiple higes at oce. Drill pilot holes with a self-ceterig Vix bit. 48 woodcraftmagazie.com Oct/Nov 2015
2. Mout the plates Hige arms clip oto moutig plates that are screwed to cabiet sides. Each plate has two istallatio screws that must be set back a exact distace from the cabiet edge ad aliged vertically with hige arms. Perfect plate positio demads careful layout ad accurate predrillig of screw holes. Mask, the mark. Cover the layout area with maskig tape to protect the wood ad better show layout lies. Set the blade o your combiatio square to match ceters for istallatio screws, the mark your lies. Shim the door. After attachig the moutig plates to the hige arms, place the door agaist the case, shimmig it upward to produce the desired overlay at the case bottom. Alig the moutig plate holes with the screw ceterlies, the drill pilot holes with a self-ceterig bit. Strip away the tape, ad screw the plates i place. 3. Fiesse the fit Your ewly istalled door is likely to be a bit askew, but here s where cup higes really shie. The adjustmet screws o the hige allow you to fie-tue the door s positio o the cabiet case. With some cup higes, the moutig plate ca be shifted up or dow to make vertical adjustmets. I other types, the plate remais fixed, ad all adjustmets are made by turig screws o the hige arm assembly. If your screws have a Pozi head, use a Pozi driver to avoid damagig screw heads. Oct/Nov 2015 woodcraftmagazie.com 49
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