Mounting kitchen door hinges

[Pulse]

I found this little baby very useful, only costs a few bucks from Nover. Lets you mark the centre as well as system 32 holes for shelves.

A drill press with a depth stop makes the holes a bit easier. 18mm thick doors also help. Good Luck.

Cheers Pulse

[Guy]

I use this to do the holes, works a treat.

[seriph1]

cool tools

[Bleedin Thumb]

I dont have a drill press so did them all by hand just put a bit of masking tape on the bit and kept my head very close and blew a lot. Didn't drill too deep thankfully.
The fun begins after you hang them, trying to get them adjusted.

[journeyman Mick]

I use one of these , (has 8 snap connect chucks ) since earlier this year, prior to that it was an adapted chisel morticing machine with an auxilliary chuck and some timber fences and stops, prior to that it was a $30 drill press attachment with one of my drills mounted in it.

Mick

[silentC]

How much are those things?

[Pulse]

they're all blue but mine is cheaper.....

Nover direct import a Hettich hinge borer from Germany, I think it came with a single phase motor so was popular to take to the building sites. The aussie version was three phase. I think it cost close to $1000.

Cheers
Pulse

[journeyman Mick]

How much are those things?

Mine (Hettich Blue max 8) is three phase + pneumatic and including the snap fit chucks, flip stops and 5 x 5mm bits, 2 x 10mm bits and 1 x 35mm bit (all TCT) costs about $8K landed in Cairns:eek: . I didn't pay anywhere near that of course.

Mick

[Guy]

Mine is the Blue max 2 cost me $890 plus ive got the Blue max 3 on loan from hettich through my distributor both units a single phase and i use them for shelf holes, hinges, cam and dowells

[silentC]

Hmm, I don't think I can justify spending $8k and putting on 3 phase (although I have the cabling in for it) just for one kitchen

$890 sounds better...

[Sybarite]

Hmm, I don't think I can justify spending $8k and putting on 3 phase (although I have the cabling in for it) just for one kitchen

$890 sounds better...

If you are seriously only doing one kitchen and can't see yourself drilling cup holes in anything else, I would suggest possibly getting a doormaker/ cabinet maker to drill the doors for you.

Our local cabbie charges (trade) $2.20 per hinge for drilling and $2.75 for drawer fronts.

If a kitchen has 100 cup holes that is a LOT.

Even if you had to pay $5 a hole it would still be cheaper than the lowest priced machine - of course the trade off is you don't have the machine afterwards...but you will need to drill about 350 holes before you see a saving.

Just another perspective.

Cheers,

[Bleedin Thumb]

Or you could pay $25 - $30 for the drill bit and do it yourself.

[silentC]

I've got a forstener bit the right size and I've drilled a few by hand. I made a template out of ply that locates the cup hole and the two mounting holes. It's OK when you only have a few to do, but a whole kitchen would be a drag. And then there's the shelf pin holes.

Actually, I've got a mate who owns a cabinet shop and I might be able to convince him to let me use his machines one weekend.

I just like buying tools, that's all. Call it a weakness

[sea dragon]

I just like buying tools, that's all. Call it a weakness

It is not a weakness.
there is at least one gene on the male DNA, for buying tools. There is a doubt as to whether it is the same gene for male toys, or if that is another one. It is located very close to the gene for being able to say (or always wanting to be so able) "Mine is bigger".
Perhaps I should have put this on the Friday thread, but the line was too good to ignore, especially with all the other prior blue toys with prices that needed to be mentioned.

[totoblue]

Just after some advise on mounting kitchen door hinges am I right in saying you use a forstner bit for drilling the hole in the door for the hinge to sit in?:confused:
Kev.

I've done a few using a forstner bit in one of those presses that you mount a hand drill into. My "press" was made by Bosch and worked ok (just) at first but now it flops around so much that its useless. Its made of cast aluminium by the look of it and it is not very strong and the casting has actually broken now.

I tried drilling a few using a forstner bit in a hand drill and it's too hard to get a good finish even though I've seen them do it on TV.

The idea of a template made from ply that someone posted sounds good. I believe you can get 35 mm bits for routers.

I now use my router using an ordinary 16mm router bit. I have a Makita 3612 (very common). I made an MDF jig to do the holes using a standard 16mm router bit. You just clamp the jig onto the door, set the depth stop on the router and wiggle it around in the jig and hey presto a beautifully cut hinge hole.

The jig is just MDF with a circle cut into it. The circle is the base diameter of the router (the router fortunately has a circular base) plus a bit (35mm minus 16mm) so that the 16mm router bit cuts the right size hole. I cut the circle using the router pushed hard up against a correctly-sized nail in the centre of the hole I wanted to make in the jig.

It was a bit mind boggling to work out the numbers but here goes. If you have a 16mm bit, and push straight down it will make a 16mm hole. If you want the hole to be 35 mm, then you need the jig hole to be 35-16 = 19mm bigger than the base of the router (assuming the router base is round).

So if you have a 3mm nail in the centre of a piece of MDF (that's 19mm minus the 16mm router bit), and hold your router hard up against the nail, you will get the correct sized hole. The hole will be 19mm bigger than the base of the router. In practice, I used a nail slightly smaller than 3mm (2.7mm I think) and it works fine.

Possibly you could use a drill bit instead of a nail. You can measure the diameter of a nail using one of those yellow plastic drill and screw gauges you can get in Bunnings.

Remember that you need some scrap timber under the MDF so that when the circle is completely cut, it doesn't all drop on the floor (I didn't do that ( but I got away with it).

See pics.

As you can see in the pic, there is a piece of melamine covered chipboard under the MDF - this is for the router base to slide on. There is a piece of timber on the underside to get the correct inset from the edge of the door.

I made this a couple of years ago and I think (hope) I remember correctly how I worked out the sizes.