I recently installed 31 Lamello duplex, biscuit-shaped, full mortised, butt hinges on my backbench lower cabinet doors.
These are Lamello hinges and sold by Lamello (and others like Amazon, Cheyenne Sales) at $50 for 20 hinges. http://www.cheyennesales.com/catalog/lamhinge.htm I'm not sure if anyone makes a knock off. They are biscuit shaped and designed to be mortised in the door edge with a biscuit jointer. Both door and faceframe are cut at the same time which ensures the mortises are aligned. You may have seen Norm use them on a few NYW projects.
Here is the hinge showing biscuit shape. They are usually sold in sets- one left hinge and one right hinge. If you are doing just one door and putting hinges on the right you must order two sets (which will leave you with two extra left hinges). The hinge sets come with star drive screws.
The hinges are duplex- they slide apart which makes it easy to remove the doors for trimming. The disadvantage is that there is only one bearing surface
Here are recesses cut by a standard biscuit jointer in the edge of some stock. I am using a PC 557. The doors and faceframes are cut at the same time, so it is easier to do this on a bench before you attach the faceframe to the cabinet.
The hinges fit right in the recess. Since the mortises are cut in the door and face frame at the same time, they will always line up vertically.
In order cut the hinge mortises after the faceframes are attached to the cabinet a jig is needed. It is way too difficult to align the jointer and hold it still while cutting the mortises without one. To ensure there is no hinge misalignment and the door will close smoothly, the slots must be centered on the gap between the door and the faceframe. At first I just clamped a piece of wood as a stop block to control the horizontal position of the slot. That was a disaster, so I made a jig that aligns the jointer both vertically and horizontally and which maintains the hinge side door-faceframe gap. I found, however that though the gap was consistent, after I mounted the hinges, it was wider than the spacer I used. I believe this is due to the jointer blade being too thin. I will adjust for this in the next jig I make by using thinner aluminum shim. The jig is essentially two pieces of 3/64" aluminum cut so they will fit recesses in the side of my biscuit jointer. The aluminum pieces are screwed to a piece of ply to maintain vertical hinge placement. The aluminum guides are mounted to the ply symmetrically (4" from each end) so I just flip it over to cut mortises on the left door. To change the hinge spacing I can reposition the aluminum guides on the ply or for a different sized door I can remove and attach the guides to another piece of ply.
My PC has a small recess in each side of the base (red area) which is suppose to indicate the position of the blade. It was a little off so I had to attach some shims to the aluminum guide. Pop rivets, visible in the previous picture, were used to attach the shims.
Here is the jointer married up with the guide. The edge of the guide slides into the jointer's blade indicating recesses.
Here is a door and the jig clamped to the faceframe.
To cut the mortises, I slide the jointer between the halves of the aluminum guide pieces until the guide is seated in the blade indicating slots. The guide keeps the jointer aligned vertically and horizontally. Then I just start and plunge the jointer. I had adjusted the depth of cut on a test piece previously .
Conclusion: It sure is quick- 24 mortises in less than 30 min.!!! That includes time to reposition the jig and clamp the door. It took longer than that to drill pilot holes and screw on the hinges! Once you make a good reliable jig it is easy, and fairly accurate, especially vertical alignment of the hinge halves and between sets of hinges. I can see no way of doing this successfully without a well made jig. It is just too hard (at least for me!) to hold and align the mortiser. Despite using what I thought was a good jig, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of consistently precise cut depths (front to back). While this had little affect on mounting and operation of the doors (since both mortises for both halves of the hinge are cut at the same time and same depth) the depth of the slot varied slightly from mortise to mortise. I may not have plunged the jointer all the way in each time. I would need to think twice before using these hinges on a fine cabinetry project, or at least without more practice first. Of course, my results would likely have been much, much worse and taken hours longer, if I was mortising typical full mortise square butt hinges with a chisel and/or a router/jig/corner cutter, especially since you have to cut each side separately. I see why cabinet makers like the adjustable euro hinges and don't like flush inset doors!!!
These are Lamello hinges and sold by Lamello (and others like Amazon, Cheyenne Sales) at $50 for 20 hinges. http://www.cheyennesales.com/catalog/lamhinge.htm I'm not sure if anyone makes a knock off. They are biscuit shaped and designed to be mortised in the door edge with a biscuit jointer. Both door and faceframe are cut at the same time which ensures the mortises are aligned. You may have seen Norm use them on a few NYW projects.
Here is the hinge showing biscuit shape. They are usually sold in sets- one left hinge and one right hinge. If you are doing just one door and putting hinges on the right you must order two sets (which will leave you with two extra left hinges). The hinge sets come with star drive screws.
The hinges are duplex- they slide apart which makes it easy to remove the doors for trimming. The disadvantage is that there is only one bearing surface
Here are recesses cut by a standard biscuit jointer in the edge of some stock. I am using a PC 557. The doors and faceframes are cut at the same time, so it is easier to do this on a bench before you attach the faceframe to the cabinet.
The hinges fit right in the recess. Since the mortises are cut in the door and face frame at the same time, they will always line up vertically.
In order cut the hinge mortises after the faceframes are attached to the cabinet a jig is needed. It is way too difficult to align the jointer and hold it still while cutting the mortises without one. To ensure there is no hinge misalignment and the door will close smoothly, the slots must be centered on the gap between the door and the faceframe. At first I just clamped a piece of wood as a stop block to control the horizontal position of the slot. That was a disaster, so I made a jig that aligns the jointer both vertically and horizontally and which maintains the hinge side door-faceframe gap. I found, however that though the gap was consistent, after I mounted the hinges, it was wider than the spacer I used. I believe this is due to the jointer blade being too thin. I will adjust for this in the next jig I make by using thinner aluminum shim. The jig is essentially two pieces of 3/64" aluminum cut so they will fit recesses in the side of my biscuit jointer. The aluminum pieces are screwed to a piece of ply to maintain vertical hinge placement. The aluminum guides are mounted to the ply symmetrically (4" from each end) so I just flip it over to cut mortises on the left door. To change the hinge spacing I can reposition the aluminum guides on the ply or for a different sized door I can remove and attach the guides to another piece of ply.
My PC has a small recess in each side of the base (red area) which is suppose to indicate the position of the blade. It was a little off so I had to attach some shims to the aluminum guide. Pop rivets, visible in the previous picture, were used to attach the shims.
Here is the jointer married up with the guide. The edge of the guide slides into the jointer's blade indicating recesses.
Here is a door and the jig clamped to the faceframe.
To cut the mortises, I slide the jointer between the halves of the aluminum guide pieces until the guide is seated in the blade indicating slots. The guide keeps the jointer aligned vertically and horizontally. Then I just start and plunge the jointer. I had adjusted the depth of cut on a test piece previously .
Conclusion: It sure is quick- 24 mortises in less than 30 min.!!! That includes time to reposition the jig and clamp the door. It took longer than that to drill pilot holes and screw on the hinges! Once you make a good reliable jig it is easy, and fairly accurate, especially vertical alignment of the hinge halves and between sets of hinges. I can see no way of doing this successfully without a well made jig. It is just too hard (at least for me!) to hold and align the mortiser. Despite using what I thought was a good jig, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of consistently precise cut depths (front to back). While this had little affect on mounting and operation of the doors (since both mortises for both halves of the hinge are cut at the same time and same depth) the depth of the slot varied slightly from mortise to mortise. I may not have plunged the jointer all the way in each time. I would need to think twice before using these hinges on a fine cabinetry project, or at least without more practice first. Of course, my results would likely have been much, much worse and taken hours longer, if I was mortising typical full mortise square butt hinges with a chisel and/or a router/jig/corner cutter, especially since you have to cut each side separately. I see why cabinet makers like the adjustable euro hinges and don't like flush inset doors!!!
