Handy Nation

In your adventures as a DIYer, it’s inevitable that you’ll run across the need for hinges. Once you start look at these little do-dads, you’ll soon discover there are a zillion different types of hinges. So many in fact, that you should design your projects with the hinge type in mind. Believe me, I’ve build a few things over the years that had to be half torn apart, and re-thunked out, because I couldn’t get the door to work. The good thing is that they all fall into a few select catagories, and fan out in variations from there.

Butt Hinge
The most basic type of hinge, one side “butts” right into the other (plus it’s fun to keep saying “butt”). These are the recessed hinges on the doors in your house..

Flush or Non-mortise Hinge
This is similar to a butt hinges and can be used as such. The nice feature in these is that you don’t have to mortise the two pieces..
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Pivot Hinge
You’ll usually find these on the glass doors of your cheap IKEA entertainment center. They’re a couple of interlocking barrels that allow you to easily remove the door..

Concealed Hinge
The cool thing about these is you can’t see them when the door is closed. Also, they’re adjustable after you get the door installed. Keep in mind that the installation of these hinges is a little more advances than the rest.

Continuous or Piano Hinge
This is another variation of the butt hinge, except you can get these anywhere from 1 foot to 6 feet long..
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Now, there are some specialty hinges out there for just about any and all situations you can allow for. Some of these are complicated for advances carpentry, and others simple for strange situations and bad planning. Here are a few favorites:

Knife Hinge
If you need to hinge from the top or bottom on a traditional box and door, this is for you..
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Double Action Hinge
Much like a few people I’ve met over the years, it swings both ways. Often found in restaurants between the kitchen and the front of the house.
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Cafe Door Hinge
A variation of a pivot hinge, and a staple of the old west saloons, it will smack you on the way out..
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Torsion Hinge
This is on your laptop lid, and the heavy duty ones are great for toy boxes. They allow just about any size lid to hold its position when opened, and easily close with little effort..

270 Degree Overlay Hinge
Perfect that converted armoire into entertainment center. Your doors wrap all the around to the side! You could also use pivot pocket door slides, that allow the doors to open and push back into the carcass..
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Now that you have the basics, get out there and build something with a door on it!

“butt”
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Tags: DIY, Hinge Types, Hinges, project

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under From The Handyman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.