Alternatively...... new hinges on kitchen wall cabinets?

[aprilsweetheartrose]

Further to my other post about kitchen units ( Athina from Argos).

If I cant get a decent wall cabinet these days ( they all seem terribly flimsey , even the expensive ones). Is it possible to change the hinges for just ordinary ones ( the sort you find on old sideboards for example)?

I have two problems with this as an option a) the holes in the door are made into chip board and likely to be in the place the new hinge holes will need to go

b) the holes in the cabinet are also where new hinge holes will need to be.

is there anyway of gluing up/ filling the holes so new hinges can be attached? or is that a crock type job?

[Andy Burns]

Why not take an example of the old hinges to a supplier of hinges, rather than (as last time, ISTR) just buying any old "blum style" hinge and then finding it was the wrong type?

[Tricky Dicky]

If the hinge mounting plates have pulled out of the cabinet side it is poss ible to get repair plates that fasten over the damaged screw holes and the mounting plates then fasten to the repair plate with machine screws. If the door screws have come out it is often possible to glue the ci

[aprilsweetheartrose]

tried that. There arent any. This was an old RAM kitchen. There are no matching hinges. Even tried to find RAM old stock.

Now I am two cabinets down. I need to do something.

[tabbypurr]

I've not seen what's there now, but with chipboard cabinet doors it's normally easy to fit standard leaf hinges. They have no adjustment though, so to adjust the door to hang just right you may need to pad them - which is quite doable.

It's also practical to fit modern cupboard hinges if you get a suitable drill bit.

NT

[newshound]

+1, although it's easier to do with the cabinets off the wall. This also makes it easy to fill the old holes with car body filler and then sand and paint.

The devil is in the detail. If the original cabinets were fitted well (e.g. hung from a concealed top rail, and clamped together with proper fittings) then you can probably get them down without too much difficulty or damage (hint: remove doors and shelves first).

If they have been fitted by a bodger it might be simplest to rip them all down and replace with new.

I would certainly not fart around with leaf hinges on chipboard cabinets (although they should be fine on substantial Victorian timber stuff).

When I am fitting kitchen cabinets, these days I *always* fit a substantial lower batten first, then rest them on that. The top fitting has to be secure enough to stop them pulling away from the wall. (I've never fitted cabinets to a modern property, say 60's or later: in that case, hanging from top rails is fine because the walls are likely to be true).

[Theo]

I've found these people to be handy:

You send a photo to sales [at] salicedirect.com with the subject 'Hinge ID' and they'll tell you which hinge should fit.

Theo

[Brian Gaff]

Depends very much how bad the holes are. A resin glue slightly thinned can work wonders. I do not think ordinary hinges are a good idea. I have used a Piano hinge on a door where a bin keeps bringing out the old hinges. it works but most modern cupboards have the closing mechanism in the hinge. so if you do what I have done it won't close on its own and then you need a couple of magnetic catches which if you push the door hard usually bounce and the door flies open and hits you in the head shins or wherever the door happens to be. I have used the resin glue trick on the other old doors with no issues but the bin being heavy was just a bit too much of an ask!

Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes there is. Car body filler is substantially stronger then the original chip and takes drils and self taps perfectly