Kitchen cabinet door hinge problem

Hi Chaps

I have a problem with one of my kitchen cabinet door hinges, due to enormous teenagers yanking upwards on the door handles one of them has ripped the screws out of the cabinet leaving a great big crater in the inner chip board under the melamine coating. These are good quality cabinets with quite heavy doors, and I can't just replace the carcase easily without taking off the very heavy silestone worktop.

The kitchen is 3 years old so I don't want to replace the kitchen units, all the other units are ok.

So, how can I fix this in a more permanent fashion.

I have tried the usual toothpicks in the screw hole trick, and some other polyfilla type efforts to fill the crated, but none have stood the test of time.

The problem is that nothing seems to want to stick to the chipboard crater.

What other things can I try? Sawdust in pva? car body filler?

A T nut fitted into a hole drilled through from the other side? If I can get one small enough, it would probably need to be an M3 to fit through the screw hole in the hinge. Fortunately there is only one cabinet wall thickness as the fridge is in the next space along but the clearance is small so I couldn't just stick a piece of plywood on the outside to screw into.

Suggestions please (no not the angle grinder!)

Thanks

dedics

Reply to
Ian & Hilda Dedic
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How about a carcass repair plate like this?

Andy C

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Reply to
Andy Cap

Car body filler - the soft sort that can be easily sanded. Drill new holes once it has set.

Jonathan

Reply to
Jonathan Ward

I used to come across this problem all the time when I had a contract at the local Uni. 48 kitchens, 350 drunken students :-)

2 pack filler works pretty well, other fillers don't. Let it set & re drill the holes.

You may be able to hinge the door on the other side if it has two sets of hinge holes & the handle allows it.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Car body filler, although most fillers are rather weak because they consist of a mineral filler in polyester resin. There are fillers known as "bridging compound" that contain glass fibre strands in polyester resin. These have some structural strength but are difficult to work with. Also in the raw state they are as ugly as sin (usually brown/purple depending on the hardener used) and difficult to get level.

If the interior of the cupboard is white, there are white fillers sold for the repair of fibreglass boats. At this point you will discover what a wonderful range of colours white is, none of them matching.

I'd be tempted to enlarge the hole and to make the surfaces clean (to get rid of the other fillers you have tried) then to fill it. Personally, if I expected it to stand up to load, especially brutal and dimwitted teenagers, I'd consider using an epoxy resin and glass fibre tape to create a strong repair.

Note that you cannot use the chopped strand mat (CSM) sold for use with polyester resin with epoxy. You need to use a woven glassfibre mat, which is available in rolls approximately an inch wide. Cut out the hole to be as wide as the tape and regular in depth. Mix some epoxy and coat the inside of the hole with epoxy, press a cut-to-length section of tape in the hole and then lay up with alternating layers of epoxy and tape. Ensure the tape is throughly wetted at each application.

Do this until the hole is slightly less than full. Let the epoxy harden then finish off with a filler that is as close to the inside colour of the cupboard as you can manage. Re-drill the pilot holes and refix the cupboard door.

Smite child and repeat "if you ever do that again, you will pay for a new kitchen."

Reply to
Steve Firth

One option is to cut the hole out square and bond a well fitting piece of wood in.

Another option - a variation on the other car body filler solution is to drill out where the screw holes were, glue+dowell then infill with car body filler. Sand flat. The screws will then go dead centre in the dowels rather than the filler which to me seems stronger.

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim Watts

I'd take the door off, put it flat and fill the hole wih epoxy resin.

Reply to
Matty F

At that price I could actually be bothered to fix the old kitchen carcasses that now reside in my garage

Ta

Reply to
Dr Hfuhruhurr

+1 for two pack filler.

The repair is better than new, in that the filler spreads the load across a far wider area.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I would have suggested what others have suggested, ie polyester resin and car body filler. However, that fix looks absolutely brilliant.

Reply to
Ian Jackson

I'm definitely With you on the smite the teenager advice!..

dedics

Reply to
Ian & Hilda Dedic

snip

with 2 part epoxy.

You win the prize for a good suggestion first answer back...

Thank you!

dedics

Reply to
Ian & Hilda Dedic

You're sorted now with an excellent fix, but I just wanted to mention my bodge which has worked very well in the past. This is just to drill right through the cabinet (after filling if needed) and put an (M4?) bolt right through the screw hole. It works particularly well if there is another hinge plate on the other side of the panel as that spreads the load. In your case, I'd just put a large washer on the fridge side of the panel to spread the load.

Reply to
GB

I've found epoxy resin works a treat. There's no need to reinforce it with glass fibre - indeed doing so makes things worse. If the door gets ripped off again, you want the hole to strip, you dont want the entire patch of filler to come out, or worse it to tear out an even bigger area of chipboard. Resin alone is plenty strong enough, and a stripped hole a very simple repair.

NT

Reply to
Tabby

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

I wonder if the company know why they have suddenly sold loads of these :-)

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

The problem is with the carcass Matty, not the door.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

In that case I'd hold the epoxy in with a piece of plastic until it sets. i.e. plastic that epoxy doesn't stick to.

Reply to
Matty F

snip snip

here's an update...

I bought a set of those, cabinet hinge repair plates, but due to the fact that I have thicker than average doors (High spec kitchen so the doors are 22mm) the holes are 7mm out... oh well I either have to make up my own plates, drill fresh holes or go with the epoxy fill method....

For normal 15mm door cabinets they would be absolutely perfect.

Thanks for the advice though...I have smited the hulking teenager also...(Not easy when he's a foot taller than me...;-)

dedics

Reply to
Ian & Hilda Dedic

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Reply to
identernet

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