Long time lurker.
I am building kitchen cabinets with face frames and frame and panel doors (3/4" northern white (i.e. hard) maple , no stain, waterlox finish, prefinished maple plywood cases). The doors will have a 1/2" overlay. I intend to use Blum hinges and have narrowed my choices to the model 38N or Compact 33. My question is whether there is any good reason to prefer one over the other. My review of the Blum catalog discloses that the main differences are: 38N is 1 piece - Compact 33 is 2 pieces 38N has 3 way adjustment - Compact 33 has 2 way adjustment 38N has 7/16" cup depth - Compact 33 has 1/2" cup depth I don't care about the difference (105 degrees vs. 110 degrees) in opening angles. I know (Google archive search) that Leon uses 38N (by the hundreds!) and I am tempted to use the 38N just because he uses them and he seems to know what he's doing. However, I am curious as to whether the 38N or the Compact 33 is preferable in a given situation. Is the 3 way adjustment more of a benefit than the 2 piece hinge? Is the cup depth difference significant?
Thank you in advance for any replies to this post and thank you to everyone who regularly posts to this newsgroup for the invaluable advice I have received via Google archive searches of this newsgroup over the past few years. The frequent humorous posts are also appreciated.