Upper cabinet hinges??

[chrisstratton]

We're getting ready to make the facing and door panels for the DIY upper cabinets. Planning on 1x2 facing, then making floating door panels in 1x2 pine to attach to the facing. We plan to have these open upwards. We're looking for hardware suggestions, such as "self closing" hinges which won't bounce open to easily? or latches? Also, gas struts if needed??

[Phatman]

Originally Posted by chrisstratton

We're getting ready to make the facing and door panels for the DIY upper cabinets. Planning on 1x2 facing, then making floating door panels in 1x2 pine to attach to the facing. We plan to have these open upwards. We're looking for hardware suggestions, such as "self closing" hinges which won't bounce open to easily? or latches? Also, gas struts if needed??

Pine is not a wise choice for any face frames on cabinet doors. The humidity will warp those things and you will be very unhappy with them. If you can, use a cheap hardwood like poplar. Works great if you are painting them. Poplar can be dyed to look like cherry, but it takes a lot of patience. As far as your hinges, you can pick up 1/2” offset soft closing hinges at Home Depot or Lowe’s and you can buy them in larger quantities and get a little discount. Be careful buying them on Amazon. Seems they don’t understand the difference between 1/2” offset and 1 1/2” offset.

[chrisstratton]

Really great advice, thank you so much.

[Phatman]

It’s ok to build the boxes out of plywood/pine. You will be ok.

[chrisstratton]

Originally Posted by Phatman

It’s ok to build the boxes out of plywood/pine. You will be ok.

What about the facing onto which the doors will hang? Pine or poplar?

[Kentucky Dreaming]

My truck camper has cabinet doors that open upward. It has soft closing hinges similar to these:

https://www.amazon.com/Berta-Compact...dDbGljaz10cnVl

The doors have aluminum frames with black tinted tempered glass floating panels. I have had it 3 years and have never had a door bounce open.

Hope this helps you out.

[Phatman]

Originally Posted by chrisstratton

What about the facing onto which the doors will hang? Pine or poplar?

Any solid lumber on the face needs to be hardwood.

[Kentucky Dreaming]

Originally Posted by Phatman

Any solid lumber on the face needs to be hardwood.

My camper cabinet frames are cheap particle board or maybe MDF. But they look nice with those fancy doors on them.

P.S. No gas struts needed. the hinges hold the doors open.

[Kentucky Dreaming]

OOPS!

My memory isn't as good as I remembered it to be. My hinges are this style:

https://www.amazon.com/Spring-Suppor...HARDWARE_HINGE

A bit more expensive, but I am tickled with the way they work.

A Couple of photos of mine:

[Phatman]

Originally Posted by Kentucky Dreaming

My camper cabinet frames are cheap particle board or maybe MDF. But they look nice with those fancy doors on them.

P.S. No gas struts needed. the hinges hold the doors open.

You are right Kentucky. MDF is more stable than pine for face frames. As long as it stays dry.

[roach711]

I used 3/4" oak plywood for our upper cabinets. The cabinet face is one piece of plywood with the door openings cut into the ply with a table saw or circular saw. instead of door handles I beveled the door edges.

The base is dadoed (cut into and glued) into the front forming an "L" which is fastened to the wall and ceiling with some aluminum angle. Our walls and ceiling are covered with indoor/outdoor carpet so the interior looks good and the carpet tends to keep the contents from rattling too much.

[Phatman]

Originally Posted by roach711

I used 3/4" oak plywood for our upper cabinets. The cabinet face is one piece of plywood with the door openings cut into the ply with a table saw or circular saw. instead of door handles I beveled the door edges.

The base is dadoed (cut into and glued) into the front forming an "L" which is fastened to the wall and ceiling with some aluminum angle. Our walls and ceiling are covered with indoor/outdoor carpet so the interior looks good and the carpet tends to keep the contents from rattling too much.

Yeah Roach, I did something similar to yours. I just made face frames and a bottom and attached it to metal studs shaped to the curvature of the top.

[Iceni John]

My overhead cabinets are made from aluminum and steel bolted to the roof's ribs, with 1/4" plywood covered in Celtec for the doors. The doors are top-hinged on continuous aluminum piano hinge, and they stay closed with simple magnetic latches from Home Despot. The doors have stainless (maybe stainless-plated mild steel?) bar pull handles that surprisingly are magnetic; I'll embed some rare-earth neodymium magnets behind the FRP that will cover the ceiling, so when the doors are opened all the way to the ceiling their handles will be held up by the magnets. This way there's no visible supports for the doors: I'm striving for a very clean minimalist look throughout the bus, using metal for almost all structural or load-bearing interior functions and using wood as little as possible.

John

[chrisstratton]

I'm enjoying this cabinet discussion. Thanks for the hinge responses, everyone.

[musigenesis]

I used these hinges for my overheads: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...P-U1/303098158

For framing the cabinets, I bought a bunch of these 48" stair treads: https://www.homedepot.com/p/48-in-x-...D00L/202087175 and ripped them into 2" wide strips (so they're literally 1x2s). The wood is kiln-dried and planed perfectly flat, and it's wide and solid enough for me to join the corners with just decking screws (which you can't do easily or solidly with plywood). The cabinet doors are birch plywood edged with strips of poplar - the plywood was a little warped but I was able to bring them back flat with some home-brewed tensioners made from all-thread. If I were to do them over I would also use the stair treads for the doors, along with a Kreg jig to make pieces wider/taller than the 11" you're otherwise limited to.

[Tejon7]

[QUOTE=musigenesis;458773]I used these hinges for my overheads: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...P-U1/303098158

I can't remember, do your overhead doors swing out or up? In other words, are those hinges on the side of the door or along the top? I ask because I was wondering if that style of hinge would support an up-swinging overhead cabinet door if it was small enough.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Tejon7

I can't remember, do your overhead doors swing out or up? In other words, are those hinges on the side of the door or along the top? I ask because I was wondering if that style of hinge would support an up-swinging overhead cabinet door if it was small enough.

My overhead cabinet doors swing up, but those hinges don't hold the doors open - the doors are too heavy for that, even the ones without the added weight of the tensioners. I'd have to add gas pistons for that, which I'm thinking of doing down the road.

[Tejon7]

Ah ok. Thanks for that. Gas struts might be in my future to, unless some better idea pops up in this thread!

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Tejon7

Ah ok. Thanks for that. Gas struts might be in my future to, unless some better idea pops up in this thread!

Maybe like 10 hinges per door would do the trick, but those things are actually pretty expensive.