HANGING THE DOORS: CLOCK-CASE HINGES

1 Positioning the hinges

Set the armoire on its back. For each door, fix strips of masking tape across the corners of the opening. Place small sand­paper shims beside the pieces of tape to prevent the door from inadvertently shift­ing as you work. Set the door in place, centering it over the opening. Measure from both sides to make certain the door is parallel to the stiles. Once you are sat­isfied with the positioning, mark the cor­ners of the door on the tape with a pencil. Next, butt the hinges against the edge of the door; use a tape measure to make sure that they are equally spaced from the top and bottom of the door (right). Holding the upper half of the hinge in place, slip off the bottom half and the hinge pin and use a pencil to mark the screw holes on the door edge (below).

2 Mounting the hinges on the door

Secure the door edge-up on a work surface, then bore pilot holes at each marked point. Hold the top half of each hinge square to the door edge and screw it in place (left).

3

Hanging the door

Place the door back on the armoire and reassemble the hinges. Check that the corners of the door are aligned with the marks on the masking tape. Trace around the bottom of the hinges with a pencil, remove the door, disassemble the hinges, and reposition the bottom halves on the armoire. Mark the screw holes on the cabinet, bore pilot holes, and screw the bottom half of each hinge to the armoire (below). Remove the shims and tape strips, insert the pin in the bottom half of the hinge, and place the door on the armoire.

HANGING THE DOORS: RAT-TAIL HINGES

2 Mounting the door

Position the door in its opening in the armoire and assemble the hinge, sliding the rat-tail pin into the hole in the leaf. Fastening the hinge to the armoire is a two-step operation, beginning with the bracket. Trace its outline on the armoire, remove the bracket and pin, then bore a clearance hole for the bracket bolt sup­plied with the hinge through the center of the outline. Thread the bolt into the bracket, slip the bolt into the clearance hole, and use the nut supplied to fasten the bracket to the armoire. Then slide the pin into the bracket, checking that the rat – tail lies flat on the cabinet; bend the tail in a vise, if necessary, to make it sit flat. Reassemble the hinge one final time and use a finishing nail to fasten the rat-tail to the armoire (right).

1

Mounting the hinges on the door

Measure the distance between the top edge of the hinge leaf and the screw holes in the leaf; the holes will be hidden once the leaf is ready to be fastened to the door. Make a mortise for each hinge leaf as you would for lace hinges (page 79). With the door edge-up in a vise, slide the leaf into its mortise. Then slip the rat-tail pin into its bracket and set the bracket on the door edge with the tail pointing toward the bot­tom of the door. Holding the pin and brack­et in position, tap the leaf deeper into the door edge until the hole in the leaf aligns with the pin (left). Measure from the top of the leaf to mark its screw holes on the door and bore countersunk holes. Drive the screws to fix the leaf to the door.

Updated: March 13, 2016 — 2:28 am