Cutting Slots For Door Hinges

Not strictly a concealed hinge.

Place one of the hinges on the door’s spine so that its top end is in line with the pencil line. The hinge should rest folded over the edge of the door that will serve as an axis for opening. Hold the hinge down firmly and trace its three-sided outline into the wood with your utility knife. Keep the blade as close to the hinge as possible. Place the bit square to the edge of the door and just inside the hinge outline. Drill slowly until the line on the bit reaches the surface of the door. Stop and drill again in an adjacent spot so the holes just overlap. Work methodically across and along the length of the mortise, always keeping part of the bit next to an untouched surface. Dec 04, 2009  And to answer the original question (I may have read it wrong the first time) I cut the hinge slots on my router table with a simple “sled” that allows the box to “feed” straight into the blade. I also clamp stops in place to get consistent results and not cut too deep.

What you have there is a cabinet hinge for lay-on doors widely used in kitchen units. It's concealed only as far as you can't see it with the door closed. Their cleverness is the mechanism that lifts the door clear of the carcass, then hinges.

A concealed hinge or at least what I know as, is a cylindrical hinge about 14-mm in diameter with a series of plates to make up the hinge joint. You bore a hole into the edge of the door, could be a cabinet door, and the other identical part of the hinge goes into the edge of the cabinet carcass.

The big difference is that concealed hinges are horribly expensive but lay-on hinges are cheap.

For what it's worth, the best lay-on hinges are made by Blum of Germany. The clip-on types are the easiest to use

Hinge slot cutter

Cutting Hinges Into Door Frame

Did you know that the lay-on door hinges and any other cabinet fittings adhere to a standardised set of dimensions, so any make of hinge will generally fit any cabinet door?