Cabinet Door Hinge-Options for Drilling the Hole
If you only need to drill a hole or two for a European style concealed cabinet hinge, I’d approach the situation a couple of different ways. There are about three options on the table that I am familiar with as to how you can get this done.
The drill bit for doing this operation is expensive. So, if you are looking to do this only once, then I would opt out of the idea of purchasing the drill bit for mounting the European concealed hinges. Besides, if you do not have a drill press, you cannot use the specially designed cutter in a hand held drill.
Option 1
Purchase the drill bit for the concealed cabinet door hinge, install it in a drill press and practice until you get it set up correctly.
Option 2
Find a local cabinet company to drill the doors for you. This has to be the easiest route to take and it won’t cost much to stop by and pursued a cabinet maker to do the task for you. Most companies have the machines preset for the project and it will only take a matter of moments for them to drill your cabinet door out for the European concealed hinge application.
Option 3
It’s possible to use a hole saw set to accomplish drilling the hinge hole in the door. What you will have to do is adjust the pilot bit so that it barley sticks out enough to anchor into the wood to hold as you are drilling. If you decide to use this method, you must be extremely careful to not drill too deep. Once you have the hole drilled, use a chisel to chip the center section of the hinge hole location out so you can insert the hinge into the door. The depth of the hole must be deep enough for the hinge to set flat on the back of the door.
Those are the three options that I have used to get cabinet doors drilled for hinges. There are products that are sold on the Internet to help the home do-it-yourself cabinet maker to drill the door holes with. If this is just a repair project, I certainly wouldn’t go through the headaches associated with ordering something online.
Of all of my suggested options for drilling cabinet doors for hinges, I would take the doors to a local company and have them do the work for you. In the long run, this will be the way to get a professional job done quickly without error.