Installing Euro Hardware

European hinges are wonderful. Once they're installed, they give you lots and lots of mobility for adjustment. The downside is they can be a little bit finicky to install. So that's where these Kreg products come in. One is gonna help us drill a hole for the hinge. The other's gonna help us install the door. The thing that's really, really critical with Euro hinges is what's called a cup distance. And that is the distance from the hole we drill to the edge of the door. And if you get that wrong, the hinge isn't gonna work, and it's not gonna offer you all that great adjustment we're hoping to get. So with the Kreg jig, the way it works is that there are cams under here, and when I turn this, I'm setting it to different cup distances. Three millimeters is pretty common. That's where I'm at right now, but 3, 4, 5 and 6 are available. Once we know that, next step is two mark out the hinge location. There's an index line in the jig that I can put on that center line that I just created. And then a Forstner bit with a stop on it so that we get the cup the right depth and don't punch through the door. That would be bad. And at this point, everything is very self-contained. Those cams are holding me the right distance from the edge of the door. The center line has me in the right position, top to bottom. Now this is cool. Don't take the clamps off. Take this out. And there are two small holes right here, guides. Those are for the screws in the hinge. So I'm gonna pre-drill. Tape on there so I don't punch through. That gives us, with the stop on the drill, the cup is the right depth. What you're looking for there is for those ears to be flat on the door. Those holes that came off the jig are for these screw holes in the hinge. At that point, you're ready to screw that hinge onto the door. Next step, drill the other hole. Then we'll install the door on the cabinet, and there's a cool jig for that too. Once the hinges are on the door, we're ready to hang the door on the cabinet. And what's critical here is that we get the overlay right. Overlay is the woodworking word for overlap. It's how much larger the door is than the opening. This door was made with a 1/2 inch overlay. It's a 1/2 inch larger per side than the opening in the cabinet. So when we hang this, we have to locate the hinges correctly so that the door's in the right spot vertically. And that's where this jig from Kreg is gonna come into play. We've got a few things going on here. There are a bunch of holes in the front. They're index holes. And when you look at the owner's manual, it's gonna say if you have 1/4 inch overlay, use this set of holes. If it's 3/8, if it's 9/16, if it's whatever. In our case, for 1/2 inch overlay, we engage in those holes. It also has these shims, and that lets you hit some in between spots. So again, it's all laid out in the owner's manual what set of holes. Do you or don't you need the shims to go with it? Then, that simply clamps onto the face frame. And that is a shelf for the door. Now I can get that bracket in the right spot. Trace. And what's cool about this is it gives us this uniformity, making sure overlay is correct top and bottom. Overlay is right, right to left because of the way we got the cup hole right. Really does a great job of simplifying installation of these Euro hinges so that all of those inter workings that the hinge requires are correct and the door is gonna operate right and be in the right position on your cabinet.