There is an enormous range of hinges available for cabinet doors.

In practice, most of the cabinets you install will use a European-style concealed hinge.

Nonetheless, you may still come across butt hinges of one type or another if you're working with traditional face-frame cabinets.

This picture shows the main difference between face-frame cabinets and European-style frameless cabinets.

If you need to refresh your memory on these two construction methods, go back to the unit: Processes in kitchen and bathroom projects.

European-style hinges

European-style hinges are sometimes called cup hinges or concealed hinges. The hinge cup is mounted to the door, with the recess giving the hinge mechanism extra space to operate. The arm is attached to a mounting block screwed to the inside of the cabinet.

There are three main types of concealed hinges - full overlay, half overlay and inset.

These names refer to the position of the door in relation to the side of the cabinet.

Adjusting the door

This drawing shows a typical concealed hinge with the door in an open position. The functions of the screws are as follows:

A: fixed door screws - used to permanently fix the hinge cup to the door.

B: adjustable cabinet screws - fixes the mounting block to the inside of the cabinet, and allows the doors to be adjusted vertically (up and down).

C: locking screw - used to lock the arm in place once any sideways adjustments have been made (note that it needs to be loosened before screw D can be turned)

D: adjusting screw - used to adjust the door horizontally (from side to side).

To increase or decrease the gap at the side of the door, turn screw D in the same direction on both hinges for the door.

The finished gap should be about 1-2 mm.

To adjust the angle of the door, turn screw D on either the top or bottom hinge, or if you need a bigger adjustment, turn the top screw one way and the bottom screw the other way.

If the door is binding (that is, touching the cabinet side as it closes), loosen the locking screw C on both hinges and slide the door outwards, away from the cabinet.

Retighten the screws and check to see whether it has fixed the bind.

Note that the gap only needs to be 1 mm between the door and the cabinet.

To adjust the height of the door, loosen the mounting block screws for both hinges (screw B) and move the door up or down.

In most cases, the cabinet door should be flush with the bottom of the cabinet and down about 4 mm from the top.

This will provide clearance between the top of the door and the bench top.

The door should also line up with the doors or drawers either side of it.

Always use a hand-held Phillips or pozi-drive screwdriver to make these sorts of adjustments.

Don't use a cordless drill, because it can easily strip the thread or burr the slots in the screw head.

Never try to 'rack' the carcass sideways to adjust the doors.

This will simply push the cabinet out of square and make it harder to adjust the doors properly.

Cabinets should always be installed level, plumb and square, regardless of the alignment of the floor or walls.