hingesrivets
I have a mirror (left) attached to a little cabinet (right) via two hinges in the following picture. The combination is supposed to be fixed above the sink in my bathroom.
But now I would like to detach the mirror from the little cabinet. There are no screws for the hinges, so I wonder how to do that and with what tools?
Closer look at a hinge (Click for larger view):
I have the same problem. These doors are crap. The backings are 1/8" fiber board glued to the mirror glass. This 'fake' wood is warping from bathroom moisture, hence the mirrors are becoming unglued and starting to flop. I am considering replacing this cabinet instead (with a higher quality more pricey one, sigh!), since the 2nd (of 3) door hinges broke in exactly the same way as described in original post, and the third will fail soon, I'm sure.
Having said that, I have a stopgap repair that I do NOT recommend, since I'm petrified this (or the rest of the door) will come apart at any time. Caveat emptor!
The fix I made was to salvage hinges from a previous glass doored cabinet. You might have to order your own (see below). The bracket on the hinge that attached to the door has a cross section shaped like a "U", or an "L" with a toe on the mirror side (right) and two set screws on the back (left) to pinch into the door board. Because the base of the "U" was 1/4" I had to glue another 1/8" strip of strong dense wood to the back of the fiber board. This was ok as it gives more for the set screws to bite into. I carefully wedged the toe between the glass and the fiberboard (bad, as this further separates the mirror from the fiber board, ugh! and the metal on glass might chip if bumped). Note that the new bracket "U" height has to be short enough to clear the old rivets. I had to file away some of the old hardware to make this all fit. This fix has lasted several years of "careful use"... but I wouldn't use around small children and I'm not gonna fix this again!
Glass Door Pivot Hinges: (woodworker.com)
Some designs of hinge are often fitted the wrong way around. Try taking the seat off and swapping the hinges over side to side. I've seen this many times. With the vertical part of the hinge further forward it alters the balance point and hey presto, the seat stays up.
Worth a second look at least...
Best Answer
You might be able to remove the hinge pin by gently tapping from the bottom up, using an appropriate size punch and hammer. The photos don't show the top and the bottom of your hinges well.
If the hinge pin is flanged at both ends (like a nail head), then you won't be able to do this, though.
Otherwise, you'll have to remove the rivets...
You could try drilling them out, but take care not to damage the hinge and/or the mirror frame.
Likewise, you could take a Dremel cutting wheel and carefully cut off the rivet crimps (See the image below).
But, for small jobs like this and with small soft-ish rivets, I've had good luck just mashing the rivet-crimps with vise-grips and/or diagonal cutters -- squeezing it small enough that the rivet could be pushed through the whole. If the rivets are not too tough, this can be the fastest and cleanest way to get them off.
Note for completeness: In some cases, rivet crimps and/or heads can be chiseled off, but in this case, it would probably wreck your cabinet in the process.