cabinetsinstallationkitchensrepair
I’d like to see what I can do to fix this very annoying problem I have with one of the cabinets in my kitchen.
Whoever installed it didn’t take into account the pillar behind the hinge, so it’s only able to swing open to about 50 to 60 degrees out rather than opening to the full 90 degrees or more that you would expect when opening a kitchen cabinet.
What would you do that’s the easiest fix for a novice DIYer?
You would (unfortunately) have to sand and stain the whole thing. Stain color is very dependent on a whole bunch of varied factors, and so the final color is always a bit of a guess. In your case, you could reapply stain to the areas you indicated, since they seem to be lighter in shade. Reapplying will darken the color and maybe get it "close enough". Also sand back away from the stained area, but not all the way to bare wood. Just lighten it in a gradient towards the original stained color. Then apply your stain in a similar gradient to get it to blend. That won't perfectly match the color, but it would fade in and hopefully be not-very-noticeable. Exact matching, however, is near impossible unless you sand the whole thing.
Straightly has entirely to do with your fence/guide, and there are many ways to do that. You can fence the baseplate, use collars and fence those, or use bearing bits and fence those - it's just a matter of offset from the cut line.
Cleanly is trickier, and depends on where you need clean. Solid wood trim would allow you to cover your sins, while trying to get a perfect cut on both sides of plywood might lead you to a (usually comparatively expensive) double-spiral (upshear and downshear on the same bit) to cut both faces into the middle.
A upshear from the backside or a downshear from the face side is most typical, but may result in tear out on the backside. Unless your guests look at the inside of the cabinet which should be hidden by the microwave being in it seeking tearout, no-one will ever know but you, normally.
I do wonder if the opening is already framed in solid wood strips, looking at the illustration. That would make it much less prone to tearout.
Best Answer
You can change it so it opens the opposite direction. I.E. Flip the door over and attach the hinges to the left side of the cabinet.
You can remove door by removing the screw on each hinge that holds them to the cabinet frame. Once you have the door un-atached you can measure where the holes are, from top and bottom, on the right side and transfer those measurements to the left side. Then hold the door up so the hinge's line up with those the marks (the marks should be visible in the slot of the hinges) and use a pencil to trace the shape of the hole, an oval, in the hinge.
Next you want to drill a small pilot hole directly in the middle of those two ovals, The drill bit should be smaller than the screws and you only need to drill them about 3/4 of an inch deep. ( in your photo it appears that there may already be a hole on the left side for the hinges, some cabinets are made to have the door mount on either side.)
You can now hold the door up in place and secure it to the cabinet with one screw in each hinge. The hole in the hinge is oval to allow you to adjust the door up or down a little so it lines up with the door next to it.
Now your door handle will be in the wrong place at the bottom of the door. Remove the handle and find a drill bit that fits in the existing screw hole. Measure from side and edge to the hole and transfer that to the top of the door so you can drill a new hole for the handle.
You can fill the old hole with some wood filler or vinyl wall Spackle and touch up with white paint.
Now you door will open in the opposite direction and it will no longer be restricted by the column.