Outmoded trade practice

In the fitted furniture trade there are a number of practices that we consider outmoded and that our manufacturing process eliminates. We feel these practices need to stop because they are difficult, error prone and lead to mistakes that are often irreversible.

• Drilling door hinge holes

Often different doors and carcasses are used in fitted furniture, perhaps from different manufacturers. This can result in the hinge drilling becoming a practice deferred to installation time so that the fitter can ensure the the door hinges match up. Drilling 35mm holes for hinges is difficult because you need to use a 35mm diameter drill bit and considerable pressure must be applied. The risk of applying this pressure is that you overdo it (we’ve all done this) and drill right through the door and the door is ruined.

• Attaching drawer faces Blum even make special pointing devices to mark the drilling location!

• Cutting doors/side panels to match a sloping ceiling Angles are a problem for manufacturers because an angled unit can only be manufactured when the angle is known so stock can not be held. To avoid this problem some fitters stick with rectangular units and then cut the angles on site. Indeed there are carpenters who pride themselves on their ability to do this. The major problem however is cut quality and how to finish the cut edge. A good quality door will use thick edgebanding that is best applied in a factory and without specialist machinery one needs to resort to applying iron-on edging that is notorious for peeling off at some stage. Some carpenters leave the edge unfinished if for example the top of the door is near the ceiling.

• Drilling door handle holes Also note that some manufacturers will not worry about these processes. They have been selling to kitchen fitters primarily so don’t spend time worrying about DIYers.