In this quick-tip video, Gary Striegler shares a simple yet hard-won trick for installing continuous hinges—also called piano hinges—without binding. After 25 years of working with them, he discovered that adding a small 3- to 5-degree bevel to one edge of the lid or panel eliminates the most common problem people run into with these hinges. He also covers bit selection, pilot holes, and a smart installation sequence for getting the fit right. For more, visit Carpentry with Gary Striegler on YouTube.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, I'm Gary Striegler, and I want to share a tip with you that I'm almost embarrassed to say took me about 25 years to figure out.

So this—I call it a piano hinge, but if you go looking for one at a big box store, you're going to find it called a continuous hinge. They come in different widths and lots of different colors, but one thing you'll notice is the screw holes are right across from each other. I used to use these for things like a lift-up lid on a toy box, a window seat, or full-length mirrors with wings that folded in and out. The great thing about a continuous hinge is it's going to keep your plywood or whatever you're making straight, and they're very strong.

Tips for driving the screws

The challenge is the screws are very small—they're actually a number one. So the first thing I want to say is make sure you get the right tip to drive them. You'll strip them out quickly with the wrong one. You also want a bit holder that's well-magnetized, because these screws are tiny.

The second thing is to use something like this self-centering punch, which drills at least a small pilot hole to get the screw started and centered in the hole.

Installation sequence

Another tip: any time you're working with a continuous hinge, it's a good idea to only put in about every third screw first, then check the fit and see how everything is lining up. When I did this one, I had to put a little spacer shim right here to bring it up.

These hinges are also available in other widths. This is actually the narrow one. They come wider, around 3/4-inch or so, and I've seen them as long as 8 feet.

The 25-year lesson: bevel one edge

All right, here's the thing I'm almost embarrassed to say took me about 25 years to figure out. The way to make sure those screws don't bind, so that the lid or whatever you're making will always close cleanly, is super simple.

Just put about a 5-degree bevel on one edge of the plywood panel. What that means is that when the hinge is installed, and the lid is closed, it's standing ever so slightly open at the hinge line, and that keeps the screw heads from running into each other. It's very much like what I teach people when installing a household door—if you bevel the latch edge, you have much less trouble with binding.

So again, these are very useful hinges, and you can buy them just about anywhere. If you put a 3-to 5-degree bevel on just one side—you don't have to do both, just one—it's going to be very, very hard for you to have a problem with binding.