Thread: Best type of hinge for opening desk lid?

Evening all,

I'm helping a mate build a hinged cover for an old desk. Made out of veneer, 45 deg mitre joins with biscuits for strength. Cut it all and glued it last weekend. He has bought Blum hinges for the hinged table lid as that's what the shop recommended, which are nice looking hinges.

Veneer is eucalypt covered ply. I think it is 15mm, but I've measured aroud 14.5 with the vernier. Looking at these hinges, I'm not sure it will work. Generally you drill the timber the depth of the 35mm forstner bit, which appears to be bang on 14mm. Add the little point and the depth of the hinge is greater than the timber thickness.

I could mount the hinge on a raised section, but that won't work as the hinge needs to fully close on the lid.

Think we've got the wrong type of hinges for this application and I might be better off using a full length piano hinge. The reason he got the blum hinges is that he is intending to mount a monitor on the underside of the desk lid, so when you open the lid the monitor is there. Based on this weight and the weight of the ply (lid approx 1300 x 700) I think the shop suggested the blum hinges.

Can we use the blum hinges. If not will piano hinges work in this application? My only concern about these is that you will have to screw into the end grain of ply for the back mounting.

Any advice appreciated.

Tom