I know the soft-close hinges and slides have an adjustment screw for the tension. I'm guessing yours have a similar mechanism, but without seeing the hinge or fiddling with it myself, I can't really give any specifics. Sorry!

I'm guessing you meant "Impediment" to closing at the 3" mark. Did they match the model # for the 3rd hinge? If it's similar but not identical the geometry of the levers and pins will be off at some point, but not when "at rest" in the closed position. Does the door look at all warped when at this stumbling point? Does removing the middle hinge make the problem go away?
Are these free-swinging or self-closing (spring loaded)? They should all be one or the other.
Casey

It's possibly an alignment issue that can be addressed with adjustment of the hinges. I had a similar problem with a cabinet I just made - one of the doors wouldn't quite close flush. A little fiddling with the hinge adjustment fixed it.

anemity, chiefneil - I'm sure that's right about there being adjustment screws. But I did ask the cabinet guys and I imagine they would have tweaked those if it was tweakable. Still, I try to learn that layout; I may post a photo later if I can't figure it out. Gosh I am learning a lot about cabinet hardware - - there's little dials on the bottoms to raise/lower the fronts too! cool...

Casey: that's right; I knew there was something wrong with that sentence but was dashing and had no time to puzzle it out; sorry! Ohmmm... (pun intended).

That's just the sort of thing I was looking for a clue about. I will definitely check for numbers; I didn't know there were any but that sounds like a great tree to start barking at. Door doesn't look warped though I do worry as it's pretty tall. I should say "doors" so that fact that both do exactly the same thing at exactly the same place is meaningful; suggests isn't a door-specific catch, and probably not warping which would be door-specific and I don't think the molding is catching; checked and also, I think it would catch the other door. Actually, there are two of these cabinets, each with double doors, and each pari has just one with 180-hinges, on the inside part; the other matching doors for each set are 110-degree soft-close.

I will play with figuring out how to get the hinges off. I figured out how to get the soft-close off, but not the 180-degree-ers. Is it the same? Does it depend? Do I have to push in that thingy on the front and kind of wrap it around....? They are not self-closing; they told me the 180-degree hinges don't come in soft-close. Is that true?

Thanks a big ole ton. I'll report back; can't fiddle right now; running again. No impedance on the coming and going around here....

OK, I donned my spotted reading glasses and hopped to. There are the itsy bitsiest of numbers inside the hinges. They're all the same (at least on one door of three hinges; I presume it would be the same on the other, with the same problem).

It took some doing but I figured out how to pop out the hinges. The middle one didn't pop like the upper and bottom, so I was thinking this might be a clue. But eventually I got it out and I'm not so sure it means much except perhaps about the relative position of the hinges' installation.

I iteratively removed one hinge first from the middle, replaced it then the top, replaced then the bottom. Same click for all when only a pair attached, regardless of which pair.

I figured out there's a little white plastic doo-hickey inside that is the starting point of the click-part (it doesn't actually make an audible sound, just there's a - what's the word? - a stop that you have to push through).

I also notice a big ole space which I'm pretty sure is where you're supposed to pop the part that provides the soft closure -- they're Blum hinges.

I tried to take some pictures. Here's a shot of the white doo-hickey making contact inside the hinge. I think this is what is needing pushing away:

Here's the door open:

If it helps in any way, the numbers, visible in the cavity behind the hole, but only with a flashlight, much tilting of the head and magnifying of the field are: "70.610-04" and then centered underneath "01".

I guess the next question is: what can be adjusted? I'm hesitant to start screwing around (get it?) as I might get it so out of whack I'll be worse off than before and unable to return to "here". I notice a giant screw in the back, out of sight of these pictures, that looks like a target and therefore I'm guessing is for adjustment. But don't these screws do things like move the door panel up-down, and right-left? This isn't a closing adjustment is it?

Thanks for any thoughts....

bump ... any cabinet makers out thre with thoughts on this please? Thanks!

Hi,
There's an adjustment screw (probably at the bottom of that tee-shaped slot) that moves the hinge sideways to skew the door left/right. On two-hinge doors it's simple, it just skews the door; with three hinges, it can make a bind. No matter how the door needs to be skewed to look right, the middle hinge adjustment stays in the middle/neutral position, while the top and bottom ones get adjusted in opposite directions to affect the changes. This means that the middle hinge needs to start out centered, neither in nor out.
The warp I was asking about was the one induced by the maladjusted hinges, not any pre-existing warp. It would be a quick way to tell if there was a hinge problem at the stalling point of movement.
Casey

Casey - thank you!

So I did find an adjustment screw behind the T-shaped hole. It seems to move the cabinets right and left -- that is on its furthest setting it starts to overlap its mate and doesn't close.

I played with that first on the middle hinge, then on the top. It didn't seem to make and difference to the catching. Plus, wouldn't that have been taken care of by my unclipping the middle one if that were the problem?

I notice, then, a total of two adjustent screws; there's one in the back of the big device as well. I'm guessing that's, therefore, an up-down adjustment.

But ... should there be a third one someplace? Perhaps I'm not getting them all?

I *Really* appreciate this, Casey! Wanna make some more cabinets here for me? ;)

The rearward screw I think moves the hinge/door in & out; closer to the cabinet or farther away. It could also be responsible for the bind, but usually not as egregious as the skew adjustment.
Casey

Are there any more adjusting screws than these two? I'm pretty sure neither of them is responsible for the bind.

Have you any other ideas what could be making it bind? Am I missing a third adjustment screw? I tried to call Blum but they close early on Fridays. grrrr.

Thanks!

Another question: did the door always have a third hinge or was it added later; the hole in the door could be off-kilter. Off by 1/8 would make a heck of a bind, and it's possible. Even from the factory, but I was thinking installer error. See if the hinge bores all line up with a straightedge.
Casey

OK, Casey - thanks for that idea. I'll go check.

The doors are tall and did come with 3 hinges originally. However, what isn't original is the 180-degree hinges. They were originally 110-degree ones and the two inner doors of the two pairs were changed. This is because originally the cabinets had been designed as single doors but the factory decided to make them each a pair of doors. That was OK with me but it was a little difficult to get the dishes in given the tight quarters. We fixed the problem by installing those full-opening hinges.

So ... this line sounds really promising. Because I think the 180-degree hinges are really massive, right? And I think they might have needed to have a hole drilled out. So ... I'm off to try to line things up. I sure hope this isn't the problem....

Hm, I dunno. I'm not exactly sure what to line up. But when I open the door to full extension I tried to line up the various parts of that T-shaped hole. I do think the middle one is off a little, but not more than 1/8" I'm guessing adjustment could make up for that though, right?

OTOH, the hinges have a little foot that wraps around the side of the box -- you can see it on both photos above. It spans the light and dark wood. That's a bit different on each hinge. The bottom set lines up well. The middle set has 1/16" overhang. The top set has 1/16" overhang on the bottom of the hinge but is flush at the top. go figure. But actually, I'm figuring this is all a function of adjustment, no?

Also, if this were a problem with, say, the middle hinge, then wouldn't the click go away when the middle hinge was detached?

So I take it this is not proper in a 180-degree hinge; ordinarily they close smoothly-ish....? But then this is just so weird as every combination of pairs of hinges alone does it too.

Thanks for your continued patience and smart ideas.

Hi,
The reference tabs should all be the same. They were apparently installed a little twisted where they mount to the box. If it were me doing it, I'd take the hinges off, fill in the holes where the tabs indicate mis-mounting, and re-drill the holes more carefully this time. The tabs make sure that the hinge is on a level line, and there's not an adjustment screw for that. The devialtion from the horizontal puts stresses on all the other parts, and is suspect in the binding feel.
Casey

Oh. rats. Well, thanks Casey - I really appreciate you sticking with this puzzle. I hate the solution though! Sounds like so much work! I wouldn't be the one doing it, and I hate to suggest it to the cabinet guys; just tired of it (/them, frankly; the whole thing not being done).

But ... if they were out of alignment this way, shouldn't the two-hinges-only test have changed things? Each pair of hinges I tested (i.e., 1 & 3, 2&3, 1&2) felt just the same with the same hesitation at the same angle. If three hinges were not aligned and throwing the line off, wouldn't two of those three hinges make a considerable improvement? As in 'two points determine a line'? I can see forcing a third point in there will cause the line to waver if the third point isn't aligned with the other two; but won't just the two be aligned by definition? Short of hitting the cabinet itself of course....