Concealed Hinges — Before or after painting?

paperclap

Hi all,

The journey continues!

All the doors are now glued up. Tenons trimmed off. Wood filled where necessary.

Made a concealed hinge jig today too, which should ensure some consistency.

Now, should I paint the doors and carcass before or after painting?

Kind of two ways of thinking.

If I paint before, and the doors end up needing to be trimmed a millimetre here or there, they’re going to have to come off, be trimmed, and repainted in that area.

If I paint after, the doors will of course have to come off too. But, I’m a little concerned that the screw holes in the MDF will start to become weaker even more so (MDF already horrible holding power with screws).

Any thoughts? What do y’all do?

ThisIsWeird

Fit hinges and trim to exact size first. Get them spot on.
Then paint.
When you refit the hinges, add a dab of PVA to each screw thread.
Obbie obbed.

paperclap

Ha, I had actually done that PVA trick with our regular door butt hinges!

Why didn’t I think of that… what a dumb*ss

travis-powers

Worst case scenario if you lose all bite drill a small hole and add dowel.
 

ThisIsWeird

What type of hinges will you be using? If 'kitchen unit' type, they'll be screwed into the  MDF faces so will have good solid purchase there, will allow 3-way adjustment, and even soft-close. No PVA required.

travis-powers

Just to add, if you are using kitchen door hinges the screws that fix to the door are fine to be removed and replaced with no problem.
 The grub screws that fit to the carcass are better to use than standard screws but don’t like MDF, I believe that they need a 4mm hole but I drill a 3mm and force the grub screw in, bit of a faff but gives a really good bite.