We'll jump ahead just to get a look at how and where the hardware is used. Here we can see how the hinge hardware will come into play. The white panel is a side to an upper box  - it is 12" deep X 800mm tall. This has "system holes" that are 5mm. They were drilled using the LR 32 SYS. And are spaced 32 mm from CL to CL. This panel will utilize the mounting plates that fit in the 5mm holes. The door back is one of a pair that will go to this box. The door will hold the hinge cup assembly. The hole pattern is not the same as the line bored system holes but one of the critical relations is that the "center line" of the hinge cup 3 hole pattern falls in line with the "center line" of the 32mm spacing of the 5mm system holes on the side panel. The door hinge boring consists of 2 8mm holes and a 35mm cup hole. Spacing and locations are dictated by hinge type,stock thickness and overlay options. Many types of drilling templates are available at a wide range of price points. Setting up your own drilling jigs on a drill press with stops is another option that will result in the same accuracy.

 


  Note that the door height is exactly the same height at 800mm. When cabinet sides and doors are the same height using multiples of 32mm then door hinge drilling locations become uncomplicated. Then we can take advantage of the system holes and the door cup holes as they will always line up precisely. The parts can be pre cut and drilled but not assembled as these are here, and the door hardware will mate with the case side dead on every time. Only an operator error could foul this up    as the numbers are a given. These system hole spacing and locations are a standard and when using the LR 32 SYS or any line boring machine or method to complete this process on the cabinet side panels so long as the basics are uniform the results will be the same. We will go over this in more detail later.   

OT,

Can't say enough good things about what you're doing here.  Keep on going, waiting the next posts eagerly.

BTW, what is "CL to CL"?

This thread is just one example of what makes this forum truly outstanding!!!


Dave

OT,

Excellent work!!!   Keep it coming!   And the Picture Cop (aka "me"), gives you two thumbs-up and a gold star for the pics!  

Mirko's great LR32 tutorial and Brice Burrell's animated drawings (http://www.burrellcustomcarpentry.com/subpage13.html) and LR32 pdf (http://www.festoolusa.com/Web_files/LR32_tutorial.pdf) provide wealth of detailed information about how to use the LR32 for cabinet making.   Your work completes the picture!!!  

When I first started buying Festool, I looked at the LR32 and thought, "what's that thing used for?"   Now it's on my to-buy list.

Many thanks,

Dan.

Overtime,
Man this is good stuff!
Excellent work, and thanks for the time and effort putting this tutorial together!
Keep it going, and tell us everything!
Matthew

Wow, Dave, that's some detail-packed sentence!


I don't know why the pics wouldn't show up for you.  They are referencing the gallery, so as long as you are signed into the forum they should appear.

I'll check on the settings...

Matthew

OK- thanks all for your compliments

 Now let's cut up a $64.00 sheet of 3/4" 4'X8' Baltic Birch 

Our cabinet has dimensions and we will prepare to cut out the parts. Oh right , we will construct a double door upper cabinet here.
 Earlier I downsized a full sheet of  ply using a Festool guide rail 3000/2 and a TS 55 EQ
I marked off, and set the rail smack on the line to yield or net a 12" wide x 8' long piece. Did that again and got another 12" plank. And as usual the cuts are super nice. We won't be needing "cutlist" or any program here, just a sharp pencil and some paper. We now have two planks of ply that will give us two sides, a top & bottom and two shelves. We still need to find and cut a back and deal with the doors. But we'll stay focused on the box for now.




Low tech boom arm - two sections of hardware store bungie by the foot, suspended from eye hooks and tied to hose for "quick release"






Now we can get things going at the MFT. At this point I will start downsizing again. To insure we get square cuts check your setup. And as you proceed remember not to slam that heavy plywood into the fence and send it out of whack.
  Our parts will be 2 at 30" long (top & bottom) and two at 800mm long (right and left sides) and two at 29 and13/16ths these will be for the shelves. This will allow for room for the shelf to drop onto the shelf pins. We will also need to trim them down from 12" to 11 1/4" This is because of the back. Our box will be 800mm tall x 31 1/2" wide ( outside dimension) x 12" deep this does not include the doors. We will have a 1/4" back let into a daddo. We will be adding 1/2" x 3-4" mounting rails on the back top and bottom.








  So to insure I get nice uniform and square cuts, I will take each plank and cut them all at 32" to get a total of 6 pieces from the two planks.. As I rough cut I mark the Square cut corner to indicate it's good clean cut. Don't rely on the factory edge for a finished cut. Make all the parts to have fresh square ends.  Stop to pause and consider this, are your boards uniform at 12" ? That number is not set in stone and can be whatever you want. What matters most is that we get our top, bottom and sides all the same width.  Since our two planks were cut using the guide rail method we will want to insure they are uniform. Will you sleep better if you ran them accross the table saw to shave them all a bit just to make sure they are the same size ?, no biggie,  OK no problem because once we start cross cutting...  Next we will place the marked square end against the stop for repeat cuts. Now we measure out 800mm , mark and locate the board and set that stop so the pairs are equal length cut and repeat. Then on to the sides and shelves. Mark or label the parts as soon as they are sized and keep them in pairs.
 



 Here we have our parts, top, bottom and sides, and shelves all nice and square with clean crisp edges. Note that along with some dust,  those small pieces on the right is our waste cut offs. 98% or so yield- not bad.   

Overtime,
I'm following the whole thing, man!  Keep it going.
By the way, your shop is too clean!!!  And I like your boom-arm set up.
Looking forward to the next installment.
Matthew

 Before we get to the LR 32 SYS work. Here's some prep work on our doors and a little more on the hinge hardware and tooling.



 Here is a table full of goodies. We have a bunch of Blum 120 deg Inserta hinges and mounting plates. Also a few Blumotion Soft Close plungers.  4 completed but unfinished doors. They were made from clear pine with a 1/4" knotty pine veneered panel. Festool # 491129 Stile bit and # 491130 Rail bit were used to create the profile on the 2 1'4" pine stock.

 And we have a pre cut pile of 2 1/4" pine stock, face and edge sanded and ready to be machined with the same Stile and Rail set. The boards are shrink wrapped to help keep them stable. This help combat warpage due to humidity while they await machining.

 

 Here we have two of Blum's tools. The large one is Blum's Ecodrill # M31.000 used to drill the 3 hole hinge cup pattern on the doors.And the other is the Template drilling guide bushing # 65.5010 used to locate and drill for the Blumotion Soft Close plunger #970A1002

 Here is a closer look at the Ecodrill







This is a pricey little setup at about $260.00  For the small shop and sometime cabinet maker this tool is just incredible. There are much less costly jigs and methods available. For me this is like the domino is to the mortise and tennon process. A giant leap in accuracy on demand, time saving and ease of use. Just strike a line , clamp and go. You can bring the tool to the work piece any where any time.

More to come

 Now lets move on to the final machining process of our parts. We have only the case sides to work on. So it's time for the LR 32 SYS and a router. By now most of us have had plenty of time to absorb all of the info on the set up and use of this equipment. And even those that have it on their wish list know how to use it by now.
  But lets burn some bandwidth with a flurry of pics.

 

Here we have our LR 32 guide rail and a straight edge board marked with the blue tape. This is the "Mirko" inspired jig. On my version I have drilled two holes on each end and use  some screws to hold it firmly into place. Also to to remove the rail from the end boards and then put it back together if need be and have it dead on accurate without the need to readjust.
   The straight edge board is set along the MFT's fence and is clamped to the MFT rails at the ends. Then the jig assembly is butted up to the board and also clamped. Now we're set to go.



 I'm showing here how I have set the jig so as to have the center of the "system holes" land at 37mm from the finished edge of the side panel. Since I will be adding the wood edge tape (a small sample showing here only to illustrate that my "finished edge" is not on the board yet.) So my set up takes this into account. I'll remove the wood tape sample.



Again, we want the row of system hole centers to land at 37mm from the finished edge of the board to the center of the holes.



A close look, we are setting the adjustable bar pin stops and here we have depressed the router bit (router is off and we're just plunging for marking) to give a mark so we can measure and adjust from. We'll move the router down the line and make a couple of depression marks to insure we are going to have our row of holes parallel to the edge of the board. This process is used when setting up with out the Mirko jig, which makes this a moot point.



Here are two tools that have become invaluable in the aid of measuring and understanding the metric system. The tape measure is Fastcap's PMS - (Pad Metric Standard) and they have two more metric tapes also. The "Metric - Standard" tape will have you using and understanding the mm system in no time.
  Also shown is a digital caliper with Metric, Inches, fractions, and Decimals. 



Now we have a side panel set in place for drilling the 5mm holes onto the front edge of the panel, I marked the "top" of the panel (but if your board length is a multiple of 32mm and and your end stops are set to have a first hole CL land at 16mm from the end of the panel) then top and bottom won't matter. It's reversable.  When you learn to trust your Festools and their results the panel can be left or right and all will line up. For now when we flip the board we'll place the "top" against the end stop and secure. Using Festool Clamping Elements # 488030 without the undermount knobs.
   Also you can see 3 faint pencil lines the first is to indicate that the first hole location will be at 16 mm from the edge of the board ( we will not drill this it is only to show correct set up for our application. The next two lines are at 80mm and 112mm and these are our starting points. They are marked by colors (a Mirko system) No need to measure and mark, the jig will do all that. But just a few seconds of pre planning will give you a nice hole pattern. Those two will be for our hinge mounting plates, and we want them at the bottom also, So locate the two holes that are 80 and 112mm from the bottom of the board and without moving or changing a thing mark and or drill those two positions. We're working on the front edge of a side panel and only the front edge needs the mounting plate holes. Then we'll skip a few, say 4-5 hole  positions from both the top and bottom mounting plate holes and drill every thing in between. Those will be for the shelf pins. And as Mirko points out no need to go drilling willy nilly all over the place. Because I don't think you will be placing a shelf 4'' from the bottom or top of the cabinet and we won't be needing mounting plates in the back of the box either
  This process is so easy and fast that it is hard not to just drill the entire hole line, hence the color codes.

  OK now reposition the board to drill the Back row of holes. We only need holes in this application for shelf placement so we will make them in line with the shelf holes that were drilled on the front edge. We're going to keep our 37mm set back the same for this but we could easily change it if need be for example - if our "back" of box was set up in a way that would necessitate the row of holes to be located inward a bit. Then we could do something like in the next pic.

   

 Here we show a spacer block that we can place at both ends of our jig set up to increase our (standard 37 mm setting for the front edge) to any distance we might need. The 37mm is a constant but there are applications when it is changed. Door hinge and drawer slide hardware utilise this "system hole pattern" 37mm from the edge with 32mm CL to CL and 5mm holes.
  With this project we are using the simplest form of the system.

 And just think not long ago I thought all those silly little holes were just for shelf adjustment !
 

 

 Time for the edge banding. Many folks already have the equipment in some form or another and or methods of completing this task. But for those of us that do not we'll quickly go over my limited experience with the Fastcap wood tape process.
  So round up all your parts. Find the shelves, hope you didn't loose em or cut them up for another project. We will need some good sharp scissors to rough cut our wood tape. We'll cut them each about 1" or so longer then actual size.

 

 First we will clean the dust off the edge by using a blast of air then wipe the edge surface with a damp rag with acetone or denatured alcohol. This will prep the surface for the sticky tape.



Peel back some of the tape cover and carefully line up before letting it make contact. I start with about 1/2" overhang at the end. I'm using 15/16" tape. So I have plenty of room to get it right.



Peel off the rest of the protective covering and continue to press it on





 
Flip the board over and trim off the excess on the ends, then trim off the excess on the long sides (where there is excess greater than about a 1/16th or so). Careful to keep the blade away from the panel by using the body of the utility knife as a guide, The blade will want to follow the grain so careful - this is not a finish cut so leave a 1/16th or so. This will make the final trimming go smoothly.




Flip it back over and roll it down tight. It's on there now ! Now to do the finish trimming.



I do not have a hand held trimmer Like Virutex or Fastcap double sided trimmer blade (yet). So I have been using a PC 310 and have found that this type of bit, slightly angled and set just so will give a nice clean cut.

 

This process can be somewhat tricky in that the glue line cutting has a sweet spot where the best outcome is when the blade is just so. It takes two passes usually to get a clean cut. And the bit and router base needs to be kept clean by using acetone or denatured alcohol. You will know when you have a clean cut. When it's not right you will have glue either showing or you can still feel it.



When your done with the trimmer then you can go over the edge with 180 or so grit - giving a few swipes to clean up along with downward swipes on the ends to eliminate fuzz.

This stuff takes some time to get right and it can be a little frustrating at first but after some trials you can get a nice edge.
I would like to hear from others that have used it.




 

  Thanks Fred, That's just what I was hoping to hear. The Fastedge trimmer sounds like a much better way to trim this product. I should have got one when I got the wood tape. But for some reason I thought the trim router would be fine. And while I am getting very good results, That type of trimmer sounds much better. So I will add that one to my tool list, including their roller, and will have them soon. Thanks for sharing your results with the Fastedge. 

Lou,

I haven't tried the Fastcap trimmer on wood edging yet, but so far every trim has been perfect on the white PVC edging on the melamine cabinets.  It only takes a couple seconds for me to trim an edge.  I've never used any method that works as well as this, but (standard disclaimer here :-)) YMMV.

Fred

Correct, Fred.  I did log in.  I might add that pics were showing up better last night.  Maybe it's due to my Dell Inspiron and the whims of MS Vista OS!

Dave R.

Dave,
Following the Vista story feels eerily like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," as one by one great people get swallowed up and their identity zombied out.

Seriously though, if this occurred right when you switched computers I'd bet that's the problem.  Do you have another PC, perhaps in another location, where you could test whether photos show up?

Matthew

Case Assembly and hardware.
   Well now that I  have all the parts ready I'll dry fit and measure for the 1/4" back. I left about a 1/16" play. The back was cut and dry fit again. These parts have been primed and the insides have a finish coat on them. The case was assembled with glue and 1 1/4" washer head  Kreg screws. Pipe clamps were also used. And the usual "scramble" while getting it all square and set before the glue set.






  1/2" x 3 1/2" nailing rails were glued and pocket holed into the back top and bottom. Using Kreg SPS C1 1" pan head coarse screws. After searching for suitable 1/2" scraps I had to get these from a fresh sheet using the 3000/2 and TS 55 EQ Then cross cut on the MFT.

 

Here I have a Cleat with a 45 deg bevel on it. It is on top with the back side all glued up and ready for placement. Dominos just because I could. They are all at the middle wide setting Glue dripping ready to go. Brad nails were also used. Think it will hold ? 
 The shameless overkill and and use of the domino on these two boxes for the cleat is because these are bound for my Sister and BIL"s home, where they "might" be housing reams of paper. Hence the over built cleat attachment, and finish work. 
  My shop cabinets have no finish at all, and the cleats were mounted without the dominos.
   



 From the inside with the cleat temporarily clamped some Kreg 1 1/2" SML C150 washer head coarse screws were piloted and screwed through the back and nailer into the cleat. These Cabinets will be hanging on a concrete block basement wall. A mating cleat will be attached to the wall. 



A bumper strip was glued and brad nailed near the bottom to keep the cab level against the wall. The full load is on top cleat.

  With the case woodworking complete we'll get to the hardware and doors.



 We"ll install the Blum # 173H710 cam adjustable hinge mounting plates. An easy process, small arrows point outward towards the door. The plastic dowels fit perfectly in the 5mm holes and while tightening the screws they expand while gripping the fixture down flat.



 Using the Blumotion locating and drilling jig is a rush.    We need to drill a 10mm (25/64) hole 2" deep into the edge of the ply. This helps keep the bit straight. Steady and light pressure. Have the bondo ready.    No it's not that bad.

Locating the piston / plunger Update Detailed information on locating the plunger 970A can be found on the Blumotion for doors brochure. (3.26mb file) http://www.blum.com/pdf/BUS/1077_bmn4d_b/1077_bmn4d_b.pdf  Page 16 and 17.

There are many other soft close choices including the snap onto the standard hinge type such as the 973A. No drilling or special tools required.
There is a Blumotion option for just about any application.  Pick the model and check the specs to match with hardware.

The installed location shown is off by about an inch. The correct location per Blum specs, using the combination of 0mm mounting plates and overlay doors should be 32mm from the inside corner of the cabinet,  in the same general location but a little furher away from hinge.



Then we'll tap the Soft Close plunger down into place. We have one per door, upper hinge side - right and left on the front edge of the top panel.

 That completes the case and now onto the doors.
 
   Plenty of options here. I will use a stile and rail set by Festool. I get my door dimensions by the using the actual outside case measurements. And since I will have a double door I'll split it in half and I'll make my doors so as to have no gap and no reveal. We're using Full Overlay hinges. After door completion I will create a door gap by trimming the mating edge of each door a bit, 1/32" or so each. And if I wanted a little reveal I will still make the door full size at this time. 
   Here is the Festool set that I used #491129 stile bit and #491130 rail bit.



 The stock was machined on a Jessem router table. A slow speed was used and plowed out the profile in one big gulp. (soft pine) With a second pass to clean up. One minor issue or comment on the set: the center gap is less than 1/4" by enough that for my application I had to widen the gaps of all the parts a bit to receive the 1/4" panel that I used in the center of the doors. Some very minor sanding before assembly to clean up fuzz. The profile is smooth and pleasing to the eye. Nice looking set. The stile and rail stock was 3/4" clear pine and sized at 2 1/4"
  If using slab doors I would tape only the hinge side of each door and leave the other three edges of each door unfinished until fitting is complete.

When the doors are ready we will drill the three hole hinge cup pattern in the back side of each door, and then fit them.

 Or a CNC machine starting with a 13" thick slab 

Dave, I hope you are getting to see the pics OK. They are coming directly from Photobucket not the gallery, as I have not yet figured out how to ref the link and view with a preview as I attempt to edit  .

An outstanding thread. Nice work telling the step-by-step. I know well how difficult that is. Keep em coming. We will never have to much of that.

 We'll put the hinges on and start the finish trimming. Wow they fit and line up 



Adjust the doors so they are flush with the side of the case as a starting point. Now you will see that you will need to create the gap for the two doors to operate properly.




I shaved an equal tad off the mating edges of each door (Remember not to change the hinge cup edge) and then edge sanded.



 Then I just shaved the tops and bottoms using the stop on the MFT. Here you can create more of a reveal if so desired. Those using slab doors can complete the edge banding process after fitting the doors.



 With some quick and easy adjustments you will be able to fine tune the door gap and all around fit with amazing accuracy.



The gap can be closed to a razor thin parallel line or widened to suit your taste.

Closing comments to follow.

Patrick,
Nice job. Have you always used the Blum Ecodrill?  I have the 1400 router, but no guide rail with holes.  I have been debating on getting the LR 32-Set or the LR 32-SYS. I have other blum products and like them a lot. Do you know how  the 35mm bit works with the LR 32-SYS. I've heard that some people have problems with it burning using the router. Any thoughts or recommendations on which system to lean toward would be helpful.
Thanks, Mike

Patrick,

I guess the plywood is thinner around my neck of the woods. I just bought the same bit set and the groove was perfect for the 1/4 inch plywood I had on hand. Who knows what the next sheet will be like. I did need to re-shim the bearing on the rail bit to get a better fit on the joint. The tongue was .010 (.25mm) thinner than the groove. I like the look of these joints. In pine like your doors it would look right at home in a more rustic setting while in a fine close grained wood like maple or cherry it could have a very modern look. I am looking forward to seeing how the pattern can be dressed up or down with various panel treatments. A nice refreshing look. Thanks again for all the work you have put into this. John was right when he commented on how much it takes to make a presentation flow so well.

Added thought: Have you tried the special roundover bit that goes with this rail and style set? It allows for even more variability.

 Greg , glad to hear your opinions on the bit set. Your comments reflect my thoughts of the "look" perfectly. That other bit is on my wish list and I'm looking forward to using that. Thanks for the compliments.

 Thanks Doug, We're talking about Festool Panel Raising bit # 491138.


Thanks John, I have been reading your site Woodshopdemos for a couple of years at least. My introduction to "Festool" was from your presentations on them. And of coarse with the help of your assistants, the tool learning curve process is made easy. 

Actually Doug, I was talking about roundover bit #491131 but I certainly would like to see the profile from the panel raising bit that Patrick is referring to. The #491131 roundover produces the same ovoid shape as the rail and style bit with which Patrick made his doors. He left that treatment off, which goes to show that one can create a lot of variety with this set even before the panel is considered.

Patrick, If you have that panel raiser I would certainly like to see the profile it creates. The catalog pics are too hard to discern.

British maybe, or Australian?   You're hanging around this forum too much John.  Need more time with assistants.

For those of us too destitute (from other recent purchases) to buy a Domino, could decent results be achieved using dados & rabbits?  I read somewhere that using these in plywood weakens it a bit, and shouldn't be done.  Any advice?  Thanks.

What you said makes perfect sense, and is in line with what I thought should be true, but I thought I would ask.  Thanks for the response.

I like the Domino as much as the next guy. However, using it for any kind of framing is just a bit over the top, don't ya think? If I used dominoes for all of my framing work, I'd either have to get some wealthier customers, or go bankrupt. Its a fast tool, but it ain't anywhere near as fast as a framing nailer, or even a BFH.

I thought Festool owners had to have Macs (sorry about that as I'm typing it on a PC! but I am as addicted to Apples as I am to Festools)

Apple....    you can buy better but you can't pay more!

Fred

UNBELIEVABLE! You're just as bad Ned! Jeez.

  Thanks  mmo, I got my hardware from   http://www.ahturf.com/  and   http://www.specialtysupplies.com/  but there are dozens of suppliers.

 Roland, glad to hear your positive results. The domino and the pocket holes work very well together and make assembly easy. Much less work than rabbits (rebates) and dados and plenty strong. As long as they are not visible tops and bottoms no problem.  I got the idea from this forum somewhere.

 Thanks neoshed, agreed the metric and euro system is hard to beat. same goes for the ecodrill.

  Eli, no problem on the off topic, that's how I found Open Office.org - thanks Matt and also Acronis

Tomorrow we will work on drawers  just kidding.  But I do see a base cabinet somewhere down the line incorporating the 32mm system with drawer construction and spacing with door placement.

Ed that is how I do it, works great. See the links in Dan's reply, post #5.


You've got the concept right, 17.5mm plus the number in the chart with your reveal to find your center.

Just make sure you try it out on scrap first. If you get into some trouble on the scrap just post the problems/questions you have here and someone will help out. Good luck.

 

This is a very helpful tutorial for me as I'm just learning about this system and I plan to build a series of storage cabinets for my basement.  But I'm  curious about something--your choice of softclose mechanism.  I've looked at the Blum site and some catalogs (eg Rockler, etc) and notice that there is a Blumotion device that just clips on top of the hinge.  So there would be no need to drill additional holes.  Could you have used these?
This is what I'm referring to:
http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/30/40/10/index.php
--Rob

Thanks for the reply.  Are all of the Blum clip-top hinges self close?  I've been looking at their site and haven't come across that distinction, but I've only really looked at clip-top.
Rob

Thanks, I downloaded the catalog and I'll check those pages out.  And yes, it is very daunting, particularly for one who has never built with these hinges before.  All I want to do is make a bank of 4 euro style frameless cabinets run together, each out of 3/4" ply, with each cab having two doors that open like French doors from the middle.  So I'm guessing I want clip top, full overlay, self close, and will have to figure out which angle to use, noting that the Blumotion 973--the one that attaches to the hinge--will work with only certain angles.
--Rob

Overtime,
Excellent information! 

Looks like you put a lot of thought and time into communicating the details.  Any chance of doing a Euro style Base cabinet in the future? 

Now I'm gonna have buy the Domino and LR-32 before April.

Thanks
Victor

I am sure I won't be the only one looking forward to it.  Thanks for all the hard work Patrick.

Dave

Overtime,
Great thread!  Question about your Blumotion location: it looks like you located the Blumotion for the Compact hinge recommendation (closer to the hinge) instead of the Clip Top hinge recommendation (further from the hinge).  Have you found your location to work better with Clip Top hinges?

James, where did you find the "location" info for the plunger type Blumotion?  Thanks for the help in getting it right ! I have been waiting for feedback on that detail. It's an important detail that needs to be corrected.  My location is / was not correct. 

 I had a minor problem, in that the 120 deg clip top hinge - when fully opened just bumps the tip of the plunger ever so slightly - (the inside edge of the door itself).  The 170 degree hinge - no problem at all.   The function and operation of both the blumotion and the doors were not affected on either hinge types. Smooth operation.

  When I made the first cabinet I set up and used a pair of 170 clip top full overlay. Using the plunger drilling guide bushing tool not knowing that there were specific "locations". I just pushed the guide up to the inside corner and drilled.  I installed the 170 hinges and presto it worked perfectly. No issues at all.  So I drilled them all at the same location. Then I used / installed the 120 clip top hinges and did not notice any thing wrong with the operation. But I finally saw the minor issue, it's too close to the hinge by about 1/8" or so.
 So I changed the location on my own by 1/4" or so.

I had some idea that the location was questionable. But some how over looked the info on the plunger location for compact and clip top.
 The operation of both the doors and plunger work so well that I did not consider anything other than a very minor adjustment on the location.

Just how far off are my locations ?    
 

Check out the top of page 75 in the Concealed Hinges catalog (my .pdf file is dated 3/23/06).  They show the optimal locations there.  They show, and I've always located, the pistons close to or at the outer edge of the door, away from the Clip Top hinges.  I don't use the Compact hinges so I've never located them in the area that you did.

  You're right, the zinc is a nice choice.  Hafele has these pistons as well, although I'm not sure they are blum.  Hold on, I'll open the hafele site....... They're not Blum, they are Salice.
 
  There, I attached the PDF catalog pages from Hafele for you. 

They're not Blum, they're called "Smoves".  I prefer them because, as I said, they can be mounted any where, & used with any hinge,or....  The orange block is shown as gray on the first page, but that's it.  Mine showed up as orange.
  I've installed these on doors mounted on "Classic Brass" butt hinges.  A pair of rare earth magnets close the door.  The Smove inside makes it all operate like magic.  Like I said, the lightest ones worked great for that.
  I also installed them behind a keyboard pull out, with accuride side mount tracks.  When the pullout was closed, it couldn't slam.  Therefore the keyboard stayed put.  That was a retrofit to please the customer, who didn't like the keyboard shifting.  I think those were the medium grade.
  The pdf's are available at Hafeleonline, as is the whole catalog.
My dad always said truly useful tools have a second usefullness.  Hidden at first & waiting to be discovered, like a screwdriver can open a can of paint, for instance.  gotta love Dad,    Hardware is the same thing.  The more uses you come up with the better,  therefore, the more flexible your hardware choices are, the better as well.

  I usually install the piston in a hole drilled the cabinet edge when possible.  No one has ever found them unsightly, & I find this installation is simple, once the location is determined.  Thats why I use the movable test block. 
   If you've ever seen the "touch latches" & "magnetic catches" we all used for years, in cabinets, the improvement is remarkable.  You just can't hide most door latch hardware.  These are quite minimal.
  Being able to adjust the position & the strength of the piston, with the smoves, I find to be a great advantage.

Patrick: This is a great 'How-to'.  Looking forward to the base cabinets stuff.

NMacK: All the images work for me, (which isn't much help to you).  If you are on a PC/Linux try right clicking on the image, perhaps some more info will come up as to why it didn't load.

Mark

Overtime. Wow what a great tutorial. Easy to follow. We will have to make you the euro king !  Except your in Iowa !!! Lol do they know about metric?  Lol

Great job. Do a mini video series now