Cabinet Door Screws Keep Coming Loose

Using glue and shims to repair loose hinge screws.

Cabinet door screws keep coming loose.

How to tighten stripped hinge screws. Check the fit of the door after each adjustment. Some mounting plates adjust by turning a single screw. Open the door wide and insert a wedge under the bottom outside corner to level it.

If the hinge and jamb are painted cut the paint around the leaf with a utility knife swing the leaf away from the jamb. Unless they re tightened immediately the screws will enlarge and strip the holes until it s impossible to tighten them. Most knobs and pulls are attached on the backside of your cupboard doors and drawers with a standard length threaded screw. If a screw is inserted into a substance that cannot provide sufficient friction it will be loose.

If they do then the screw holes need repair. Loosen the screws at both hinges slide the door up or down and tighten the screws. First check that the hinge screws are tight. If you can t get the hinge secured back the screws all the way out take off the hinge and look at the wood beneath it.

The small screws used to secure kitchen cabinet door hinges to the face frames of cabinets often work their way loose over time. You can see in the image below the loose screw was on my door lock striker. If you want a quicker method that doesn t require boring out the holes try filling the stripped holes with golf tees matchsticks or toothpicks wood anchors or cyanoacrylate glue. Open the door grasp it.

I see this often on kitchen cabinet hinges and doors regular door hinges and areas that get worked or moved a lot. Loose hinges can cause a door to stick bind or scrape the floor. If the loose holes are in a solid piece of wood like a door frame drill them out and fill them with wooden dowels to create a new surface for the screws to go into. Let the door hang by itself.

When the door or drawer is not thick enough for the screw to tighten the knob flush against it grasping that perpetually wobbly knob each day can be an enduring pain. Lucky for you it is easy to tighten loose hinges and make your doors work like new. A quick convenient cure can be found just inside one of the cabinets. Ten cent fix for a loose knob.

Remove the screws that hold the loose hinge leaf to the door jamb. It kept backing out on its own. If the door is flush and parallel with other doors but too high or low use the mounting screws to raise or lower the mounting plates. Most hinge problems can be solved with nothing more than a screwdriver.