choosing hinges for small boxes

[tom coleman]

Someone at the Creek mentioned Lee Valley as a good source of hinges and they do offer quite a variety. Barrel hinges and piano hinge with a positive stop both sound good and I will try them.

Most of my boxes will be 3/8" or 1/2" stock. Is there a butt hinge that has a leaf that is either 3/8" or 1/2" wide to facilitate installation via a simple dado vs more complicated mortise?

thanks

[Gene Howe]

Try here. They have several that will fit your sizes.

http://www.rockler.com/CategoryView.cfm?Cat_ID=124

[Ethan Sincox]

Tom,

I'm a fan of quality. I hate to see a box that someone spent several hours of hard work building get fitted with a $5 pressed hinge.

Quality shines through every time.

Go with something like the larger Brusso stopped hinge. It stops at about 100 degrees, so you don't have to use a chain or odd miters on the back edge to keep the lid from opening too far. They should fit a 3/8" box side pretty easily.

Your biggest concern is going to be hinge alignment. And (again, as I mentioned this in a different thread) I hate to toot my own horn but the winning tip in the April 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine is a jig I made that eliminates the alignment issue (or at least makes it manageable). If you plan on making boxes that are generally around the same size and use the same thickness wood, it would be a profitable 30 minutes of invested time to make.

I'd like to say I only use the Brusso hinges for a box I'm selling or making for someone, but I even have a hard time putting cheap hinges on a box I'm making for tool storage. I guess I picture someone going through all my crap 50 years from now to find an old Record 043 plow plane in a nicely made storage box with quality hinges and I want them to think, "hey, this old guy really loved his tools..."

You can find Brusso hinges at Woodcraft or Lee Valley. You can also order them directly from Brusso, I believe, and they even come in stainless steel (though they are a bit more costly).

[Louie Ballis]

I like the barrel hinges myself. Found them at Woodcrafters (not woodcraft) in Portland, OR for about 8 dollars a pair (no sales tax in Oregon).