Anyone used torsion hinges?

[Craig D Peltier]

Im going to be building a 4 compartment box with 4 lids. Normally I use piano hinges and air loaded hinge stays , like the ones in your hood of your car or back lift gate.
Seems as though these http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=21288 would replace hinges and lifts. I understand they dont open up the same. Any negatives on them? Like if they stay tight against wood lid rest on when closed or do they want to stay sprung up say 1/6th?

Thanks

[Prashun Patel]

They close completely, but yr right, they do have some spring, so they have to be installed just so, and yr lid has to be perfectly flat in order to avoid any gaps in the corners (DAMHIKT); you can't rely on the weight of the lid to pull the corners down as you can with some other types of hinges.

i would advise ditching the rockler screws and using better quality ones; I snapped half of the original ones when installing, and I'm usually careful not to overtorque my decorative screws.

[Robert Chapman]

I've used the Rockler hinges on a number of projects and they work very well - except as Prashum says - the screws are junk. The hinges are not cheap but you get a quality product. I'm not aware of any negatives about them.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

i would advise ditching the rockler screws and using better quality ones;
Building my first cabinet (I just need to make my drawer fronts). When I installed the drawer slides, I did the same thing. Purchased some nice Highpoint screws.... What a difference. Annoying when you pay a bucket of money for a really nice slide or hinge that the screws are junk.

[Jim Chilenski]

I used them to build a piano bench for my grandson. I had to mortise the hinge into the both the lid and the rail, but after doing so the lid closed completely against the opposite rail without issue. The screws are soft but I pre-drilled the holes and then waxed the screws before driving them in. Didn't snap a single one..!

I like the torsion hinges and would use them again. Just wish they were priced a little lower.

[Craig D Peltier]

Thanks for the replies. Appreciate the input.

[Brian D Anderson]

I too have used them on a piano bench. Two of them in fact. I didn't mortise mine in, so I had to add a couple rubber bumpers (the ones sold for cabinet doors) to the top of the "case" to get the top to sit flat. Both of my benches are in homes with little toddler fingers, so they are much appreciated.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/33406
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/12053

-Brian

[Jack Lemley]

Jim,

Any possibility you'd have pics of what the hinges look like installed in mortises? I sm building a blanket chest for my daughter and one thing I don't like about the torsion hinges is the gap they leave between the lid and base. I thought about mortising them but can't picture in my mind how that would look.

Thanks
Jack

[Craig D Peltier]

I too have used them on a piano bench. Two of them in fact. I didn't mortise mine in, so I had to add a couple rubber bumpers (the ones sold for cabinet doors) to the top of the "case" to get the top to sit flat. Both of my benches are in homes with little toddler fingers, so they are much appreciated.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/33406
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/12053

-Brian

Thanks that worked in your instance fine, In mine it will be say a 16 foot long bench with dividers in between 4 doors , so the 1/8th inch bumper or whatever will sit higher than the dividing wood areas.