Wooden Hinge Tutorial

[Jason Tuinstra]

I had a number of questions about the hinges on the box/boxes that I've made and posted here over the last year or so. I got around to getting some pics of the process so I hope it's not too presumptuous to post it in the hopes that some of my fellow woodworkers might want to take what I've learned, have fun with it, and take it to the next level. This is just a demo hinge. I would have taken a bit more time and care on the real deal. This is just meant to give you an idea of how I've come to use/make this in hinge the boxes that I've made.

(I used some seriously scrap wood to show you that you can use anything for this hinge. I also made the pics small so that I don't take up too much bandwidth with this tutorial.)

1. While the sizes can vary according to the proportion of the box, I start with a strip of 1" wide stock. I try to make the strip long enough so that I can cut grooves to receive the male portion of the joint on both ends.

2. I cut the groove on the table saw. It is roughly 1/4" wide but it's made to fit the peg/male portion of the joint. I make the groove 1/2" deep.

3. Once the blank has the groove cut in both ends (for purpose of demo I just did one end), I cut the blank to length. In this case it is 2 1/8" long.

4. Notice, I don't yet have a bandage on my finger. Grrrrr.....

[Jason Tuinstra]

5. I now take the blank and free hand the curve that I want on the hinge. For doing two hinges, I get the first one the way I want and then trace the curve of the one that I dialed in by eye.

6. I cut the majority of the stock out on the bandsaw. Because the blank is so small, I try to keep the digits away from the sharp spiny thing.

7. I bring everything into shape using the oscillating sander. Ordinarily I would use a piece of plywood to give me a flat, zero clearance base. But for the sake of this demo and speed, I just went with the sanders table.

8. Be sure to leave a flat spot on the box side of the hinge so that you'll be able to attach the hinge to the box.

9. I clean up the inside of the groove with an 1/8 chisel to get rid of the v's left by my blade. I also chamfer the edges to soften the edges. It was here where my finger wanted to start to stain the wood with a nice crimson red having been reminded by the chisel that it is sharp. :eek: The groove should actually be cleaned up before the curve is cut and sanded. This way if you blowout the edge, it will be cut or sanded off. My bad.

[Jason Tuinstra]

10. I now draw a center line down the middle of the hinge. I will drill on this center line in conjunction with where the remaining flat spot is for the whole that will be used to screw the hinges into the box. I also draw a line on each side for how far I want to come in for the side curve.

11. I kind of sketch a general idea of what I want the curve to look like, but eye the sanding along with keeping an eye on the line that I drew so that I don't go past it so that I'm at least as far in on each side. Much of this is just by eye. Feel free to be more precise, but I find that if it can pass the eye test, it's good enough for me.

12. I like to have a little profile on the bottom as well, so I put it on the sander and use the profile of the sander to make a nice profile. Again, I eye it to make sure that it's all even, even if I am a bit odd :p

13. I now cut the pilot whole for the screw and counter sink for the head of the screw.

14. Once this is done, I put the peg into the groove and put it on a piece of wood and roughly see how much of the peg I'm going to need.

[Jason Tuinstra]

15. Before I cut the peg to rough size, I sharpen it in my pencil sharpener to get it read for the 1/4 dowel cutter.

16. Now I cut it to a rough length and start hammering it through the LN dowel cutting jig.

17. I don't drive the peg all the way through, just half way or so and then I flip the jig over, and back it out.

18. Next, I clean up and create a transition between the round and the square sections. You see why this is important if a few steps.

[Jason Tuinstra]

19. Next, I cut a 1/4" hole in the top/lid of the box. This will receive the round dowel I just cut. I normally go in roughly an inch deep. If the dowel should go far enough so that the only thing you can see is the transition cuts. No round dowel should be showing, at least in my version.

20. After the dowel/peg is in place, I slide the grooved hinge half onto the peg and put it roughly in the spot that I think looks good and that will allow enough room for the peg to open later on. I mark with a pencil a spot where I want to drill a 1/16" hole for the steal pin/brad nail that I'm going to use for the pivot. I remove the grooved section and drill the hole.

21. After I drill this hole, I put the the grooved section back on and put the brad through the whole after everything is set up as I want it. I pinch the brad with my fingers to show me where I need to drill on the peg. I pull everything out, and now drill a hole in the peg/dowel.

22. I then snip the brad because the brads that I have are a bit too long. I also use gun blue to turn the brads black which gives a bit of a better look than steal brads.

23. Now with the peg attached to the grooved section with the brad, I make sure that everything is where I like it, drill a pilot hole for the screw, and secure it to the box.

24. Note: The hinge looks a bit asymmetrical in this pic. This is because it wasn't perfectly flat when I was using the sander and the net effect of not having a zero clearance table. So don't forget to do this.

[Jason Tuinstra]

25. After this is done, the next stop is to create the "stop" at the end of the peg. To do this, I begin by drawing a line on the peg that will allow me to dial in the right spot for the right amount of stop.

26. I take the pin to the sander with a small spindle on it that gives me a nice curve.

27. On a normal box, I would put the dowel back in, the brad back in, open the box and see how far I'm able to open the box. Normally, I sand the peg fat so that it takes me a number of tries to get the box to open at just the right angle. I also take a little bit off each side so that all the "stop" isn't just on one peg. After a few attempts, it's usually gets to where I want it to be.

28. Once this is all done and everything is right where it needs to be, I remove the screw and sand all the rough edges and get everything final sanded. I then add a little dab of glue and reassemble. Because the dowel is normally nice and tight, I don't use glue. Feel free to if you want.

This, as you might be able to tell if you've endured reading this whole thing, is not an exact science for me. There is a lot of it which is by eye, which to me doesn't make it less rewarding, but more so. It's a lot of fun and it's been a nice detail for an otherwise boring box.

Have fun!

Jason

PS I don't know, maybe the time stamp on the pics will prove me wrong, but I don't think this took me much over 45 minutes to do including all the fooling around with the camera. It could be a bit + or - but that's ballpark.

[Bill Wyko]

Great tutorial Jason. Nice hinges too. It's nice to see a style all its own. Has a fantastic sence of style to it.

[Jack Camillo]

Jason, thanks for taking the time. great tutorial.
jack

[Glenn Clabo]

Great tutorial Jason. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I'm going to stick this thread for a while so it doesn't get past over.

[mike holden]

Thanks, Jason
This one lends itself to varying the hinge point and stop.
Great concept, better execution.
Thanks again,
Mike

[Steven Bolton]

Wonderfully interesting. Thanks for taking the time to show this material. Also, your website is great.

Thanks

Steve Bolton
Minnesota

[gary Zimmel]

Another, Thanks for taking the time to do the Tutorial Jason.

To me they are unique little hinges and now we know the way to make them..

[Dewey Torres]

I had the whole thing figured out except for the curve. Clever work. How many iterations did this hinge go through?

[Jason Tuinstra]

How many iterations did this hinge go through?

The box that I recently posted was the third generation. I posted the two previous versions here as well, but was awhile ago and for the sake of ease I'll just throw some pics below.

The first version looked too bulky and too much like it's inspiration for the whole thing which was the hinge on the chest freezer that we keep in our garage/wood shop. Also, this 1st gen didn't have a built in stop.

The second version changed dramatically, went on a diet, and had a built in stop.

The third version has a bit more flare to it. The curves are more dramatic and the bottom is curved as well. It's also a bit longer. Here again, this is all personal taste.

I'll leave the fourth version up to you guys :D


Edit: It only let me upload version 1. You can go to my personal site and check it out if you're interested. It's under "misc".http://www.makerofshaker.com/Media/transparent.gif