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Wooden hinge trial and error
Was in need of a couple small brass hinges for a pencil box. All I looked at the hinge barrel was thicker than the two combined hinge leaves. My pencil box has an overhanging lid which would require either a hinge leaf let in deeper than the leaf is thick or a mortise cut for the hinge barrel for the lid to sit flat on the box.
Then remembered a Hingecrafter wood hinge drilling jig I received as a Christmas present and never used. Had everything else I needed so I set out to quickly make a couple wood hinges for the box having never made a wood hinge before. That turned out to be a frustrating two day learning experience. The first several hinges I made all looked really good but would not close flat and would bind hard when opening from an almost fully closed position. The bind even snapped a hinge barrel on one try. Reversed my hinge making process thinking I was moving the wood when machining. That resulted in little chips of wood being torn off the hinge barrel edges.
Put the project away until another day. With a fresh mind I was able to see the problems. The hinge leaves needed to be about two hundredths thinner than the second cut of the round over bit. The slots between the hinge barrels needed to be slightly deeper than the diameter of the hinge barrel. Not much but one and a half hundredths was enough after trial and error. More would not hurt but a smaller gap looked better to me.
Finally ended up with enough stock milled for several small good working wood hinges. Thankful that I was using small thin pieces of wood not much good for anything else as I went through quite a bit of wood trying to get a good hinge. Even had a good hinge shift in the drilling jig from not being clamped tight enough resulting in the hinge pin holes off center at one end of the leaf.
