I have been working on an endtable for my wife. The rear 6" of the top is hinged to open to reveal a interior pocket with a surge protector that contains both USB and ac jacks. The hinge portion of the top by my design is overhangs the sub-top by about 3/8" and the mating portion of the subtop is cut at a 7º angle so the hinged portion will angle back slightly to prevent gravity from punishing the user while plugging and unplugging a device.
I had never done fully inset hinges before but watched videos at FWW and having a newly acquired marking knife I held the hinge in place on the subtop, layed out the hinge area using the marking knife. Using a trim router I routed out the area leaving a small amount near the layout lines and chisled the remaining waste. Worked great! Using a special centering bit, I drilled and mounted the hinge to the subtop.
Using spacers I layed the hinged portion over the subtop and hinge, penciling the area around the barrel of the hinge. My trim router with an edge guide took care of routing the barell area for the hinge on the top. Then I positioned the hinged portion back onto the subtop and hinge. Using my marking knife, I layed out the edge of the hinge onto the edge of the routed barrel area of the top. Using a square and the marks I positioned the hinge over the top and penciled in the outine of the remaining portioin of the hinge in the top. There in lies my big mistake. I didn't using my marking knife to lay out the remaiining portion of the hinge. Routing to the lines went well but when I went to chisel the remaining waste out, not having the layout lines cut with the marking knife, my chisel work left something to be desire. It's not my worst mistake but I certainly learned the value of using the marking knife I purchased this fall.
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Originally Posted by Mark Rainey
Also, working on the same thing for my wife. It's been preempted by Christmas projects, but is about 80% done. I used full length drawer slides, so the top slides instead of hinges. 
