Thread: New brass hinges being made - can I get opinions

Ok, so these are the hinges I like best. Sorry - I still can't seem to get images a decent size on the forum.



IMG_2760.JPG


Left and centre of the pic shows the excellent 6mm wide polished brass hinge from the now-closed jewelleryboxhardware.com against an 8mm wide SmartHinge from Andrew Crawford. I really like the 6mm hinge (30mm from centre of pin to end of leaf) for smaller boxes. on the right of the pic are Brusso (638?) which are very marginally longer in the leaf - by about 0.5mm, but have the square edged knuckle which I don't much like.

From memory costs were:

6mm hinge from jbh.com GBP 32 per pair ($Aust 52.50)

8mm hinge from Andrew C GBP 25 per pair ($Aust 41.00)

6-ish mm hinge from Brusso $Aust 46.07 per pair

Postage from the UK is not bad but I've found postage from the US demonstrates that Ned Kelly is alive and running the US Mail.

Hope this helps.

Brian

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Hype and spin aside, Im yet to get back pricing, but I'm pretty confident I can make a statement such as "they will be $5 a pair with screws and they will be as good as the best".

If these can be produced and sold at $5 a pair, then you have my order for 10 pairs immediately.

A lot of my boxes tend to be made from 6mm as this is what is left from resawing a 25mm floorboard into 3 slices. I find this to be both economical and visually pleasing. The downside is the lack of small hinges suitable for this thickness of timber and I often end up having to screw a hinge across the outside rear of the box. Small strap hinges that could accommodate this thickness of timber would be great and I would also order 10 of them at the same time.

Are you sure that the $5 price point isn't just a pipe dream?

I would imagine that if these hinges could be produced at that price then a world market would immediately open up.

I really don't think the overall "small fine box hinge market" is very big at all.

It would be surprising if the sum total of all makers is 3 times the active box makers on this site! (Perhaps 15...maybe 20)

For everyone else (ordinary joe woodworkers), they will continue buying the cheap hinges at the hardware store. They will never be convinced of any quality/price arguement.... Plus their Bunnings is right down the road.

Nor will these be able to compete with the existing worldwide makers. They are very well established.

I suspect this will be as intended originally, I.e. "an excellent hinge at an excellent price". My ambitions are to push hard on the "excellent" part of that equation

What is really amazing is that this whole thing is coming together at all. The only real reason for their interest is my orders were litterally the only ones from Australia's biggest maker.... The cardboard boxes litterally had an inch of dust on them! These were magnificent, tight, thick brass hinges for $1.10 each! A jackpot and I was the only customer..... (imagine this: you've 5000 number 17 ball bearings which have been in a warehouse for 7 years without one enquiry....then....)

I'd be dead keen to get a pile of something with similar dimensions to the SmartHinge if the price was right! I'll be keeping an eye or two on this thread

woodPixel, The hinges sound great and I would be interested in getting some as well as I have use the high end hinges and have struggled with the prices. Can you or are you interested in starting a list of byers of the hinges and once they are ready send out PM’s or some king of notification?
Thanks

I'm coordinating samples.

Its a frustrating process. From an engineering perspective it's as easy as it gets, but the actual doing requires vigeous kicking to the necks.

Ill announce the instant this flies.

Hang in there man! I did some group buys for custom mechanical keyboard pcb's out of Taiwan a few years back, good lord was it a frustrating process.

Hey woodPixel - started to read this post with anticipation then it died a few months ago Did you manage to progress this any further?

Dont know about it being months

Ive an order of 500 brass 20x25's coming in with 8000 screws. Its coming over by DHL and I expect it fairly soon.

They wont be the Super Special stopped or straps yet - these are regular butt hinges, but the nicest cheap ones I've used yet - bright polished, tight, square and very thinly coated with lacquer to retain shine.

The first sample of 10 went to a client a fortnight ago on boxes and she was pretty chuffed.

Haha, my bad. I'll claim a moment of insanity. Keen to be in line for some once they become available, assuming you will send some to Auckland NZ.

Yeah dude, once I get this sorted, its just an envelope, so it will go anywhere.

It might take a bit for it all to flow properly. Im not a "sales" business, just a woodworker who desperately needed awesome hinges in bulk for my boxes at a price that didn't feel like a kidney donation (using a blunt spoon)... my mate Fang in China is right on it. Its refreshing.

Here is a bad generic photo of a 25x20.

Knuckle is 4mm and leaf if 1.3mm

There is also a 38x23 with 3 holes, but I've only started with 100 of them. There are 500 of the others.

The were couriered Monday with matching phillips screws.

The finals are nicely polished and coated with lacquer.

I have 4 samples that were sent quickly by letter (small package=fast) and they are pretty damned good for an el-cheapo hinge for a low-cost box. Nice and tight, well cut and even knuckles reliefs and square flat flush ends. I'll take some pix as they are better than this "generic" one.

They will never compete with Brusso or SmartHinge, but they sure to beat anything else I've been able to get for my bulk commodity kids boxes.

25x20 brass hinge.jpg

Those 25x20s look really nice and they would fit nicely onto an 8/10mm wall.
How much a pair are you going to be selling them for?
And is your roommates name really Fang?

Not sure on the final price, but I can get these now in 500, 1000 and 5000 price breaks.

Ill put up one of those banners on this site when I get my act together (a basic website). As I said earlier, I just wanted good hinges for myself, so everything else is cream.... But it's my nature just to cover costs, so their price will be just a basic division of total cost into per item + post.

Yes, the bloke in China is Fang, but it also changes in emails! Fang, Wang, WanFang even Wolf. I don't think it translates well into English. But, he is super accomatitive and highly responsive and a very nice chap.