Thread: How do you make these boxes?

I've made up the box and now I need to attach the piano hinge.
I'm having problems placing the piano hinge on the box so that the lid meets the rest of the box's frame nice and flush. The trouble is that once you try and close the box you can't see where the hinge is so you can't easily adjust its position. There must be another way to place the hinge on the lid and get it to line up right with the rest of the box, but how?

Hot glue?

Double sided tape might work for you too.

Hi again Wendy. The lid is just heavy enough that my double-sided tape would not hold the lid very well. I think that the hot-melt glue does not allow much adjustability and so could end up being a lot of trial and error.
Makes you wonder though how did people make nice fitting lids in the days before hot melt glue/double-sided tape????

When I made mine as an apprentice patternmaker 57 years ago mine was made without the curve but with just cut at 45 degrees. How I made it I just can't remember too long ago but I still have the tool box.

Originally Posted by Barry_White

When I made mine as an apprentice patternmaker 57 years ago mine was made without the curve but with just cut at 45 degrees. How I made it I just can't remember too long ago but I still have the tool box.

That's a sturdy toolbox! I suspect that near enough is good enough and if the lid meets the rest of the toolbox despite not being flush with it, then that may be enough....but I have seen some nice toolboxes where they do meet flush and would love to know how to get that type of accuracy.

There's probably a more elegant (simpler) way, but a piano hinge typically has lots of holes for trial assembly. Only two holes in each leaf are necessary for positioning. Use the four that work. For the errors, pack the holes and re-drive screws. Or something like that. I'd start the fitting process with holes near the ends.

Cheers,
Joe

Hey Tiger. Why use a piano hinge at all. The faceplate hinges I used have lasted the last 30 years. Would love a pic of what you have done to date. Cheers

Originally Posted by joe greiner

There's probably a more elegant (simpler) way, but a piano hinge typically has lots of holes for trial assembly. Only two holes in each leaf are necessary for positioning. Use the four that work. For the errors, pack the holes and re-drive screws. Or something like that. I'd start the fitting process with holes near the ends.

Cheers,
Joe

Actually tried the 2 holes method but I was putting holes everywhere and still not getting that nice flush look.

So you're asking the hinge to take the place of the removed kerf width for a perfect closed fit. I'd be mounting the hinge leaf firstly to the carcass full length using a flat edge along the length of it, (even clamping an overhang of offcut to the closed door position to butt the hinge ontoand still have acsess to it) to make sure the spline of the hinge doesn't protrude out of the box but would remain flush when closed, mark and mount.

Then i'd be using an offcut exactly the width of the closed hinge and clamping the door in its fully open position, being carefull to make sure all is square, door to carcass ect. then flipping up the remaining leaf and fixing it into position, or marking and then fixing, whitchever you prefer.

Its one of those old school marking tell tales, whereby a teacher could look at a glance at one aspect of the project and it would speak volumes to him about the entire rest of the work / accuracy / attention to details and instructions given. Almost a conerstone for the entire thing. No pressure though, ok, just saying. There's enough old teachers on here that hopefully my above observation has raised a few grins, and equally a few cringes from enough students who used to marvel at our teachers ability to pick faults at a glance.

That would be my take on it, for what its worth.
Neal.

Tiger
there's basicly two general ways to make that sort of box
first assemble the closed 8 sided carcass, then either
1) cut the door off with a deep cutting band saw and a steady hand
or
2) cut the door off using a jig to guide a router cut a groove in the sides and top that is just less than the thickness of the timber -- the final parting is then done with a knife.

i'd bandsaw up a template and use a trim bit on a router table to cut the sides.

You could even cut both sides together with a big enough bit.

I've also newly learnt the benefits of match machining mating parts. Cut both together from the same sheet - you'll lose a section the width of your router bit but you can still follow a template and cut both sides at once with perfect match - as long as you don't come off the template of course