Thread: Mounting Wooden Hinges

For each leaf of the hinge you will have about 30 x 15mm of glue contact. That ought to be oodles for all except the biggest boxes - and for them I am not sure a bit of dowel would help much. I have never made hinges like this and I am very interested in what others will say abou how to get a good glue up with precision placement of a pair of hinges like these. For bigger and heavier boxes I would be thinking of hinges with leaves twice as long to double the glueing surfaces.

If the hinges are rebated into the lid/back a little as well as dowelled, that should be enough to keep them good and solid.

cheers
Wendy

Hi, this was my first attempt at wooden hinges. I angled the hinge so it would not pull out.



Andrew

I've done both, and I've also used small screws concealed beneath plugs. MF's method is the strongest, but for small boxes, just gluing should be OK. Rebating into the lid & back won't do much in terms of gluing strength, but if they're tight it could take the strain off the glue.

You haven't indicated what size boxes these hinges are to be fitted to. Assuming a jewellery box type up to about 300mm x 250mm and about 80 odd mm deep, and based on many years of box making, a shallow groove/rebate and glue would be ok. For more strength, after gluing, bore some small holes (3-4mm) through the hinge leaves into the box to form a pattern and glue in some small dowels. This system does work, I have used it for years. Smaller boxes won't need the dowels. I use selleys tradesmans choice, it has also been very successful. It is also very important to put sufficient glue into the joint and make sure there is contact, wood to wood. The shallow groove/rebate not only gives a mechanical joint but prevents the hinges from sliding out of alignment under pressure. THAT is more than a little annoying. Hope that helps you.
Jim

All those replies help muchly.
One box I'm making is from 19mm Tassy Oak, so with a Cedar Top I figure it's lid will be fairly heavy.
That's what started me thinking.
I've just worked out More Firewood's pic too. Its amazing how pics are seen after the daylight stops flooding in.
Thanks again.

This is great little thread!

Just the sort of stuff for a LIBRARY.

I have made the exact same hinges and used them for some boxes. I fastened it with some 5 minute epoxy and some blue masking tape to hold them in place. The wood will break from the bond provided that the surfaces glues are clean so if there is any strength issues it won't be with the glue.

Ciao,

M.

Thanks for that. I'll give all the suggestions a trial, and see how we go.

Let us know what you decided. I made a couple of wooden hinges a few months ago but never attached them to anything. Just did it for the exercise. will be interesting to know which method you found to be the best Noel.

Finally got some shed time yesterday, and tried a few mounting methods.
For the heavy lid I went with AlexS suggestion of plugged screws and white glue which feels really solid & safe.
On the smaller boxes, I tried normal PVA and also some 5 minute epoxy. All's well this morning.
Because I had made all the hinges before building boxes I ran into a bit of a problem.
For some reason, I supposed that the hinge pivot should align with the line between the lid and the carcass. On the smaller box lids this results in an ugly overhang as shown in the first attachment. Oh woe is me!!
Well...........

After a bit of thought, and a few trial mounts (with hot melt glue) I found that these hinges work just as well with the pivot point mounted well below the lid/carcass join as shown in the second pic.

I thought I'd pass this on, even though I feel like a real dumb bugger for making the wrong assumption.