Thread: Shop Made Wooden Hinges

Outstanding!!!! I'm going watch everything this guy does. Impressive.

Up until now I've been using the Incra hingecrafter.

Suggest you have a look at Derek Cohen's website on wooden hinges:


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...odenHinge.html

Love the method for drilling the ends of dowels. Getting the doodad from the US is prohibitive, it comes to >$100.

Tonight I spoke a chum who is a machinist and he'll make up a few in aluminium. I'll do the designs tomorrow, check out the market here for caseless/uncoated welding rod and match that to a 2mm rod (or 1/16th if that how rods are here) and get a quote to make one.

He did ask whether it was to be Ally or SS, I thought ally as it will be held in a hand drill. It's not industrial use.

If all goes well, perhaps others would like one? He's a rediculously fast maker, so I'll be able to report back ASAP.

As far as fully domed 1/4" box core router bits, I found and ordered a Chinese one that's carbide in 1/2" shank and they assure me it's exactly 1/4" and forms a perfect round. Carb-i-tool make one too, but I couldn't find it for <~$50

Im excited to give this method a go, glad I read this thread as wooden hinges are pretty nice... This method allows arbitrary placing and widths and if done properly almost invisible hinges

Hi Keith
wow .... I have never seen those type of hinges before .... they are so very well done and really not your ordinary wooden hinge

Thanks for sharing

regards

Rob

I have been making these hinges now for a couple of years, I suggest you buy Rob Cosmans DVD, they are not difficult but complex to put together, the DVD explains the process very well. One of the critical things you need to do to make the hinge work properly is drill the hole exactly in the center, his drill jig wasn't available when I started to make these hinges.If you try to drill into end grain with a small drill it will wander off center , I overcome this problem after a lot of trial and error by using a three jaw metal lathe chuck to hold the hinge dowel in the head stock of a lathe and a a drill chuck in the tail stock, instead of using a drill I use 1/16" rod for the hinge pins, just cut it off with a pair of wire cutters so you have a chisel end on it , I drill in 5 mm and never had one run off center. Any chuck that will hold the dowel straight should work, the longest dowels I use would be 50mm. Rob Cosmans jig is 1/4" I have made hinges with 8mm & 10mm dowels ,the advantage of this method is you can make a hinge with any diameter dowel. I just used what I had, you could possibly make a jam chuck for your lathe drill a hole for the dowel. I hope this is of some help. Cheers David.

Well, plans progress. I'm having a 1/4" model made up in aluminium.

The 1/4" cove bit has been ordered from China a couple of weeks back. The trick I've found is to getting a genuinely round cove bit.... not many are (I tested!).

I remember seeing hinges like this several years ago in a woodworking magazine where someone made massive swinging hinges for the doors in a cabinet. They were quite big, but same principle. To that end, I've also discussed making up a 1/2" model and if that goes well, I'll also do a 1" model (which will be trickier).

Here is a video showing how the device works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB7TNxKi56Y

I'll make a few boxes and if it goes well I'll ask to see if anyone wants one. Then a batch of 10 can be made and sent out with matching router bit, drill bit and rod.

Very interesting woodPixel, very impressive indeed.

You can put me down as being interested in purchasing one of these.

Regards, Paul

would love to be included in this project let me know the progress.

I had a good long chat with the engineer/maker last night before I did the response above.... we are making a 1/4" test version first, but as a barrel.

This is so you can guide it better with your hand. It will initially be a 20mm Ali extrusion. Then matched with a drill bit and rod. There are quite a few rod types to choose from, including shieldless welding rod, brass, bronze and copper rod. It will need to be hard enough to be used for a hinge, but soft enough to cut without distorting using wire cutters (or side cutters). Whatever works....

A few inspection holes will be added so you can see the length of the drill extending through, plus blow out any crud. The bottom of the hole will also be flat to eliminate any possibility of putting a chamfer on the inserted rod.

Its really just a key of finding a round cove bit - or better still a "ball end bit" (such as Carbitool) to make a perfectly rounded cove for the dowel to fit in. It's a trivial matter of drilling the tool to match the diameter of the cove - plus acquiring the paired drill bit to make the dowel.

I'd suppose dowels are made to way Mathias Wendall shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUmlMtpAj9o Once its set up and shimmed with paper to be exact, leave it permanantly set up! i.e. use a chisel or planes blade you won't miss.

The making is being snuck "between jobs" so it should occur pretty fast.

Hey there WoodPixel, have you had any luck making that jig for dowel centre drilling yet, or given it away as a bad idea. Since I got back into woodwork in the last week or so, I've experimented with those boxes, made a trial one, that was ok. Then attempted a better one and that was a total disaster. Whatever could go wrong, went wrong. I've been trying to drill a 2.5mm hole into the centre of a 1/4inch dowel, which I made, on my drill press. Its a bit hit and miss, not really happy with it at this stage.

Paul

I've been making similar hinges for years. I put a post up a while ago as a user 'wooden hinge' where I showed some. Installation is exactly the same as Rob's for the dowel version I make. I also make a complete hinge (dowel and leaves) that can be glued into a flat rebate. My construction is different though, I make a dowel with a brass sleeve inside it (theoretically of any length), then the brass rod rubs only on brass. Here's the link: Fine wooden hinge preview
M

I also will be interested in having a look at one once they are completed and tested.

Another interested party here!

Hi all, after getting back into my woodworking a few weeks ago, after my bad fall, I persevered with this hinge making method. I made two experimental boxes to see if I can get this to work. The 1/4 inch dowel component has to be totally accurate for this to work. I tried to make the chisel method, but that was a dismal failure. So I come up with another method, rather drawn out but works very well. Takes me about 20 minutes to go from a length of 8mm x 8mm square timber to a perfect 6.35mm 1/4 inch dowel. I tried a couple of methods for the hole centering but was never accurate enough. I designed and made a timber tool for this, then made it again from polycarbonate, but still up to half a mil out. So I went to the bloke who owns Nambucca Heads Steel Fabrication Business and got him to make what I designed from stainless steel, and it works perfectly.

Anyway, here are some pics. One box is made from hornbeam (love that timber) and rosewood. Other box from silky oak of course. Hornbeam would be probably the hardest timber I have ever worked with. Has a beautiful true grain and finishes brilliantly. The ring holder in the silky oak box, I bought from hong kong, hard to see with the black colour. The other ring holder I made, all that fabric is double velvet.

Paul