Thread: Making Templates for quadrant hinges

Originally Posted by mechanic

Hello;

I am building boxes out of poplar right now, trying to get the skills on the inexpensive wood first. Turning poplar into firewood is much less traumatic than the other stuff and I end up with utility boxes for the various small tools that I have accumulated from my model airplane hobby.

I want to install some quadrant hinges, these are not Brusso hinges. I was thinking of using the router table and story sticks but have figured out that it may not work too well due to the radius on the hinges not matching up to any router bits that I have.

I would like to make some templates and use a handheld plunge router with a bushing in the baseplate. I have seen pictures in various posts of templates that are clamped onto the box for use with a handheld router.

How does one go about laying out the correct template profile? I can trace the hinge profile, but how does one expand the profile with any degree of accuracy?

If there is a way to use a router table, I would like to know that as well. I have an Incra Ultra fence and positioner with a Woodpecker Quicklift.

I have made templates for routing for quadrant hinges, but they are a real pain to install anyway, and the jigs are not real easy to make. I suspect that there are thousands of sets of quadrant hinges collecting dust in part bins just because they aren't very much fun to use. The attached photo shows my jigs. It takes two sets because you have to rout for the body of the hinge and the arm that serves as a lid stop.

I haven't installed quadrant hinges with the router table, but if you are familiar with my router table technique for installing butt hinges, that method could be adapted. It would take 6 distinct router table/stop block set-ups and two different router bits, but the use of a story stick for setting up stop blocks would make the change from left set-up to right much easier. Check out the box article I did in the Dec. 2008 Fine Woodworking or either of my two Taunton box books for more on the method.

Thanks for the answer Doug.

I do have two of the books that you wrote about box making. Maybe three, can't remember.

I have tried to make a pattern using Visio for the hinges. It is still tough and still leaves something to be desired. I was looking for a method of making the patterns without resorting to CAD. Sometimes, I really prefer caveman techniques that use as paper and pencil. Those tools rarely crash or exhibit bugs and are quite portable.

G'Day Mechanic

Not sure about templates, but have you read this ? http://www.whitechapel-ltd.com/tech/...t_hinges.shtml

Cheers
Bernie

Originally Posted by BernieP

G'Day Mechanic

Not sure about templates, but have you read this ? http://www.whitechapel-ltd.com/tech/...t_hinges.shtml

Cheers
Bernie

That is a good article with practical advice. If you are going to do one box. Forget making templates. If you are doing several the templates would help. I have templates I got from Larry and Faye Brusso before they sold their business and I never figured out how to use their templates and chose to make my own.

But I do believe that my flipping story stick technique on the router table would make them easier whether you were doing one box or a bunch of them. I wish I had time now to play with the idea. If you get it to work, send me a photo and I'll put it in my blog.

I took the plunge. Doug is right, making the templates is a pain.

I used a CAD program to draw a hinge leaf. I drew a larger version of the leaf. Printed it out, put it on ply and cut it out with a scroll saw. I stack two pieces of ply using double sided tape so that I only need to cut and drill once.

It takes some fiddling around with files and a Dremel to get the templates right.

I have it down to about 4 hours for a template set, including the CAD time. Maybe I'll get better

Once I have the template, cutting the hinge is a few minutes with a router.

I had an interesting revelation while teaching at Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Indiana (USA). One of my students wanted help installing quadrant hinges, and I had just demonstrated using my flipping story stick technique that I use in my books and demonstrated in my Fine Woodworking article on making boxes.

I realized that by making the story stick a story board, instead (equal in size to the sides as well as front and back of the box), I could use the story board to make the router table set-ups required. The story board, being made of thin stock can be used to set the travel between stop blocks in the same way I use them in the flippping story stick butt hinge technique. You just have to do more routing. Since only one corner of the story board carries the story, you can use the other side for the router operation required to rout the clearance for the support arm. This is hard to describe, and I hope to get an article done on it sometime in the future. Not much chance of it being in Fine Woodworking as they recently published an article on quadrant hinges using the ready made templates. Now I wish I had saved my story board from the demonstration so I would have something to show and share from my successful experiment and new discovery.

Originally Posted by BernieP

G'Day Mechanic

Not sure about templates, but have you read this ? http://www.whitechapel-ltd.com/tech/...t_hinges.shtml

Cheers
Bernie

Thank you so much for this link Bernie - I have lurked in this bit of the forum a few times trying to find this answer (too afraid to ask!!) - I have just begun to branch out into boxes and there are no instructions on the hinges when you buy them. These hinges have stayed in their packets to date! Printed this link for future reference.

JD

Originally Posted by DougStowe

I had an interesting revelation while teaching at Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Indiana (USA). One of my students wanted help installing quadrant hinges, and I had just demonstrated using my flipping story stick technique that I use in my books and demonstrated in my Fine Woodworking article on making boxes.

I realized that by making the story stick a story board, instead (equal in size to the sides as well as front and back of the box), I could use the story board to make the router table set-ups required. The story board, being made of thin stock can be used to set the travel between stop blocks in the same way I use them in the flippping story stick butt hinge technique. You just have to do more routing. Since only one corner of the story board carries the story, you can use the other side for the router operation required to rout the clearance for the support arm. This is hard to describe, and I hope to get an article done on it sometime in the future. Not much chance of it being in Fine Woodworking as they recently published an article on quadrant hinges using the ready made templates. Now I wish I had saved my story board from the demonstration so I would have something to show and share from my successful experiment and new discovery.

I am trying to install my first set of quadrant hinges in a jewery box for my grand-daughter. I am ready for the installation and don't want to mess up after getting this far. I have made templates similar to yours. My question is, are the hinges intended to be mounted flush with the back of the box, protruding out or hidden inside the box about 1\16th in from the back? I realize this is an old post, but problems just never go away.