Thread: Wooden Hinged Box

Very nice. The flush hinges do look good. I like the plugs at the end of the slipfeathers. Do they serve any purpose or are they purely decorative?

Thats very good. what sort of finishes have you got on it?

Good looking box Ruddy.

I like the idea of the wooden hinges and it looks as if you have done a fine job. To me however they just don't seem to sit right with that particular box. The view of the hinge when the lid is open is 100% however I cant put my finger on the back view.

Is it possible (obviously not now but perhaps for the next) to not make the hinge so long. Easier to to show on the photo than try and write it.

Cheers

Stinky

Thanks for the comments.This all started out because I was having an experimental attempt to see how difficult it was to make wooden hinges. I was pleasantly surprised with how strong the Jarrah hinges were and then worked on how to fit them flush to hide the hinge pin.
I agree with you Stinky, the fact that one leg is longer than the other stands out like the proverbials. As this was the first time I had done this I opted for the longer leg as I thought it would give extra strength to the hinge. Visually, it does not work.
If I make another wooden hinge box then the hinge should be even both sides of the split line.
Alex, the round pegs on the end of the splines are purely decorative, just trying to do something different. Not entirely convinced they work.
The box is finished with tung oil, up to 1000 grit wet and dry. I personally like the feel of softer wood like King Billy when it is a very smooth oil finish.

Ruddy .... could you give us a bit of a run down on how you make the hinges.

Love what ya did there with those hinges, for me its the handle that makes it not quite right as its the only external fitting, if the hinges were out (i'm guessing not the purpose you were after) it'd match better. Or alternativly move the handle inset in the same way you cut the hinges in, just an idea. LOVE it though as is. well done.

Neal.

Hi Ruddy, It's the first set of wooden hinges I actually love. I think because they are rebated you lose the sense of mass they have to have, which I find inelegant when they are planted on top or part rebated. I love em so much, along with the feather details that any other quibbles with the design are trivial and insignificant to me.

Stinky......
I started with some Jarrah that was 60 mm x 7.5 mm thick. It is important that the thickness is uniform as this becomes the depth you have to rebate in the box to get the flush fit.
I cut two identical lengths of jarrah about 100 mm long and made sure they were square.
Using double sided tape, stuck them back to back so the block was 100 high x 60 wide x 15 mm thick.
Finger jointed using 3 mm router bit to about 8 mm deep. When these were pulled apart you can join them together for one piece about 200 mm long. If you have the spacing correct you get a perfect joint. There is an offset on each side of 3mm which at this stage I did not worry about.
I then held this joined piece in the vise so that it was square and proceeded to carefully drill a 3 mm hole through the assembly in the centre of the joint. This needs to be accurate.
Pull the pieces apart and then carefully remove about 0.25 mm from the end of each finger joint. This gives enough clearance when the hinge is rotated.
The next step was to radius the ends of the finger joints . I used some 3 mm bamboo as the pin and at this stage I had a hinge that was 60 mm wide plus the offsets x 200 long. Remove the offsets and then using the bandsaw, cut down the middle with the hinge pin in place.
I made the rebates on the box about 25 mm wide x 7.5 deep and then adjusted the hinge width to get an exact fit. After the box was cut in two, I then fitted the hinges to suit the rebate length. To get the hinge to work, you must have a slight radius on the edge of the lid and a ball nose groove cut into the matching edge of the base of the box. This allows the lid to swing over the base when opened. The lid only opens to about 100 degrees. It is important to position the hinge in the correct location in relation to the split line.
As I said in the first post, putting the hinge rebates in the box before it is cut in half virtually guarantees a perfect lid to base fit.
I made a mock up using some radiata pine with grooves rebated in the faces to prototype the hinge. When the hinges are long you can clamp them in the rebates , move them and see how the hinge works. A prototype is well worth the effort because once the hinges are glued into the finished box, there is no turning back!