Fitting hinges to boxes.

[Honest John]

Just coming to the end of a box making project. My daughter requested a couple of smallish boxes, one for jewellery and one for cotton bobbins and sewing needles. My previous box jobs have had lift off lids except for some larger instrument boxes that had hinged lids. On these I used the hinges fitted flat on the outside. For these smaller boxes I wanted to inset the hinges so that just the hinge pin part is visible on the outside. After looking on the internet for some decent quality small brass hinges I eventually found some at Screwfix of all places. Beautiful quality in solid brass, very impressive. I have looked at Screwfix before but failed to find these small ones, and the reason is that they use the same photograph for all the hinges rather than the ones they are selling so it looks like they haven't got any small ones because the photos all show hinges with 4 holes, and the 25mm ones only have 2 holes per leaf. Anyway, my problem. I knifed round the hinge leaf then removed the middle with a veritas hand router. I inset the hinge leafs just so that it was just below the surface. When fitted the box lids work well but there is a gap at the hinge end. It looks like I need to remove the hinge and deepen the hinge recess a little. Is this normal? I was only expecting to recess the hinge by the thickness of the leaf. Once I remove material I can't easily put it back so I am just wondering what is the preferred or best way to fit small hinges. Having said that I am very enthusiastic about the quality of the hinges from Screwfix, I must point out out that Screwfix don't appear to sell the correct sized screws and it was necessary to buy small gauge screws on line.

 

[marcros]

this is quite a useful article http://www.peterseftonfurnitureschool.c ... hinges.pdf

 

[custard]

I'm not familiar with these particular hinges John, but it sounds like you've been caught out by the "swaged/unswaged" hinge factor.

If the two leaves come completely together then you've got a fully swaged hinge, if they close at one edge but there's a gap by the hinge knuckle then they're unswaged. You'll hear plenty of advice to cut the hinge mortice to the leaf thickness, and on a fully swaged hinge that might make sense, but with a semi-swaged or unswaged hinge you should think more in terms of a hinge mortice that's a whisker less than half the knuckle thickness rather than the leaf thickness.

A small hand router like yours is a superb tool for the precision fitting of hinges, so I'd deepen the mortice a fraction more and re-try. You don't want to go too deep, if you do when the lid closes it will exert it's leverage to tear the screws out, which with the tiny screws you're using is all too possible. The perfect position is likely to have a tolerance of only 0.1-0.2mm, so when you've found perfection then carefully record the depth, because it sounds like you'll be using these hinges again!

Good luck!

 

[Honest John]

Brilliant. Thanks Marcross. Peters article says it all. I've just printed it out so I can keep a copy in my workshop for reference. My memory isn't what it used to be. Il refit the hinges tomorrow correctly. Thanks again.

 

[Honest John]

Thanks custard, these hinges are clearly as you say the "unswaged" type. I shall indeed do as you said and proceed with caution.

 

[SVB]

Could you give a link to the hinge you using as I've used the top quality ones (that are great) but not every job warrants a £50 pair of hinges

 

[marcros]

i used some of http://www.isaaclord.co.uk/narrow-solid-brass-hinge and some that were not narrow, but dont seem to be listed. The size is the opened hinge.

You need to polish them, and screws are sold separately.

If anybody wants some, i would be happy to add to the order and get a bulk discount.