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Home Blog A new wooden hinge form

December 7, 2010 By Al Navas

A new wooden hinge form

This article continues with the wooden hinge theme. I made some changes to the simple form I showed earlier. My thanks to Julio, in Spain, for the inspiration to develop a new hinge form. The business part of the hinge is now rounded. What follows is how I went about doing this.

I used walnut boards for the new hinges; in fact, I used the remains of the the boards I used for the first set of wooden hinges. This time I simply used a 3/16″ roundover bit on both edges at the router table:

Creating a round-over on the walnut stock.

After rounding over both edges on each board, I got a stepped edge along the entire length of the boards. But after a minute or two with sand paper, the step disappeared and I had a nice, smooth round edge:

The rounded walnut, after a bit of sanding.

The rounded edges of the boards went under the finger assembly of the F3 finger joint template. I cut the fingers and sockets on the Leigh D4R Pro jig — the results were great. I had enough material to make new hinges for 3 boxes:

A very large rounded "hinge".

I outlined a shape on the edges of two of the new hinges, and then spent a little time at the spindle sander removing wood to that outline. Soon I had the following form:

The prototype rounded hinges, as I tried a dry-fit on a box.

Thanks again, Julio!

Note 1: I was worried about completely rounding over both sides of the hinges; depending on the design of the hinge, a complete roundover may allow the lid to open fully; the lid may even touch the surface where the box is resting. In this case, the lid will open a bit beyond 270°. I will be able to determine the exact angle once I secure the hinges to the lid and the box; I will report on this, as it is an important issue. Normally we want the lid to open to 95°, and (almost) never beyond 110°.

Note 2: I will continue to refine the form, by creating new curves at the distal ends. This was a great suggestion from an online friend.

— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Box making, Design, F3 finger joint, Finger joints, Joinery Tagged With: finger joint, wooden hinge

About Al Navas

I love working with wood, and sharing here on the blog. I also love designing items that my clients will love having in their homes and offices. Please let me know if you need a special piece to share with your loved ones. Freelance, Legal, and Community Interpreter. Love photography.

Comments

  1. Splinters says

    December 7, 2010 at 9:31 am

    Hi Al, great job….Is the pivot dowel glued into one of the fingers or is all free floating? If free floating what keeps it in place?
    Tks for taking the time to answer.

    Take care
    Splinters

    • Al Navas says

      December 7, 2010 at 1:03 pm

      Thanks, Dave! The pivot dowel is held in place by friction, and only the single finger rotates in this prototype hinge. I will likely use brass rod, or steel, held in place using epoxy.

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