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A wooden hinge prototype

July 5, 2011 By

 

If you have been following the blog, you know I have been working on wooden hinge forms for some time. John, one reader in Washington State, wanted to know if I ever make a prototype for each cabinet or box in which I incorporate wooden hinges. My answer is a definite YES!

John, here is the final/final prototype hinge form I made for a small curly maple cabinet – and before any sculpting:

The hinge prototype

The link above shows several photos of the finished cabinet. Hint: here is the bottom-right hinge, installed on the finished cabinet:

The hinge on the finished cabinet

To make wooden hinges I use the F3 finger joint template on the Leigh D4R dovetail jig. In case you missed it, I documented the entire procedure, including photographs, in an earlier article. The article is now archived at the Leigh Industries Customer Support web page.

— Al Navas


Filed Under: Blog, Box making, D4R Pro, Design, F3 finger joint, Finger joints, Jigs, Joinery

I failed my finger joints

July 3, 2011 By

 

Finger joints are an excellent joint for boxes, as they provide a great amount of surface area for glue. And this is the key to what happened with the storage box I made to store the guides for the FMT Pro and for the Super FMT: I failed to apply sufficient glue to the top-most finger joint in one of the corners; as a result, it failed where the arrow points:

Failed finger joint

Fortunately, I was able to inspect the joint; that is how I learned I did not apply enough glue. Carefully I pried open the joint, applied glue, and clamped it with a small C clamp and allowed it to set for several hours. It now awaits the last two coats of Waterlox varnish.

On the other hand, the box body finger joints are nice and tight:

Finger joints on the box

I hope to will pay better attention next time I make a new box with finger joints. I do not want to fail again.

— Al Navas


Filed Under: Blog, Box making, Design, Finger joints, Joinery

A storage box with finger joints

June 27, 2011 By

The box for the FMT Pro and Super FMT guides is ready for a nice varnish finish that will pop the grain on the curly maple:

Box for FMT guides, built with finger joints.

I may need to do a little more work on the grid holding the guides in place. More on this in another post.

Equipment used: Leigh D4R Pro dovetail jig with the F3 finger joint template.

Acknowledgement: I got my inspiration for this box from the last two photos at the Leigh Industries’ square finger joint Photo Gallery. With thanks to Leigh Industries, and also to ”Lucky” Brittain.

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, Box making, D4R Pro, Design, F3 finger joint, FMT Pro, Leigh jig, Super FMT

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