This box was designed to be a carrying case, so the lid need to be hinged to the bottom. In keeping with the theme of cheap practice, I grabbed brass-colored, stamped hinges at the local Home Depot. Also in keeping with the theme, I watched Matt Estlea's videos on preparing these hinges and chiseling mortises for them. The particular style of hinge I bought required a little change to the plan, but I'll explain that in a bit. The mortising started with lines scribed for the edges of the hinge plate.
The first step in choping out the hinge was not cutting along these lines. Instead, it was chopping across the grain, 1/8" to 3/16" inside these lines.
With the grain sliced, it was easy to pare in from the edge, without any risk of splitting past my markings.
A couple of rounds of chopping and pairing, and I had reached my desired depth.
With that base defined, I could work my way back to the scribed lines carefully.
The hinge plate was a nice snug fit side-to-side, but this is where the style of hinge came into play. The hinge pin stuck out of either end, so I needed to cut relief for it as well.
After repeating that process seven more times, drilling, and screwing, my lid was attached.
It closed quite closely. There wasn't even enough room for some thin cork lining I was considering.
The hinges protruded so little that the box had no trouble standing on that edge. I may add some feet at some point, just to protect them a bit anyway.
Categories: Woodworking
Post Copyright © 2019 Bryan Fink