Hello friends,

I'm working on my first wood hinge box and following along closely with your DVD.  However, I'm struggling to get the wood hinge working laid out correctly on the router on a test piece.  It's 1/4"  thick which is the same as the finished box will be.

I've attached a layout as I believe it should work.  Is this accurate?  My questions are:

• Should the center line of the dowel be in line with the top of the back as I've shown?
• Does is matter how far the dowel pin is from the edge.  Should it be farther in or does it matter?
• I assume the top and back are cut with the same router settings.  The video didn't show that but that must be true.
• When Rob cut his back in the video, he had a small lip on the back side which my diagram wouldn't have.  Trying to understand this.  Please 2nd attachment.

I've through through this more and drawn this since my unsuccessful attempts so I think I'll head back to the shop and try to replicate this.  This has clarified this somewhat in my head.

Thank you all very much.

Michael

Anonymous wrote:

Michael,

I am also getting ready to build a box with wood hinge and was watching Rob but not getting critical dimensions for setting the fence.

I saw you post and drew this up. I would be interested to know if this sketch helps and works.

See attached pdf

Hi William,

I checked out your drawing dimensions and found that the top will only open to about 75 degrees.  In other words max opening is 15 degrees short of verticle.  So it will not open to the 10 degrees past verticle you show.

Carry on.

Larry

Hi Bill,

I think there is also a problem with the router table settings you listed in your pdf.  There is a problem with raising the bit above the table more than the radius of the cut.  You get into the straight cutting section of the bit's profile and the result is flats in the cut profile. If I understand the procedure your thinking of you would end up with these results

Thanks Larry.  I'm going to take your measurements and use those as a starting point on some test pieces.  Looks like my simple diagram is correct, but the key is really knowing where to start and then dialing it in.

How did you make your calculations?  I'd love to understand how you came about those numbers.

Michael

Just to followup on this thread, I found some time this evening to work a bit more on the hinge.  Using a 1/4" dowel, the following settings seem to work.  I've not put it together yet, but you can use these as a starting point.  They are a bit different than what Larry posted.

• 11/64" bit exposed from the fence
• 1/16" bit raised from the table

It was tricky to measure so I also made a template the I won't glue together for reference next time.

Thanks all.

Michael