Saturday, April 20, 2019

How to Make Wooden Hinges



I built a small cabinet with a door so I needed some hinges so I thought I would try make some wood hinges for the door. They will be made all of wood including the hinge pin.

They are very strong and work well. I will show you step by step how I built them.



In my wood pile I had some Brazilian cherry  stair treads. I like the look of cherry and since it is a hardwood I thought they would work well for the hinges. They will be cut to a width of 3.5".




I used my table saw sled to cut the blocks to the right dimensions for the 2  mounting parts of the hinge. 





I had to glue a couple of pieces together, this will give me  large blocks to work with. They will be cut and shaped later to make a nice looking hinge.




I clamped them and set them a side overnight. 



The pieces are marked and notched out carefully with the band saw. 


 










The pieces are tested for fit. They are not bad but I could have done better, although this does not matter when the hinge is complete.


 

The two pieces of the hinge are clamped together and holes are drilled  for the hinge pin. The hinge pin will be a 1/2 wooden  dowel. It is easier to drill them now and later round the ends of the blocks.



 

In order for the hinge to rotate the block ends have to be rounded. I did this first using the band saw then a  belt sander. To keep things as accurate as possible it is best to pencil mark the round end and clean up using a belt sander. 




To make the shape of the hinge it is first cut lengthwise and cleaned up with the belt sander. 


More shaping the hinge.




When all the pieces are sanded a half inch dowel is pounded into the hinge. It feels very tight at this point but will rotate easier in time. I also use a little bit of lubrication which helped a lot.



 






 Five holes are drilled in each hinge, this will be for carriage bolts.


 


                                          See video


I used spacers to center the door and then drilled and installed the carriage bolts. After the bolts were tightened I tested it out and it worked 
perfect.


See Also:                                                                                  
 

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