Boxland: Work Stations and Boxing Tips

Boxguy said:

Cutting Spline Slots

Boxguy's Spline Slot Cutting Jig

Want to add corner splines like this?
,
,

You need a jig like this!
.
.
This hard working (and dusty) jig is used on almost every box I make, and is quick and simple to build. It has a wide plywood board for a base, a long "trough" supported by 45 degree triangles cut from a 2X6 and a handle so you can pull it back to you. (I just made the handle out of a forking branch.) The long trough lets me use this for boxes that are large or small. The wide base lets me run the jig along the saw fence. Sliding the fence over so it is snug along the jig removes all the play in the slide and makes the jig extremely accurate.

If you spread the two sides of your "trough" apart a little, your box will touch both sides, but rests on the bottom. Touching the box to the bottom board is important because it lets you set the height of your saw cut accurately using the base of the jig as a starting point for your cut. I can now set the slot depth using those long square brass spacer bars to raise my blade to the proper height by just sliding the jig forward and setting the bars on top of the jig base. (Hint: when you are making the jig. Affix the back side of the trough so it aligns with the back end of the jig, then just set a box into the trough to align and set up the front side so the box touches the jig base and then fasten the front trough board in place.) There are two important things to notice in the above picture. First, I have drawn a pencil line on the jig that aligns with and is as wide as the dado blade. Second, there is a strip of 2 inch masking tape running across the back side of the trough. More about these next…

You can see the tape and the line on the outside top of the trough here. (The mark on the trough takes little looking, sorry.) Though I have posed this with a finished box, you can get the idea.

First, I mark where I want each spline cut to be made on the box blank itself with a pencil. (In this case I would have marked three 1/4 inch wide lines for the three splines.) Second, I align these penciled-in marks for the splines with the pencil marks on the trough that indicate where the blade will cut. Third, using the box itself as a ruler, I draw a line along the top of the box and across the masking tape. This pencil line across the tape will now become my indicator for locating the box on the jig for each cut.

I draw one line across the tape for each row of splines (in this case three marks) and put a number next to each line. (If you don't number the lines, I find it is too easy to lose track of where you are in the sequence and accidentally cut the same slot twice.)

To cut the slots I hold the box blank firmly in place with both hands, and use my body to shove the jig forward and over the dado blade. Do not bring the box blank backwards through the blade. Instead, after cutting the slot, lift or tilt the box blank up and above the blade then pull the jig back into place for the next cut. Making more than one pass through the dado blade will widen the slot slightly and you will not get a nice, tight fit on your finished spline. I cut all three slots in one corner then roll the box to the next corner and cut three more slots.

I like to use the back of the trough as a foot so I can stand this large jig out of the way on the floor next to the saw. That is why I cut the hole-handle in the base board.

This shot shows the back of the jig. Notice the maple stop at the top so you don't push the jig too far forward with your body as you make the pass over the blade. It also shows the runner that fits in the saw's miter slot.
.
.

.
This jig and careful work will let you produce corner splines in your boxes that fit like a glove.

For instructions about making the splines themselves click here.

Conclusion:

It took me far longer to tell how to cut slots than it takes me to actually cut the slots in my boxes. With practice, blade height set up, locating the slots on the box blank, marking the lines on the masking tape, and actually cutting the slots with the dado blade only takes 5 to 10 minutes.

If you have questions or comments, just ask. Thanks for reading.

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Cutting Spline Slots

Boxguy's Spline Slot Cutting Jig

Want to add corner splines like this?
,
,

You need a jig like this!
.
.
This hard working (and dusty) jig is used on almost every box I make, and is quick and simple to build. It has a wide plywood board for a base, a long "trough" supported by 45 degree triangles cut from a 2X6 and a handle so you can pull it back to you. (I just made the handle out of a forking branch.) The long trough lets me use this for boxes that are large or small. The wide base lets me run the jig along the saw fence. Sliding the fence over so it is snug along the jig removes all the play in the slide and makes the jig extremely accurate.

If you spread the two sides of your "trough" apart a little, your box will touch both sides, but rests on the bottom. Touching the box to the bottom board is important because it lets you set the height of your saw cut accurately using the base of the jig as a starting point for your cut. I can now set the slot depth using those long square brass spacer bars to raise my blade to the proper height by just sliding the jig forward and setting the bars on top of the jig base. (Hint: when you are making the jig. Affix the back side of the trough so it aligns with the back end of the jig, then just set a box into the trough to align and set up the front side so the box touches the jig base and then fasten the front trough board in place.) There are two important things to notice in the above picture. First, I have drawn a pencil line on the jig that aligns with and is as wide as the dado blade. Second, there is a strip of 2 inch masking tape running across the back side of the trough. More about these next…

You can see the tape and the line on the outside top of the trough here. (The mark on the trough takes little looking, sorry.) Though I have posed this with a finished box, you can get the idea.

First, I mark where I want each spline cut to be made on the box blank itself with a pencil. (In this case I would have marked three 1/4 inch wide lines for the three splines.) Second, I align these penciled-in marks for the splines with the pencil marks on the trough that indicate where the blade will cut. Third, using the box itself as a ruler, I draw a line along the top of the box and across the masking tape. This pencil line across the tape will now become my indicator for locating the box on the jig for each cut.

I draw one line across the tape for each row of splines (in this case three marks) and put a number next to each line. (If you don't number the lines, I find it is too easy to lose track of where you are in the sequence and accidentally cut the same slot twice.)

To cut the slots I hold the box blank firmly in place with both hands, and use my body to shove the jig forward and over the dado blade. Do not bring the box blank backwards through the blade. Instead, after cutting the slot, lift or tilt the box blank up and above the blade then pull the jig back into place for the next cut. Making more than one pass through the dado blade will widen the slot slightly and you will not get a nice, tight fit on your finished spline. I cut all three slots in one corner then roll the box to the next corner and cut three more slots.

I like to use the back of the trough as a foot so I can stand this large jig out of the way on the floor next to the saw. That is why I cut the hole-handle in the base board.

This shot shows the back of the jig. Notice the maple stop at the top so you don't push the jig too far forward with your body as you make the pass over the blade. It also shows the runner that fits in the saw's miter slot.
.
.

.
This jig and careful work will let you produce corner splines in your boxes that fit like a glove.

For instructions about making the splines themselves click here.

Conclusion:

It took me far longer to tell how to cut slots than it takes me to actually cut the slots in my boxes. With practice, blade height set up, locating the slots on the box blank, marking the lines on the masking tape, and actually cutting the slots with the dado blade only takes 5 to 10 minutes.

If you have questions or comments, just ask. Thanks for reading.

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Separating The Top and Cutting a Hinge to Fit

How do you make a hinge and fit it in a box so that it looks like this when you are done?

You Could Use This!...My Hinge Station or a Hack Saw

.
.

Just Browsing? If you want to casually breeze through this just read the dark print and look at the pictures. For more serious readers, I have included details in the fine print.

Economics: Price is a major consideration if you are making boxes for sale. I simply can't afford to put $35 or more into a set of fine brass hinges and make any money on the boxes I sell. I wish I could. So I choose to use piano hinges that have been cut from a 4 foot length so they fit the particular box that I am working on at the moment. I use 1 1/16 inch wide brass coated steel hinges and try to keep my side thicknesses at 5/8 of an inch. Steel plated piano hinges are my compromise between economy. appearance, and function.

Reasoning: Other than money why this choice? I am trying to make boxes that will still be in use 100 years from now. With modern glues and careful joinery, I may have a chance. Piano hinges are the most stable and strongest way I know to join the lid to the bottom of a box and allow it to swing open. Other styles of boxes lend themselves well to pin hinges and pivot hinges on the outside of the box, but I have not made many of that style of box.

The Process In Pictures: It may take some scrolling, but I have tried to have a picture for each step.
.
.
.

Separating The Top:

Set Your Blade Height: First use a scrap from the original board you started with to set your saw blade to slightly beyond the thickness of the side of your box. (If you lost the scrap you can set the blade by the edge showing on top or bottom, but it is more difficult to be accurate, especially if you rounded those edges as I have here.) Note the shop-made zero clearance insert…good idea.

Set Your Fence: Now set your fence to the proper position to cut your lid off. Always keep the lid to the left of your blade. Cut through the two long sides, but lower your blade so you don't quite cut through with the end cuts. Notice that I marked the back in chalk so I can be sure to put it back together properly after it is separated. With close grain patterns you often can't tell the front from the back until you apply a finish. Remember! For the two end cuts lower the blade enough so it doesn't cut all the way through the box side. This lowering keeps the blade from being pinched by the box. When the box pinches the saw blade a lot of bad things happen to the box and maybe to you as well.

Finish Cutting the Ends: Now cut the remaining sliver away in the two end cuts with a box cutter and separate the lid from the bottom.

.
.
.

Making The Hinge:
.
.

Size It: The first step is to set your hinge on the box and determine how long it should be. Obviously you don't want it to end in the middle of a screw hole, but you do want it to be close to the inside edge of the box.

Cut The Hinge: I took an old metal-cutting band saw and made it into a tool specifically for this job, but you can cut it by hand using a hack saw.

Smoothing And Rounding: I use a cheap ($35) one inch belt sander that I bought from Grizzly for this. But you can use any sander or even just do it by hand. Just remove the burrs and any saw marks. I round off the inside and outside corners so they won't be too sharp and cut customers.

Shorten The Pin: Over time the hinge's pin would work loose and stick out as a sharp point. To prevent this I use a small punch to make the pin slide to one end. Shown here is a specialized tool. It is a magnet over a metal bar with a hole in it. The advantage of this is that I can use two hands to work and the magnet will hold the hinge for me. Obviously, you can do this just using something like a small nail to slide the pin to the hinge end.

Cut The Pin: Pictured is cutting off the extended pin.

Stuff The Pin Back In Place: Using the pin punch, slide the pin back inside the knuckle of the hinge.

Crimp The Hinge Ends: Using a ball peen hammer and a small anvil lightly tap the hinge ends to crimp them closed and prevent the pin from slipping out of the knuckle. You may need to resand the hinge if you have a burr or sharp end after peening the ends of the hinge.

Painting The Ends: Since I use steel hinges, they would soon rust if they were not coated. I spray paint the ends to prevent this. Notice that everything you need to do this job is at one station. (See the holders for pliers and hammer?) Once I walk up to this station, I can make a hinge that will fit a box without taking a step. With practice and this station it takes about 10 minutes to size, cut, smooth, shorten the pin, crimp the knuckle, re-smooth, and paint the ends of a hinge. Now, how do you mortise and install these hinges in a box? Read the next chapter of this blog. "How To Install a Hinge" to find out.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the hinge station itself. I finished building it this spring and it has seen hard use in a short time. This summer I'll make the final refinements and paint it to make it pretty.
.
.

My Hinge Station (The Chop Smith)
.

Everything is at hand. Even a trash can.

Tools

Paint and New Hinges

Pin punch, Anvil, Magnetic Hinge Holder

Belt Grinder

Modified Metal Cutting Band Saw (It sports a 1/2 HP motor)

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Separating The Top and Cutting a Hinge to Fit

How do you make a hinge and fit it in a box so that it looks like this when you are done?

You Could Use This!...My Hinge Station or a Hack Saw

.
.

Just Browsing? If you want to casually breeze through this just read the dark print and look at the pictures. For more serious readers, I have included details in the fine print.

Economics: Price is a major consideration if you are making boxes for sale. I simply can't afford to put $35 or more into a set of fine brass hinges and make any money on the boxes I sell. I wish I could. So I choose to use piano hinges that have been cut from a 4 foot length so they fit the particular box that I am working on at the moment. I use 1 1/16 inch wide brass coated steel hinges and try to keep my side thicknesses at 5/8 of an inch. Steel plated piano hinges are my compromise between economy. appearance, and function.

Reasoning: Other than money why this choice? I am trying to make boxes that will still be in use 100 years from now. With modern glues and careful joinery, I may have a chance. Piano hinges are the most stable and strongest way I know to join the lid to the bottom of a box and allow it to swing open. Other styles of boxes lend themselves well to pin hinges and pivot hinges on the outside of the box, but I have not made many of that style of box.

The Process In Pictures: It may take some scrolling, but I have tried to have a picture for each step.
.
.
.

Separating The Top:

Set Your Blade Height: First use a scrap from the original board you started with to set your saw blade to slightly beyond the thickness of the side of your box. (If you lost the scrap you can set the blade by the edge showing on top or bottom, but it is more difficult to be accurate, especially if you rounded those edges as I have here.) Note the shop-made zero clearance insert…good idea.

Set Your Fence: Now set your fence to the proper position to cut your lid off. Always keep the lid to the left of your blade. Cut through the two long sides, but lower your blade so you don't quite cut through with the end cuts. Notice that I marked the back in chalk so I can be sure to put it back together properly after it is separated. With close grain patterns you often can't tell the front from the back until you apply a finish. Remember! For the two end cuts lower the blade enough so it doesn't cut all the way through the box side. This lowering keeps the blade from being pinched by the box. When the box pinches the saw blade a lot of bad things happen to the box and maybe to you as well.

Finish Cutting the Ends: Now cut the remaining sliver away in the two end cuts with a box cutter and separate the lid from the bottom.

.
.
.

Making The Hinge:
.
.

Size It: The first step is to set your hinge on the box and determine how long it should be. Obviously you don't want it to end in the middle of a screw hole, but you do want it to be close to the inside edge of the box.

Cut The Hinge: I took an old metal-cutting band saw and made it into a tool specifically for this job, but you can cut it by hand using a hack saw.

Smoothing And Rounding: I use a cheap ($35) one inch belt sander that I bought from Grizzly for this. But you can use any sander or even just do it by hand. Just remove the burrs and any saw marks. I round off the inside and outside corners so they won't be too sharp and cut customers.

Shorten The Pin: Over time the hinge's pin would work loose and stick out as a sharp point. To prevent this I use a small punch to make the pin slide to one end. Shown here is a specialized tool. It is a magnet over a metal bar with a hole in it. The advantage of this is that I can use two hands to work and the magnet will hold the hinge for me. Obviously, you can do this just using something like a small nail to slide the pin to the hinge end.

Cut The Pin: Pictured is cutting off the extended pin.

Stuff The Pin Back In Place: Using the pin punch, slide the pin back inside the knuckle of the hinge.

Crimp The Hinge Ends: Using a ball peen hammer and a small anvil lightly tap the hinge ends to crimp them closed and prevent the pin from slipping out of the knuckle. You may need to resand the hinge if you have a burr or sharp end after peening the ends of the hinge.

Painting The Ends: Since I use steel hinges, they would soon rust if they were not coated. I spray paint the ends to prevent this. Notice that everything you need to do this job is at one station. (See the holders for pliers and hammer?) Once I walk up to this station, I can make a hinge that will fit a box without taking a step. With practice and this station it takes about 10 minutes to size, cut, smooth, shorten the pin, crimp the knuckle, re-smooth, and paint the ends of a hinge. Now, how do you mortise and install these hinges in a box? Read the next chapter of this blog. "How To Install a Hinge" to find out.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the hinge station itself. I finished building it this spring and it has seen hard use in a short time. This summer I'll make the final refinements and paint it to make it pretty.
.
.

My Hinge Station (The Chop Smith)
.

Everything is at hand. Even a trash can.

Tools

Paint and New Hinges

Pin punch, Anvil, Magnetic Hinge Holder

Belt Grinder

Modified Metal Cutting Band Saw (It sports a 1/2 HP motor)

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Separating The Top and Cutting a Hinge to Fit

How do you make a hinge and fit it in a box so that it looks like this when you are done?

You Could Use This!...My Hinge Station or a Hack Saw

.
.

Just Browsing? If you want to casually breeze through this just read the dark print and look at the pictures. For more serious readers, I have included details in the fine print.

Economics: Price is a major consideration if you are making boxes for sale. I simply can't afford to put $35 or more into a set of fine brass hinges and make any money on the boxes I sell. I wish I could. So I choose to use piano hinges that have been cut from a 4 foot length so they fit the particular box that I am working on at the moment. I use 1 1/16 inch wide brass coated steel hinges and try to keep my side thicknesses at 5/8 of an inch. Steel plated piano hinges are my compromise between economy. appearance, and function.

Reasoning: Other than money why this choice? I am trying to make boxes that will still be in use 100 years from now. With modern glues and careful joinery, I may have a chance. Piano hinges are the most stable and strongest way I know to join the lid to the bottom of a box and allow it to swing open. Other styles of boxes lend themselves well to pin hinges and pivot hinges on the outside of the box, but I have not made many of that style of box.

The Process In Pictures: It may take some scrolling, but I have tried to have a picture for each step.
.
.
.

Separating The Top:

Set Your Blade Height: First use a scrap from the original board you started with to set your saw blade to slightly beyond the thickness of the side of your box. (If you lost the scrap you can set the blade by the edge showing on top or bottom, but it is more difficult to be accurate, especially if you rounded those edges as I have here.) Note the shop-made zero clearance insert…good idea.

Set Your Fence: Now set your fence to the proper position to cut your lid off. Always keep the lid to the left of your blade. Cut through the two long sides, but lower your blade so you don't quite cut through with the end cuts. Notice that I marked the back in chalk so I can be sure to put it back together properly after it is separated. With close grain patterns you often can't tell the front from the back until you apply a finish. Remember! For the two end cuts lower the blade enough so it doesn't cut all the way through the box side. This lowering keeps the blade from being pinched by the box. When the box pinches the saw blade a lot of bad things happen to the box and maybe to you as well.

Finish Cutting the Ends: Now cut the remaining sliver away in the two end cuts with a box cutter and separate the lid from the bottom.

.
.
.

Making The Hinge:
.
.

Size It: The first step is to set your hinge on the box and determine how long it should be. Obviously you don't want it to end in the middle of a screw hole, but you do want it to be close to the inside edge of the box.

Cut The Hinge: I took an old metal-cutting band saw and made it into a tool specifically for this job, but you can cut it by hand using a hack saw.

Smoothing And Rounding: I use a cheap ($35) one inch belt sander that I bought from Grizzly for this. But you can use any sander or even just do it by hand. Just remove the burrs and any saw marks. I round off the inside and outside corners so they won't be too sharp and cut customers.

Shorten The Pin: Over time the hinge's pin would work loose and stick out as a sharp point. To prevent this I use a small punch to make the pin slide to one end. Shown here is a specialized tool. It is a magnet over a metal bar with a hole in it. The advantage of this is that I can use two hands to work and the magnet will hold the hinge for me. Obviously, you can do this just using something like a small nail to slide the pin to the hinge end.

Cut The Pin: Pictured is cutting off the extended pin.

Stuff The Pin Back In Place: Using the pin punch, slide the pin back inside the knuckle of the hinge.

Crimp The Hinge Ends: Using a ball peen hammer and a small anvil lightly tap the hinge ends to crimp them closed and prevent the pin from slipping out of the knuckle. You may need to resand the hinge if you have a burr or sharp end after peening the ends of the hinge.

Painting The Ends: Since I use steel hinges, they would soon rust if they were not coated. I spray paint the ends to prevent this. Notice that everything you need to do this job is at one station. (See the holders for pliers and hammer?) Once I walk up to this station, I can make a hinge that will fit a box without taking a step. With practice and this station it takes about 10 minutes to size, cut, smooth, shorten the pin, crimp the knuckle, re-smooth, and paint the ends of a hinge. Now, how do you mortise and install these hinges in a box? Read the next chapter of this blog. "How To Install a Hinge" to find out.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the hinge station itself. I finished building it this spring and it has seen hard use in a short time. This summer I'll make the final refinements and paint it to make it pretty.
.
.

My Hinge Station (The Chop Smith)
.

Everything is at hand. Even a trash can.

Tools

Paint and New Hinges

Pin punch, Anvil, Magnetic Hinge Holder

Belt Grinder

Modified Metal Cutting Band Saw (It sports a 1/2 HP motor)

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Separating The Top and Cutting a Hinge to Fit

How do you make a hinge and fit it in a box so that it looks like this when you are done?

You Could Use This!...My Hinge Station or a Hack Saw

.
.

Just Browsing? If you want to casually breeze through this just read the dark print and look at the pictures. For more serious readers, I have included details in the fine print.

Economics: Price is a major consideration if you are making boxes for sale. I simply can't afford to put $35 or more into a set of fine brass hinges and make any money on the boxes I sell. I wish I could. So I choose to use piano hinges that have been cut from a 4 foot length so they fit the particular box that I am working on at the moment. I use 1 1/16 inch wide brass coated steel hinges and try to keep my side thicknesses at 5/8 of an inch. Steel plated piano hinges are my compromise between economy. appearance, and function.

Reasoning: Other than money why this choice? I am trying to make boxes that will still be in use 100 years from now. With modern glues and careful joinery, I may have a chance. Piano hinges are the most stable and strongest way I know to join the lid to the bottom of a box and allow it to swing open. Other styles of boxes lend themselves well to pin hinges and pivot hinges on the outside of the box, but I have not made many of that style of box.

The Process In Pictures: It may take some scrolling, but I have tried to have a picture for each step.
.
.
.

Separating The Top:

Set Your Blade Height: First use a scrap from the original board you started with to set your saw blade to slightly beyond the thickness of the side of your box. (If you lost the scrap you can set the blade by the edge showing on top or bottom, but it is more difficult to be accurate, especially if you rounded those edges as I have here.) Note the shop-made zero clearance insert…good idea.

Set Your Fence: Now set your fence to the proper position to cut your lid off. Always keep the lid to the left of your blade. Cut through the two long sides, but lower your blade so you don't quite cut through with the end cuts. Notice that I marked the back in chalk so I can be sure to put it back together properly after it is separated. With close grain patterns you often can't tell the front from the back until you apply a finish. Remember! For the two end cuts lower the blade enough so it doesn't cut all the way through the box side. This lowering keeps the blade from being pinched by the box. When the box pinches the saw blade a lot of bad things happen to the box and maybe to you as well.

Finish Cutting the Ends: Now cut the remaining sliver away in the two end cuts with a box cutter and separate the lid from the bottom.

.
.
.

Making The Hinge:
.
.

Size It: The first step is to set your hinge on the box and determine how long it should be. Obviously you don't want it to end in the middle of a screw hole, but you do want it to be close to the inside edge of the box.

Cut The Hinge: I took an old metal-cutting band saw and made it into a tool specifically for this job, but you can cut it by hand using a hack saw.

Smoothing And Rounding: I use a cheap ($35) one inch belt sander that I bought from Grizzly for this. But you can use any sander or even just do it by hand. Just remove the burrs and any saw marks. I round off the inside and outside corners so they won't be too sharp and cut customers.

Shorten The Pin: Over time the hinge's pin would work loose and stick out as a sharp point. To prevent this I use a small punch to make the pin slide to one end. Shown here is a specialized tool. It is a magnet over a metal bar with a hole in it. The advantage of this is that I can use two hands to work and the magnet will hold the hinge for me. Obviously, you can do this just using something like a small nail to slide the pin to the hinge end.

Cut The Pin: Pictured is cutting off the extended pin.

Stuff The Pin Back In Place: Using the pin punch, slide the pin back inside the knuckle of the hinge.

Crimp The Hinge Ends: Using a ball peen hammer and a small anvil lightly tap the hinge ends to crimp them closed and prevent the pin from slipping out of the knuckle. You may need to resand the hinge if you have a burr or sharp end after peening the ends of the hinge.

Painting The Ends: Since I use steel hinges, they would soon rust if they were not coated. I spray paint the ends to prevent this. Notice that everything you need to do this job is at one station. (See the holders for pliers and hammer?) Once I walk up to this station, I can make a hinge that will fit a box without taking a step. With practice and this station it takes about 10 minutes to size, cut, smooth, shorten the pin, crimp the knuckle, re-smooth, and paint the ends of a hinge. Now, how do you mortise and install these hinges in a box? Read the next chapter of this blog. "How To Install a Hinge" to find out.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the hinge station itself. I finished building it this spring and it has seen hard use in a short time. This summer I'll make the final refinements and paint it to make it pretty.
.
.

My Hinge Station (The Chop Smith)
.

Everything is at hand. Even a trash can.

Tools

Paint and New Hinges

Pin punch, Anvil, Magnetic Hinge Holder

Belt Grinder

Modified Metal Cutting Band Saw (It sports a 1/2 HP motor)

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Separating The Top and Cutting a Hinge to Fit

How do you make a hinge and fit it in a box so that it looks like this when you are done?

You Could Use This!...My Hinge Station or a Hack Saw

.
.

Just Browsing? If you want to casually breeze through this just read the dark print and look at the pictures. For more serious readers, I have included details in the fine print.

Economics: Price is a major consideration if you are making boxes for sale. I simply can't afford to put $35 or more into a set of fine brass hinges and make any money on the boxes I sell. I wish I could. So I choose to use piano hinges that have been cut from a 4 foot length so they fit the particular box that I am working on at the moment. I use 1 1/16 inch wide brass coated steel hinges and try to keep my side thicknesses at 5/8 of an inch. Steel plated piano hinges are my compromise between economy. appearance, and function.

Reasoning: Other than money why this choice? I am trying to make boxes that will still be in use 100 years from now. With modern glues and careful joinery, I may have a chance. Piano hinges are the most stable and strongest way I know to join the lid to the bottom of a box and allow it to swing open. Other styles of boxes lend themselves well to pin hinges and pivot hinges on the outside of the box, but I have not made many of that style of box.

The Process In Pictures: It may take some scrolling, but I have tried to have a picture for each step.
.
.
.

Separating The Top:

Set Your Blade Height: First use a scrap from the original board you started with to set your saw blade to slightly beyond the thickness of the side of your box. (If you lost the scrap you can set the blade by the edge showing on top or bottom, but it is more difficult to be accurate, especially if you rounded those edges as I have here.) Note the shop-made zero clearance insert…good idea.

Set Your Fence: Now set your fence to the proper position to cut your lid off. Always keep the lid to the left of your blade. Cut through the two long sides, but lower your blade so you don't quite cut through with the end cuts. Notice that I marked the back in chalk so I can be sure to put it back together properly after it is separated. With close grain patterns you often can't tell the front from the back until you apply a finish. Remember! For the two end cuts lower the blade enough so it doesn't cut all the way through the box side. This lowering keeps the blade from being pinched by the box. When the box pinches the saw blade a lot of bad things happen to the box and maybe to you as well.

Finish Cutting the Ends: Now cut the remaining sliver away in the two end cuts with a box cutter and separate the lid from the bottom.

.
.
.

Making The Hinge:
.
.

Size It: The first step is to set your hinge on the box and determine how long it should be. Obviously you don't want it to end in the middle of a screw hole, but you do want it to be close to the inside edge of the box.

Cut The Hinge: I took an old metal-cutting band saw and made it into a tool specifically for this job, but you can cut it by hand using a hack saw.

Smoothing And Rounding: I use a cheap ($35) one inch belt sander that I bought from Grizzly for this. But you can use any sander or even just do it by hand. Just remove the burrs and any saw marks. I round off the inside and outside corners so they won't be too sharp and cut customers.

Shorten The Pin: Over time the hinge's pin would work loose and stick out as a sharp point. To prevent this I use a small punch to make the pin slide to one end. Shown here is a specialized tool. It is a magnet over a metal bar with a hole in it. The advantage of this is that I can use two hands to work and the magnet will hold the hinge for me. Obviously, you can do this just using something like a small nail to slide the pin to the hinge end.

Cut The Pin: Pictured is cutting off the extended pin.

Stuff The Pin Back In Place: Using the pin punch, slide the pin back inside the knuckle of the hinge.

Crimp The Hinge Ends: Using a ball peen hammer and a small anvil lightly tap the hinge ends to crimp them closed and prevent the pin from slipping out of the knuckle. You may need to resand the hinge if you have a burr or sharp end after peening the ends of the hinge.

Painting The Ends: Since I use steel hinges, they would soon rust if they were not coated. I spray paint the ends to prevent this. Notice that everything you need to do this job is at one station. (See the holders for pliers and hammer?) Once I walk up to this station, I can make a hinge that will fit a box without taking a step. With practice and this station it takes about 10 minutes to size, cut, smooth, shorten the pin, crimp the knuckle, re-smooth, and paint the ends of a hinge. Now, how do you mortise and install these hinges in a box? Read the next chapter of this blog. "How To Install a Hinge" to find out.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the hinge station itself. I finished building it this spring and it has seen hard use in a short time. This summer I'll make the final refinements and paint it to make it pretty.
.
.

My Hinge Station (The Chop Smith)
.

Everything is at hand. Even a trash can.

Tools

Paint and New Hinges

Pin punch, Anvil, Magnetic Hinge Holder

Belt Grinder

Modified Metal Cutting Band Saw (It sports a 1/2 HP motor)

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Separating The Top and Cutting a Hinge to Fit

How do you make a hinge and fit it in a box so that it looks like this when you are done?

You Could Use This!...My Hinge Station or a Hack Saw

.
.

Just Browsing? If you want to casually breeze through this just read the dark print and look at the pictures. For more serious readers, I have included details in the fine print.

Economics: Price is a major consideration if you are making boxes for sale. I simply can't afford to put $35 or more into a set of fine brass hinges and make any money on the boxes I sell. I wish I could. So I choose to use piano hinges that have been cut from a 4 foot length so they fit the particular box that I am working on at the moment. I use 1 1/16 inch wide brass coated steel hinges and try to keep my side thicknesses at 5/8 of an inch. Steel plated piano hinges are my compromise between economy. appearance, and function.

Reasoning: Other than money why this choice? I am trying to make boxes that will still be in use 100 years from now. With modern glues and careful joinery, I may have a chance. Piano hinges are the most stable and strongest way I know to join the lid to the bottom of a box and allow it to swing open. Other styles of boxes lend themselves well to pin hinges and pivot hinges on the outside of the box, but I have not made many of that style of box.

The Process In Pictures: It may take some scrolling, but I have tried to have a picture for each step.
.
.
.

Separating The Top:

Set Your Blade Height: First use a scrap from the original board you started with to set your saw blade to slightly beyond the thickness of the side of your box. (If you lost the scrap you can set the blade by the edge showing on top or bottom, but it is more difficult to be accurate, especially if you rounded those edges as I have here.) Note the shop-made zero clearance insert…good idea.

Set Your Fence: Now set your fence to the proper position to cut your lid off. Always keep the lid to the left of your blade. Cut through the two long sides, but lower your blade so you don't quite cut through with the end cuts. Notice that I marked the back in chalk so I can be sure to put it back together properly after it is separated. With close grain patterns you often can't tell the front from the back until you apply a finish. Remember! For the two end cuts lower the blade enough so it doesn't cut all the way through the box side. This lowering keeps the blade from being pinched by the box. When the box pinches the saw blade a lot of bad things happen to the box and maybe to you as well.

Finish Cutting the Ends: Now cut the remaining sliver away in the two end cuts with a box cutter and separate the lid from the bottom.

.
.
.

Making The Hinge:
.
.

Size It: The first step is to set your hinge on the box and determine how long it should be. Obviously you don't want it to end in the middle of a screw hole, but you do want it to be close to the inside edge of the box.

Cut The Hinge: I took an old metal-cutting band saw and made it into a tool specifically for this job, but you can cut it by hand using a hack saw.

Smoothing And Rounding: I use a cheap ($35) one inch belt sander that I bought from Grizzly for this. But you can use any sander or even just do it by hand. Just remove the burrs and any saw marks. I round off the inside and outside corners so they won't be too sharp and cut customers.

Shorten The Pin: Over time the hinge's pin would work loose and stick out as a sharp point. To prevent this I use a small punch to make the pin slide to one end. Shown here is a specialized tool. It is a magnet over a metal bar with a hole in it. The advantage of this is that I can use two hands to work and the magnet will hold the hinge for me. Obviously, you can do this just using something like a small nail to slide the pin to the hinge end.

Cut The Pin: Pictured is cutting off the extended pin.

Stuff The Pin Back In Place: Using the pin punch, slide the pin back inside the knuckle of the hinge.

Crimp The Hinge Ends: Using a ball peen hammer and a small anvil lightly tap the hinge ends to crimp them closed and prevent the pin from slipping out of the knuckle. You may need to resand the hinge if you have a burr or sharp end after peening the ends of the hinge.

Painting The Ends: Since I use steel hinges, they would soon rust if they were not coated. I spray paint the ends to prevent this. Notice that everything you need to do this job is at one station. (See the holders for pliers and hammer?) Once I walk up to this station, I can make a hinge that will fit a box without taking a step. With practice and this station it takes about 10 minutes to size, cut, smooth, shorten the pin, crimp the knuckle, re-smooth, and paint the ends of a hinge. Now, how do you mortise and install these hinges in a box? Read the next chapter of this blog. "How To Install a Hinge" to find out.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the hinge station itself. I finished building it this spring and it has seen hard use in a short time. This summer I'll make the final refinements and paint it to make it pretty.
.
.

My Hinge Station (The Chop Smith)
.

Everything is at hand. Even a trash can.

Tools

Paint and New Hinges

Pin punch, Anvil, Magnetic Hinge Holder

Belt Grinder

Modified Metal Cutting Band Saw (It sports a 1/2 HP motor)

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Separating The Top and Cutting a Hinge to Fit

How do you make a hinge and fit it in a box so that it looks like this when you are done?

You Could Use This!...My Hinge Station or a Hack Saw

.
.

Just Browsing? If you want to casually breeze through this just read the dark print and look at the pictures. For more serious readers, I have included details in the fine print.

Economics: Price is a major consideration if you are making boxes for sale. I simply can't afford to put $35 or more into a set of fine brass hinges and make any money on the boxes I sell. I wish I could. So I choose to use piano hinges that have been cut from a 4 foot length so they fit the particular box that I am working on at the moment. I use 1 1/16 inch wide brass coated steel hinges and try to keep my side thicknesses at 5/8 of an inch. Steel plated piano hinges are my compromise between economy. appearance, and function.

Reasoning: Other than money why this choice? I am trying to make boxes that will still be in use 100 years from now. With modern glues and careful joinery, I may have a chance. Piano hinges are the most stable and strongest way I know to join the lid to the bottom of a box and allow it to swing open. Other styles of boxes lend themselves well to pin hinges and pivot hinges on the outside of the box, but I have not made many of that style of box.

The Process In Pictures: It may take some scrolling, but I have tried to have a picture for each step.
.
.
.

Separating The Top:

Set Your Blade Height: First use a scrap from the original board you started with to set your saw blade to slightly beyond the thickness of the side of your box. (If you lost the scrap you can set the blade by the edge showing on top or bottom, but it is more difficult to be accurate, especially if you rounded those edges as I have here.) Note the shop-made zero clearance insert…good idea.

Set Your Fence: Now set your fence to the proper position to cut your lid off. Always keep the lid to the left of your blade. Cut through the two long sides, but lower your blade so you don't quite cut through with the end cuts. Notice that I marked the back in chalk so I can be sure to put it back together properly after it is separated. With close grain patterns you often can't tell the front from the back until you apply a finish. Remember! For the two end cuts lower the blade enough so it doesn't cut all the way through the box side. This lowering keeps the blade from being pinched by the box. When the box pinches the saw blade a lot of bad things happen to the box and maybe to you as well.

Finish Cutting the Ends: Now cut the remaining sliver away in the two end cuts with a box cutter and separate the lid from the bottom.

.
.
.

Making The Hinge:
.
.

Size It: The first step is to set your hinge on the box and determine how long it should be. Obviously you don't want it to end in the middle of a screw hole, but you do want it to be close to the inside edge of the box.

Cut The Hinge: I took an old metal-cutting band saw and made it into a tool specifically for this job, but you can cut it by hand using a hack saw.

Smoothing And Rounding: I use a cheap ($35) one inch belt sander that I bought from Grizzly for this. But you can use any sander or even just do it by hand. Just remove the burrs and any saw marks. I round off the inside and outside corners so they won't be too sharp and cut customers.

Shorten The Pin: Over time the hinge's pin would work loose and stick out as a sharp point. To prevent this I use a small punch to make the pin slide to one end. Shown here is a specialized tool. It is a magnet over a metal bar with a hole in it. The advantage of this is that I can use two hands to work and the magnet will hold the hinge for me. Obviously, you can do this just using something like a small nail to slide the pin to the hinge end.

Cut The Pin: Pictured is cutting off the extended pin.

Stuff The Pin Back In Place: Using the pin punch, slide the pin back inside the knuckle of the hinge.

Crimp The Hinge Ends: Using a ball peen hammer and a small anvil lightly tap the hinge ends to crimp them closed and prevent the pin from slipping out of the knuckle. You may need to resand the hinge if you have a burr or sharp end after peening the ends of the hinge.

Painting The Ends: Since I use steel hinges, they would soon rust if they were not coated. I spray paint the ends to prevent this. Notice that everything you need to do this job is at one station. (See the holders for pliers and hammer?) Once I walk up to this station, I can make a hinge that will fit a box without taking a step. With practice and this station it takes about 10 minutes to size, cut, smooth, shorten the pin, crimp the knuckle, re-smooth, and paint the ends of a hinge. Now, how do you mortise and install these hinges in a box? Read the next chapter of this blog. "How To Install a Hinge" to find out.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the hinge station itself. I finished building it this spring and it has seen hard use in a short time. This summer I'll make the final refinements and paint it to make it pretty.
.
.

My Hinge Station (The Chop Smith)
.

Everything is at hand. Even a trash can.

Tools

Paint and New Hinges

Pin punch, Anvil, Magnetic Hinge Holder

Belt Grinder

Modified Metal Cutting Band Saw (It sports a 1/2 HP motor)

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Separating The Top and Cutting a Hinge to Fit

How do you make a hinge and fit it in a box so that it looks like this when you are done?

You Could Use This!...My Hinge Station or a Hack Saw

.
.

Just Browsing? If you want to casually breeze through this just read the dark print and look at the pictures. For more serious readers, I have included details in the fine print.

Economics: Price is a major consideration if you are making boxes for sale. I simply can't afford to put $35 or more into a set of fine brass hinges and make any money on the boxes I sell. I wish I could. So I choose to use piano hinges that have been cut from a 4 foot length so they fit the particular box that I am working on at the moment. I use 1 1/16 inch wide brass coated steel hinges and try to keep my side thicknesses at 5/8 of an inch. Steel plated piano hinges are my compromise between economy. appearance, and function.

Reasoning: Other than money why this choice? I am trying to make boxes that will still be in use 100 years from now. With modern glues and careful joinery, I may have a chance. Piano hinges are the most stable and strongest way I know to join the lid to the bottom of a box and allow it to swing open. Other styles of boxes lend themselves well to pin hinges and pivot hinges on the outside of the box, but I have not made many of that style of box.

The Process In Pictures: It may take some scrolling, but I have tried to have a picture for each step.
.
.
.

Separating The Top:

Set Your Blade Height: First use a scrap from the original board you started with to set your saw blade to slightly beyond the thickness of the side of your box. (If you lost the scrap you can set the blade by the edge showing on top or bottom, but it is more difficult to be accurate, especially if you rounded those edges as I have here.) Note the shop-made zero clearance insert…good idea.

Set Your Fence: Now set your fence to the proper position to cut your lid off. Always keep the lid to the left of your blade. Cut through the two long sides, but lower your blade so you don't quite cut through with the end cuts. Notice that I marked the back in chalk so I can be sure to put it back together properly after it is separated. With close grain patterns you often can't tell the front from the back until you apply a finish. Remember! For the two end cuts lower the blade enough so it doesn't cut all the way through the box side. This lowering keeps the blade from being pinched by the box. When the box pinches the saw blade a lot of bad things happen to the box and maybe to you as well.

Finish Cutting the Ends: Now cut the remaining sliver away in the two end cuts with a box cutter and separate the lid from the bottom.

.
.
.

Making The Hinge:
.
.

Size It: The first step is to set your hinge on the box and determine how long it should be. Obviously you don't want it to end in the middle of a screw hole, but you do want it to be close to the inside edge of the box.

Cut The Hinge: I took an old metal-cutting band saw and made it into a tool specifically for this job, but you can cut it by hand using a hack saw.

Smoothing And Rounding: I use a cheap ($35) one inch belt sander that I bought from Grizzly for this. But you can use any sander or even just do it by hand. Just remove the burrs and any saw marks. I round off the inside and outside corners so they won't be too sharp and cut customers.

Shorten The Pin: Over time the hinge's pin would work loose and stick out as a sharp point. To prevent this I use a small punch to make the pin slide to one end. Shown here is a specialized tool. It is a magnet over a metal bar with a hole in it. The advantage of this is that I can use two hands to work and the magnet will hold the hinge for me. Obviously, you can do this just using something like a small nail to slide the pin to the hinge end.

Cut The Pin: Pictured is cutting off the extended pin.

Stuff The Pin Back In Place: Using the pin punch, slide the pin back inside the knuckle of the hinge.

Crimp The Hinge Ends: Using a ball peen hammer and a small anvil lightly tap the hinge ends to crimp them closed and prevent the pin from slipping out of the knuckle. You may need to resand the hinge if you have a burr or sharp end after peening the ends of the hinge.

Painting The Ends: Since I use steel hinges, they would soon rust if they were not coated. I spray paint the ends to prevent this. Notice that everything you need to do this job is at one station. (See the holders for pliers and hammer?) Once I walk up to this station, I can make a hinge that will fit a box without taking a step. With practice and this station it takes about 10 minutes to size, cut, smooth, shorten the pin, crimp the knuckle, re-smooth, and paint the ends of a hinge. Now, how do you mortise and install these hinges in a box? Read the next chapter of this blog. "How To Install a Hinge" to find out.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the hinge station itself. I finished building it this spring and it has seen hard use in a short time. This summer I'll make the final refinements and paint it to make it pretty.
.
.

My Hinge Station (The Chop Smith)
.

Everything is at hand. Even a trash can.

Tools

Paint and New Hinges

Pin punch, Anvil, Magnetic Hinge Holder

Belt Grinder

Modified Metal Cutting Band Saw (It sports a 1/2 HP motor)

Click to expand...

Boxguy said:

Separating The Top and Cutting a Hinge to Fit

How do you make a hinge and fit it in a box so that it looks like this when you are done?

You Could Use This!...My Hinge Station or a Hack Saw

.
.

Just Browsing? If you want to casually breeze through this just read the dark print and look at the pictures. For more serious readers, I have included details in the fine print.

Economics: Price is a major consideration if you are making boxes for sale. I simply can't afford to put $35 or more into a set of fine brass hinges and make any money on the boxes I sell. I wish I could. So I choose to use piano hinges that have been cut from a 4 foot length so they fit the particular box that I am working on at the moment. I use 1 1/16 inch wide brass coated steel hinges and try to keep my side thicknesses at 5/8 of an inch. Steel plated piano hinges are my compromise between economy. appearance, and function.

Reasoning: Other than money why this choice? I am trying to make boxes that will still be in use 100 years from now. With modern glues and careful joinery, I may have a chance. Piano hinges are the most stable and strongest way I know to join the lid to the bottom of a box and allow it to swing open. Other styles of boxes lend themselves well to pin hinges and pivot hinges on the outside of the box, but I have not made many of that style of box.

The Process In Pictures: It may take some scrolling, but I have tried to have a picture for each step.
.
.
.

Separating The Top:

Set Your Blade Height: First use a scrap from the original board you started with to set your saw blade to slightly beyond the thickness of the side of your box. (If you lost the scrap you can set the blade by the edge showing on top or bottom, but it is more difficult to be accurate, especially if you rounded those edges as I have here.) Note the shop-made zero clearance insert…good idea.

Set Your Fence: Now set your fence to the proper position to cut your lid off. Always keep the lid to the left of your blade. Cut through the two long sides, but lower your blade so you don't quite cut through with the end cuts. Notice that I marked the back in chalk so I can be sure to put it back together properly after it is separated. With close grain patterns you often can't tell the front from the back until you apply a finish. Remember! For the two end cuts lower the blade enough so it doesn't cut all the way through the box side. This lowering keeps the blade from being pinched by the box. When the box pinches the saw blade a lot of bad things happen to the box and maybe to you as well.

Finish Cutting the Ends: Now cut the remaining sliver away in the two end cuts with a box cutter and separate the lid from the bottom.

.
.
.

Making The Hinge:
.
.

Size It: The first step is to set your hinge on the box and determine how long it should be. Obviously you don't want it to end in the middle of a screw hole, but you do want it to be close to the inside edge of the box.

Cut The Hinge: I took an old metal-cutting band saw and made it into a tool specifically for this job, but you can cut it by hand using a hack saw.

Smoothing And Rounding: I use a cheap ($35) one inch belt sander that I bought from Grizzly for this. But you can use any sander or even just do it by hand. Just remove the burrs and any saw marks. I round off the inside and outside corners so they won't be too sharp and cut customers.

Shorten The Pin: Over time the hinge's pin would work loose and stick out as a sharp point. To prevent this I use a small punch to make the pin slide to one end. Shown here is a specialized tool. It is a magnet over a metal bar with a hole in it. The advantage of this is that I can use two hands to work and the magnet will hold the hinge for me. Obviously, you can do this just using something like a small nail to slide the pin to the hinge end.

Cut The Pin: Pictured is cutting off the extended pin.

Stuff The Pin Back In Place: Using the pin punch, slide the pin back inside the knuckle of the hinge.

Crimp The Hinge Ends: Using a ball peen hammer and a small anvil lightly tap the hinge ends to crimp them closed and prevent the pin from slipping out of the knuckle. You may need to resand the hinge if you have a burr or sharp end after peening the ends of the hinge.

Painting The Ends: Since I use steel hinges, they would soon rust if they were not coated. I spray paint the ends to prevent this. Notice that everything you need to do this job is at one station. (See the holders for pliers and hammer?) Once I walk up to this station, I can make a hinge that will fit a box without taking a step. With practice and this station it takes about 10 minutes to size, cut, smooth, shorten the pin, crimp the knuckle, re-smooth, and paint the ends of a hinge. Now, how do you mortise and install these hinges in a box? Read the next chapter of this blog. "How To Install a Hinge" to find out.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of the hinge station itself. I finished building it this spring and it has seen hard use in a short time. This summer I'll make the final refinements and paint it to make it pretty.
.
.

My Hinge Station (The Chop Smith)
.

Everything is at hand. Even a trash can.

Tools

Paint and New Hinges

Pin punch, Anvil, Magnetic Hinge Holder

Belt Grinder

Modified Metal Cutting Band Saw (It sports a 1/2 HP motor)

Click to expand...