| Blog series by newTim | updated 985 days ago | 4 parts | 11733 reads | 7 comments total |
Part 1: Just add Soss
In two recent projects, the Copper Patina box and the String Box II, I installed Soss hinges. I had once thought of a way to adapt a regular square hinge jig to make routing the mortises for the Soss hinge easier. It turns out, with this jig, it is very easy, and fast, and accurate. The Secrets of the String Box Revealed blog showed some photos of the jig and described how it works. I’m sure most folks on LJs could see how this was built, but I thought I’d do a more detailed b...
Part 2: Let's Roll
Well let’s get this thing going. The object is to make a rectangular hole in the middle of a board. Two boards actually; one for the top mortise and one for the bottom. Start by getting the measurement of the diameter of your router base. We need to make the jig wide enough so the base doesn’t bump into the hinges. As you will see later, you can mortise the hinges into the jig to make a flat surface, however, this would take time and risk the two boards being slightly out of ...
Part 3: Steps to success
Like most things it takes much longer to explain a process than it does to complete. Still, there are a lot of steps involved, and while you can sometimes change to order chances are there are no shortcuts, especially when precision is the final goal. Well enough philosophy, how ‘bout we just do woodworking. At this point the jig is maybe a half hour from being functional. Here I trimmed one side of each template to about 1 3/4” from the centerline of the mortise. You may w...
Part 4: Adding a precision fence: ready to use
The fence sits underneath the templates and is used to register the jig against the back of the box and securely clamp the jig to the box. The Soss 203 requires a 1/8” space between the back of the hinge and the back of the box. Since the hinge is 1/2”, the centerline of the hinge must be 3/8” from the back. It is important that the fence be square to the template otherwise the hinges, hence the box lid, will be crooked. I cut a piece of 3/4” plywood about the widt...
