Reply by jsheaney

OK, so I fixed the hinges best I could. Again, this is just a test box for me to practice some techniques before I make some good <cough> ones. Anyway, I went all around all four hinge mortises with my wheel marking gauge. they were off only in the slightest so the blade itself pretty much took off the tiny shavings I needed for all four to have a corner to register the hinges. The original pilot holes for the screws were made with a 1/16th drill bit, so I drilled them all larger with a 3/32 drill bit. Then I lined up a hinge in each registration corner and marked the direction the screw needed to be moved to be centered. I tried to err in the direction of the registration corner. Then I glued little slivers of wood that had been chiseled out of the mortises into the screw holes to push the screw into the direction I wanted, “clamping” them into place with tiny finish nails. After the glue dried, I sliced off the excess flush with a chisel and screwed in the hinges. It still isn’t absolutely perfect, but is good enough to make me feel like I can do it better the next time.

As a side note, I fixed an really old dilapidated nightstand that had a door pulled off its hinges. Some chunks of wood got pulled out with the screws. As an exercise, I chiseled out some wood nice and square and glued in a block of walnut. This time, the top hinge screw holes were already OK, so I screwed in the top and just held the bottom hinge in place and drill the two lower pilot holes with my hand drill with a 1/16 bit, right through the holes in the hinge. It was perfect. Go figure.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

-- Disappointment is an empty box full of expectation.