Box question: Fixing slight lid slant due to non-swaged hinges

You didn’t post any pictures, but maybe you could file down the hinges. Or just get thinner ones.

-- Disappointment is an empty box full of expectation.

File the front edge of the hinges like jsheaney said and make sure your screws are fully seated in the hinge. If the screw heads stick up even slightly it will cause your hinges to hit and not close all the way.

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

Actually, the felt circle route is not a bad solution. I’ve done it, and the upside is that it adds a nice “feel” when you close the lid.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

they make clear ” buttons ” in different thicknesses ,
and i have also drilled a 1/4 ” hole in the corner and inset a pencil eraser in them ,
and used a flat spacer and a sharp razor blade to trim them to the right height .

-- david ,new mexico ,allheart

I build jewelry boxes regularly and I can empathize with the pain you are feeling right now! All of the suggestions posted so far are great ones. Another possibility, if you don’t feel that it would detract from the overall appearance of the box, would be to add decorative brass corners to the front two corners of the box where the lid meets the carcass. They will likely create enough “elevation” to match the gap that the hinges currently create…so now it will look like the gap was intended.

-- Kevin, Vancouver, WA

Filling the hinges wouldn’t help, the extra elevation is in the hinge barrel, and there’s nothing I can do to change the geometry of that, its a solid brass hinge that isn’t removable.

The brass corners idea is interesting, I hadn’t considered that. I’ll have to think about how it’d look.

In the meantime, I think I’ll at least try some felt circles. The more I think about it, the more I think it might not detract from the feel of the box, and it would make it close a little softer.

-- Dylan Vanderhoof - General hobbiest and reluctant penmaker. http://llarian.etsy.com

I meant take the hinges off and file the underside of them, where they meet the wood; not where they meet themselves. If they are brass, it might not be too difficult and any file marks would be out of sight.

For that matter, I don’t see why you wouldn’t just deepen the mortises. Even if you have finished the piece, the mortises don’t need any finish. You just need a very sharp chisel. Again, no pictures, so not sure how much material you’re talking about, but a marking knife and/or a marking gauge can reduce the likelihood of any mishap. The hinge itself will hide any but the most egregious mistakes.

-- Disappointment is an empty box full of expectation.