Making Wooden Hinge Boxes
I always thought that traditional wooden boxes with metal hinges and other hardware are practical, but a little boring. Boxes that you can make on the other hand where the design itself limits hinges, clasps etc... are a bit more interesting. I'm talking sliding dado lids, fitted lids that sit on top, or wedge designs like a Japanese toolbox. None of these boxes require any external hardware, everything you need to complete the project is within the wood.
Now, the one thing about all those no-hardware boxes is the lids are loose. They don't stay attached to the box, and that's fine for the most. However now and then a lid gets lost, so I was thinking, wouldn't it be neat to make a box with no hardware, AND the lid stays attached.
There's probably a bunch of ways to do this, however I immediately thought of making a wooden hinge. And when you think about it, a hinge is pretty much box joints with a pin or rod through it.
I suppose often when you make a box, you create the sides or the main unit first, and the lid is a secondary part to concern yourself with. In this instance, I first began working on the hinge, in other words, the lid and one of the sides, and then the rest of the box was created from that.
For my first experiment I used a wooden dowel. The smallest one I had on hand was 1/4", which meant I had to use relatively thick wood, so that would be able to drill a 1/4" hole through the joint. I used basic 1x4 pine wood, and went with nails simply for the rest of the construction.
The one thing you do need to pay attention to, is rounding the corner of the joinery where the two pieces intersect. If you don't do this step, the joint won't be able to move once the pin is inserted.
The result was a undoubtedly chunky box, which was charming, although a bit on the unsophisticated side.
If the size of the pin determines the thickness of the wood, I figured I should try to go smaller. I didn't have a metal rod on hand, however I did have nails. This did mean I was limited by the length of the nail in terms of the width of the wood, so I made a rather small box out of 1/4" thick maple.
It was a bit finicky to get straight... and it made me realize that wooden hinges are kind of fun, but not very practical. I rather like them, but from a testing point of view. It's something different for sure, and it would be fun to play with this some more. For more info on this process, make sure to check out the video.