# Making Custom Cabinet Hinges



## marcus (10 Apr 2013)

Hi,

In the next couple of months I'm going to need to make some custom cabinet hinges from brass, something like this:







They're about two inches long. 

As I see it I have three options:

1) Get someone else to make them for me
2) Make them by hand (somehow)
3) Finally invest in a small milling machine or lathe with a vertical slide, and mill them.

Assuming I decide to make them myself does anyone have any ideas about the best way to do it? The only metal working machine I have is a small drill press. 

I would probably just cut them by hand out of flat bar if it wasn't for the lower piece which I'm not sure how to do. I suppose I could silver solder a piece on to the flat to make the L shape. Or perhaps file away the excess from a thicker piece, but this seems like an awful lot of filing, and I imagine quite hard to do well. Or should I just bite the bullet and get some kind of small milling solution? Or pay someone else (give me a quote if this is something you can do! I need four).

Thanks,

Marcus.


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## dickm (10 Apr 2013)

Depends on how smart a job you want! Hand work, silver soldering or brazing on the hinge sockets would probably be the most economical and quickest, but maybe not the most elegant. 
On the other hand, if you want an excuse to buy a metalworking lathe or milling machine.....................


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## marcus (10 Apr 2013)

> On the other hand, if you want an excuse to buy a metalworking lathe or milling machine.....................



Well of course I do  But then I've resisted for several years, in spite of several good potential excuses along the way..... 



> Hand work, silver soldering or brazing on the hinge sockets would probably be the most economical and quickest, but maybe not the most elegant.



It does need to be very tidy, do you think the solder would be very visible once it was all neatened up and polished?


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## jasonB (11 Apr 2013)

Another option would be to make from 2" brass angle. You have not indicated the thickness but looks to be about 1/8" which is not the easiest to get a pin without more tooling through but if you went for 2 x 2 x 3/16 then just cut one leg down to leave the knuckle and used a 1/16" pin.

The slots for the knuckles would be easiest milled but careful filing would also do it.

Silver solder will tarnish after time you you will get a slight dark line at the joint


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## mickthetree (11 Apr 2013)

Could you cut the knuckle pieces our of some additional material and dovetail them in place? Like you would get on an infill plane? You might need to reverse it so the knuckle is the two part piece so they are not so close the the edges.

Just a thought, I have no idea if it would work


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## marcros (11 Apr 2013)

how many pairs are you needing? could they be sand cast if you were to make a sample from wood?


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## Spindle (11 Apr 2013)

Hi

Have you considered cannibalising commercial hinges for the mating sections / pins and silver soldering to 'arms' fabricated from plate? The silver solder joint could be protected from tarnishing by lacquering.

Regards Mick


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## marcros (11 Apr 2013)

out of interest, what is the typical tollerance between mating parts of a hinge?


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## Phil Pascoe (11 Apr 2013)

+1 Mick...That's what I thought.....it's a lot of work, otherwise. My metalwork's a bit rusty (bad pun) but would brazing give a better colour match? I'm assuming the melting point of a brazing rod is lower than that of brass - don't take my word for it.


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## jasonB (11 Apr 2013)

You risk a pile of molten metal if you braze as its a fine line between getting the braze to melt (875-896 C) and the brass melting around 930deg C.

Tollerance of a good pair of solid drawn butts would likely be less than 0.001" as you can't get anything into the gaps between knuckles thats why they are usually very hard to open with bare hands, you need the leverage of teh door to open them.

A good silver soldered joint in brass will be almost imposible to see but as I said a hairline black line will form over time but will still need close viewing to notice. The rectangular plate in this photo is silver soldered from 4 strips and you would be hard pushed to see the joint, the other part I also soldered from 3 pieces.


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## Phil Pascoe (11 Apr 2013)

Yes, you'd never do it with melting points that close. Nice work, Jason, what was it you were making?


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## jasonB (11 Apr 2013)

Its the cover for the valve chest on a model steam engine, picture of the original second down in the following

http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.p ... 705.0.html

And details of teh actual part

http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.p ... l#msg16820

J


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## Richard T (11 Apr 2013)

I don't have a vast experience of brass and it what forms it is produced in but you can certainly get steel angle in many varying configurations.
Maybe there is such a product as 1/2" x 2" brass angle or similar - it would be worth the search as it would save a lot of scrap though not save any work unfortunately.


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## marcus (12 Apr 2013)

Thanks all, some good suggestions here. 

I've decided that I'm not going to invest in a milling machine now, too expensive, too self indulgent, which leaves hand options.

Casting sounds interesting, but I think too much of a learning curve, and also I imagine would be too slow for this as I would need 8 components cast.

Using part of an existing commercially available hinge — again a good idea, but I don't think there are commercial products of the right size, and I'm not confident I could do it neatly enough.

Angle bar, that's a good suggestion. I've realised that the drawing I did is not quite right — the hinge will have to be made of 2 matching L sections like a normal butt hinge or will not open enough. So the short arm of the L needs to be quite a lot thicker than the long one and I don't think I'll find an off the shelf piece like this.

However it gave me an idea. I'm going to ask an engineer to quote me to provide a length of bar milled into the correct profile, from which I could cut out the pieces and drill etc by hand. 

If that's too expensive I will try silver soldering a small block of brass onto the end of a thin bar so that the join, if visible at all, is hidden at the side of the hinge rather than facing you....


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## xy mosian (12 Apr 2013)

As you are going to use two 'L' sections. Would it be possible to use a double knuckle/pivot instead? That way all the bits would be flat.
xy


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## marcus (14 Apr 2013)

> As you are going to use two 'L' sections. Would it be possible to use a double knuckle/pivot instead? That way all the bits would be flat.



Sorry, xy, not sure what you mean!


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## xy mosian (14 Apr 2013)

This is going to try my descriptive process.  
Imagine the two larger pieces in the closed position, face to face. Now notch both at the hinge end and join with Brass versions of bicycle chain links. I am trying to describe a three piece hinge, with the middle piece being very short.
I'll try to do a sketchup of it.
xy


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## xy mosian (14 Apr 2013)

That was lucky, found an image that describes what I mean. I offer this as an explanation rather than a possible hinge.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/counter-flap- ... tAodLmEAaw

xy


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## marcus (16 Apr 2013)

Ah, got it. Nice idea, but I don't think it would like right on this piece.


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## xy mosian (16 Apr 2013)

Fair enough. xy


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## DTTech (30 May 2013)

I like the idea of this project. I like the suggestion of the hinge pieces being dovetailed into the flat section =D> I was going to suggest the same method but drilled, countersunk and tapped - or even dowel pinned. Depends how strong they have to be.

Look forward to seeing how you end up doing this.


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## Setch (30 May 2013)

Unless I've missed something, what you have shown is basically a parliament hinge - could you simply cut down a ready made product to the asymetric shape you've designed?


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## marcus (1 Jun 2013)

> Unless I've missed something, what you have shown is basically a parliament hinge - could you simply cut down a ready made product to the asymetric shape you've designed?



Yes, it is! I would use a standard one but the trouble is I can only find ones that are much bigger than I need — ie joinery size, rather than small cabinet size. If you know of a source for little parliament hinges I'd be very pleased to know about it!

I'm still playing around with different ideas for this at the moment, but haven't made much progress yet due to more pressing work that has needed to be done. Hopefully I will have something to report soon.....


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## Peter Sefton (1 Jun 2013)

Finding bespoke quality hinges can be a real problem for furniture makers, Birmingham was the centre of hinge and lock making - does anyone know of hinge makers or metal workers that would be interested in these type of projects or maybe a retiree who would relish the challenge of making something unique to this quality? If so please PM me.

Cheers Peter


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## marcus (1 Jun 2013)

> Finding bespoke quality hinges can be a real problem for furniture makers



+1 to that! 



> does anyone know of hinge makers or metal workers that would be interested in these type of projects or maybe a retiree who would relish the challenge of making something unique to this quality? If so please PM me.



+1 to that as well!


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## marcus (19 Feb 2014)

Hi Peter, 

A while ago you asked on this thread about getting custom hinges made. Well I have finally found an answer! I gave up on making the ones I wanted myself, as I was not confident I could do a good enough job. I asked loads of precision engineers and blacksmiths, no one was interested even in quoting. Finally someone suggested a process I had never even heard of — EDM wire cutting. 

So I got in touch with this company: http://www.wire-cut.co.uk and they were able to do the job from a sketchup drawing. Got the components today (minus pins, I am fitting those myself). Very nice, extremely neat and a perfect fit.












The chamfered design was a choice, not a limitation of the process. They need a bit polish as the surface left by the process is not that attractive, but it doesn't take much to get a nice satin look. 

Cost was just under £50 per hinge, which is a lot, but potentially worth it for one-off projects where the design depends on a non-standard hinge being used.... I order four, and I don't think I could have made them myself for less....


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## tool-me-up (3 Mar 2014)

I would look at drilling down the center of a brass rod - small, but fairly lathe required - then cutting to size to create the holes for the pin - you can either silver solder, tap and thread ( look at model engineering for an idea how small you can get threads to be) or braze them to plates. 
Cutting brass sheet is fairly easy work with a hack saw - it doesnt take much filing either its a soft metal. Just keep a couple good wire brushes close by to clean the file every now and then.
Of course a flap disc and angle grinder will get it nice and straight a lot quicker - leaving you only the finish filing to be done but you probably need a welders helmet or a full face shield to stop you getting gob fulls of hot brass dust i would go with mask too if power sanding as it raises a very fine and hot dust every now and then which always seems to be aimed straight at your face


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