Living Hinge Durribility

[jonnyvermont]

Hi All. I am in the process of building a Settlers of Catan board with a box that hopefully will be an hareloom. I want this thing to last for ever. I want to make individual boxes for each of the payer’s pieces.

I am considering making a component of this as a living hinge just like the one on this page:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/237258793/wooden-small-box-with-sliding-bolt-latch?ref=search_recently_viewed-1

What do you think the longevity of such a hinge? Do you think it will dry out and crack? Any experiences here would be very helpful.

Thanks, as always.

[dwardio]

Other’s experiences may be different, but I’ve never seen a living hinge stand up to long-term use (>4 years, so far). If you’re aiming for a heirloom to pass down to later generations, I’d recommend more traditional joinery. YMMV.

[evansd2]

I posted essentially the same question a few months ago:

Living Hinge Swatches

The thing that keeps me from trying living hinges is the living part. They will definitely fail at some point, does anyone have any data on how long they tend to survive? It’s probably not a simple answer, materials and hinge design and how tight the radius is will all matter… I just wondered if anyone had any empirical evidence yet.

Scroll down a bit, there was a small amount of discussion.