Source for interesting hinges

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Hey, so my googling and forum searching hasn’t found exactly what I’m looking for, maybe someone has a recommendation?

I’m looking for small non-brass (hate brass finishes, though plated brass would be fine) hinges for a small 1/8"-wall thickness jewelry box. If exterior hinges, then an interesting look would be nice. I suppose I could try to source something like a small piano hinge, as well, but the thin walls are difficult. On top of that, a standard “use the screws that came with it” implementation isn’t going to work either, I’d probably need something like rivets or thin Chicago screws. I could also epoxy them into shallow engraves if there were any that had no screw holes or would otherwise look ok doing so.

I looked at two types of concealed hinges, and ran into the same issue in both cases: the walls are only 1/8", and pocketing anything in material that thin is kind of asking for despair. I love the idea of concealed hinges, but fear that its just not in the cards.

Anyone cracked this design question? I searched amazon, mcmaster, and a bunch of others, and at this point, I am thinking that it either doesn’t exist or I am just not able to figure out the correct terminology.

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Hinges for this thin of wood are extremely hard to find. Two sources to look at are “woodworkers hardware” and “woodcraft”.

More than likely the only thing you will find is piano hinge in brass. You can change the finish yourself with paint. Then imo the best fasteners would be small machine screws with washers and nuts on the inside.

I think this explains why so many boxes of this size are designed with self-hinges.

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Would the ‘doll’s house’/1/12 scale world be a place to look ?
Or any sort of scale model suppliers. Model engineers ?

:upside_down_face:

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Some interesting ones here: https://www.miniatures.com/Hinges-C166.aspx

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A wooden hinge glued to the inside maybe?

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The problem is not the hinges, it’s the screws. You talk about a search to find something short enough to not go through 1/8" wood. :roll_eyes:

(Got a few more interesting looking hinges, but they’re all antique brass. Just check that one out on Amazon and the similar hinges will pop up.)

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Yeah, I’m leaning toward rivets or small binding/chicago screws for that reason. The search continues…

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I built a teabox, used the small screws that came with the hinge and cut off the length that penetrated with a Dremel.
A drop of CA glue under the head just before it seats will strengthen the hold.
Kind of a cobble job but it worked well.

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What were you screwing into? I’m considering hardwoods, wonder if how well this works is significantly dependent on the material you’re screwing into?

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Medium cherry ply.

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You could try the usual spots like Rockler.com and woodcraft.com and if no luck peruse leevalley website. But most jewelry boxes are made with 1/4" material and thicker for joint structure.

http://www.leevalley.com/us/Hardware/page.aspx?p=45242&cat=3,41419,41437&ap=1

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