How to Build Hinges

Make Your Hinge Pattern

• 1

  Make a hinge pattern using a cardboard or any durable paper. This is important to ensure the right measurements when making your standard hinge. For accuracy of size and spacing, trace the material with a model hinge, so that your next hinge-building project would just require the pattern. As a guide, you should be able to mark the paper or board for the required cuts for barrels, two eye materials, three outside edges and four marks for the hole.

  A preferable model hinge can be a small, simple hinge like the one using an 18-gauge mild steel. Its pin is made out of a penny box nail and center punched to the screw holes.

• 2

  Cut out the basic outline of the hinge piece with an Edwards shear.

• 3

  Cut the barrels with a hacksaw, making sure you cut on the waste side of the line. After doing the initial hacksaw cuts, use a cold chisel to cut and polish the waste piece in between the barrels.

• 4

  Break the two pieces apart in equal sizes to serve as your two hinge halves.

Make Your Hinge Barrel Die

• 5

  Make your hinge barrel die by rolling the barrels hot around a pin mandrel, a rod where a metal can be forged or shaped around it. For this project, use a 01 tool steel or a mild steel (A36) with Super Quench heat treating, as suggested by the Citynet - Sootypaws website.

• 6

  Use a metal block for the die and make a hole with a diameter slightly larger than the pin thickness and twice the stock thickness. This allows the material to roll properly without making it too tight or sloppy when drilled. Cut down towards the hole of the metal block using two hacksaw cuts.

• 7

  Clean the hole with chainsaw files.

Make Your File Tip and Pins

• 8

  Make your file tip using two files with safe edges. For this project, use a square bastard file about 6 to 8 inches long. Make sure that one side is ground smooth, then use a fine flat file about 6 inches in length with a safe edge or has one edge ground smooth as well.

• 9

  Make your pins, which will hold the dies together. For this project, use nails, generally 16 penny box or any common one, for the pin stock. Cut your pin just 1 to 2 centimeters longer than your hinge barrel after the ends are chamfered (a carpentry term used to cut away a material to produce a right-angled edge and come up with a symmetrical sloping edge). Cut off the pointed nail end first, followed by the opposite end.

• 10

  Use a piece of bar stock to make a hinge pin tool. This will head the small pins with hole drilled slightly larger than the pin diameter, allowing the small pins to just have the right length for your hinge barrel. Place a pin into the tool chamfered end first, then head it using a ball-peen hammer (a blacksmith's, engineer's hammer used for peening).

Fit and Assemble the Parts and Put the Finishing

• 11

  Fit the parts to make sure the first hinge half makes a close fit with the other half. Make necessary adjustments on the measurements and sizes, if needed.

• 12

  Drive the hinge pin into the successfully assembled hinge halves.

• 13

  Put a hot finish of beeswax and raw linseed oil over the hinge. This pre-heating process allows the finish to cover every part of the hinge. As the finish forms a paste when the beeswax and raw linseed mixture cools down, the hot hinge sinks into the paste and becomes fully covered with it.

• 14

  Hold the hinge over fire through a typical blacksmith's container used for heating metal works. Use a forge so you can hold the hinge over fire. This should be done after letting the hinge cool down from the hot finish. The final heating process allows the hot finish mixture to reach every pore of the hinge. After which, simply cool it down again by placing it onto a large steel bowl. Once cool enough, wipe off any extra finish.

• 15

  Put a final hand waxing over the hinge. After two days, the hinge is ready for use.