Vectric Customer

Very nice work. And quite the recovery. Especially like the embedded hinges. Thanks for sharing the process and the piece. And yes I would say that will make a fine gift.

That is FABULOUS.

I am inspired by that.

I'm with Leo on that

Did you create the Guilloche pattern for the inlay yourself or did you use one of the samples?

Phil

Phil wrote:Did you create the Guilloche pattern for the inlay yourself or did you use one of the samples?

Phil

I did create the pattern myself, but that goes without saying since I wrote the "Virtual Guilloche" software that I linked to on my web site. This has been lingering in beta status for the last 2+ years but I revived the project and I am planning to publish a release version in a few weeks that will fix some bugs and make it fully compatible with Aspire/VcarvePro by means of dxf vector import. Right now I have to use the bitmap import which works but is is not that ideal. I am also planning for seamless patterns to support the Vectric "Wrapped Job" gadget or future "Rotary Job" setup. Should be nice for things like pool cues, table legs or pens.

Aha! I figured out how the hinge barrels work. The radius extends beyond the sides so that there is material to make the flat surface.

FixitMike wrote:

Hinge Barrell.JPG

Aha! I figured out how the hinge barrels work. The radius extends beyond the sides so that there is material to make the flat surface.

Yes, that is pretty much it. Although, the barrel has to protrude only on the outside. On the inside I prefer to have it not protrude and get more glue surface. Like shown in your drawing, the distance between the hinge pin center and the box outside must be (barrel radius)*Cosine((lid opening angle)/2). If you are shooting for a 120 degree opening angle, this means the distance should be 1/2 of the barrel radius.
There are also some tricks that I learned about a stepped barrel radius and how to drill a 1" deep absolutely concentric hole for the 2mm pin without the drill bit wandering off.

I have seen pictures of century old boxes and furniture where craftsmen made such "invisible hinges" completely by hand. Now that would be a challenge.

Very creative. I like the wood hinges.
All the boxes I make have wood hinges.

Tailmaker wrote:If there is interest I could sometimes post a more detailed description or tutorial of the hinge geometry and methods with tool paths.

Oh good heavens yes! Please! That would be greatly appreciated by me and I'm sure by many others. Thanks for offering.

Andy

O.K., guess I am on the hook now... I need to finish another project but I think I can write up something within the next 2 weeks or so.

Tailmaker:

Did you ever get the chance to write the tutorial / toolpaths for your hinge? I would really like to use these in several of my boxes for Xmas if possible.

Joe

Well, I thought about it but never got to write up something.
Actually there are several ways to skin that cat (or skin the fried tofu for the vegan folks)
I have done 2 wooden hinge projects with separate glued barrels as described, the one from this thread and this one

I have also made a kind of sliced type of box with a wooden hinge but not posted yet like the pics below.

Finally, I am still trying to make 3-d machined hinges with all parts carved using a ballnut bit. Partially successful but not yet ready for prime time.

But right now I am working on a kinetic art table (kind of likethe Sisyphus projectand other earlier projects). That will keep me busy for a while.
Given the short time before Chrismas I guess I can not get you more detailed info on the other wooden hinges

Here are the sliced box pixs, I guess mostly self-explanatory:

In case you are curious, the funny loop features at the front of this box are intended for a push-button latch mechanism that I want to add at some point.