My First Hinge (ugh) Part 1

This was a bit of an adventure, and ended up involving more tools than I expected to use.  Fortunately I had what I needed more or less ready to go.  

The first thing you need to do is figure out what size and pattern your hinges are going to be.  For my prototype, I wanted a hinge "face" about 4 cm square.  I added 13mm for the hinge barrel (for a 1/8" rod), but it turned out that this was not enough.  Anyways I cut out two blanks 40x93mm -  Although now that I think about it, I might have done 40x83 by mistake, which would explain why I came up short at the end.  Oh well, there's always the next hinge.

I then went outside on my balcony and lit the propane torch.  After dialing the flame down to around 1.5", I annealed (heated) the middle of my plates, moving the flame back and forth along the hinge axis.  Something sizzled slightly near the beginning - it was probably some kind of protective coating or film on the brass.  (This piece was donated to me, so the exact specs aren't known)

I wasn't certain of how long exactly I should be heating it, so I gave it "a while" (more than 30 seconds) on each side before quenching it in water.  I'll ask RAT about annealing times and see what they say.

Back inside, I hand-folded the plates around my hinge pin.  I wasn't very careful with one of them and it ended up slightly crooked, as seen below.

The next part would probably be easier with a vise, but I don't have one in my apartment.  Therefore I had to use the jeweller's pliers and something else.  I will console myself with the thought that this method is probably more authentic.  

 Now that I've taken it as far as it can go by hand (above), I started pinching down the sides.  Note that I am using  jeweler's pliers (below) so as not to scratch the surface.  You have to do this slowly, alternating sides.
 

Eventually you'll get to this phase, where the pliers aren't doing too much anymore, and there is a slight bulge in your hinge barrel.

Continued in the next post...