Hinge Plates - Improved Manufacturing (Long Weekend Update Part 1)

In preparation for the next breast/back plates, I cut out some more brass for hinges.  These are a fair bit wider than some of the earlier ones - I think I will try to make these into carlisle-style hinges.  Anyways, I took a slightly different approach to making these hinges and it turned out much faster than the previously detailed method.  The finished plates also look better than my previous attempts, in part because the painter's tape in step#5 reduced the number of hammer marks left on the tube and plates.  Documented below is the "new and improved" hinge-making method.  I skipped pictures for most of these steps, since they are already documented in detail in the posts starting here. 

1. Measure & Cut brass plates and hinge pin.

2. Anneal middle of plates until literally red hot, then quench in water.  Ditto for the ends of the hinge pins.

3. Mark middle line on hinge plate and hand-fold it over.

4. Use a rubber mallet to further fold and flatten on a "soft" surface - I used a piece of firewood as my base.

 

At right - rubber mallet.  I bought this many years ago and I can't remember why.  Anyways, this weekend it finally proved its worth.  Much faster than the jeweller's pliers and better results, too.

 

5. Insert hinge pin, and apply painter's tape to help hold it in place.

6a. Use radiused head of brick hammer to finish flattening the plate, starting near the middle of the plate and working in towards the tube/pin.

6b. Use the brick hammer's wedge to finish forming the tube.  You will probably need to stop and flatten the hinge plate once or twice while doing this.  Pictures from the last thread.

7. Tap the top of the hinge tube gently to free the hinge pin.  If your hinge pin is already loose, you probably still have room to close the tube a bit more.

8. Lay _half_ the hinge plates on top of your paper guide and mark the slots for the tubes.  Do not mark the other half of the plates at this time.

9. Cut the tube slots on the marked plates. Make sure the cuts are all the same depth.

I used my dremel for this, but this time I made several improvements over my previous attempts.  First, I managed to find some thin cut-off disks which made the cutting faster and less wasteful.  Second, I made a metal "tongue" to allow me to clamp my dremel in a vise.  This greatly improved my accuracy by keeping the tool perfectly still while I moved the piece around it.  I am looking forward to using this when I try to shape my latest hinges in the Carlisle pattern.

10.  Lay your cut plates out flat and pair them up with the uncut plates, and mark the cuts for those.  At this point it's a good idea to keep track of which plate goes with which, to get the best fit.

11.  Cut the second set of plates and compare them with their mates.  Make any necessary adjustments to the size of the tube "teeth".

12a.  Using a combination of dremel and cold chisel, nip off the unwanted tube sections.  Note that you will need a backstop softer than the chisel -- I used a hunk of aluminum that was donated to me.

                I found a reversible nail set which would also accept my homemade cold chisel.  This made this step go a lot faster and helped save wear on the hammer face.  After nipping off the tubes, I used the dremel to smooth off the cut surfaces.

12b.  Flatten the hinge plates again if needed.  (Using a cold chisel will often bend the plates slightly.)  Try inserting the hinge pin (one hinge plate at a time) to see if you've gotten things back into alignment.

13.  Perform final cleanup with needle files.  Test fit your hinges and insert the hinge pin. 

14.  Cut hinge plates into final shape.  (Coming in a future update...)

15.  Peen the hinge pin and enjoy!