Just completed my first hinged-lid box, with kerf hinges, following the book I've been reading ("Box Making Basics," David Freedman, Taunton Press). Some things I didn't like about them:
1. The slot looks terrible, the way it extends on either side of the hinge. The first person I showed the box to asked why the slots were too big.
2. Once the slots are cut, there's no opportunity to make any adjustments if the box isn't perfectly square, the slot-cutting jig isn't perfect, the slot cutter has some runout, etc. Sure, you can test the fit with hinges with the barbs flattened, but there's not much you can do if the fit is slightly off. By "off," I mean that the front sides of the top and bottom are maybe 1/64 away from meeting perfectly. (Even if you were to correct, later on in final assembly, with the final hinge in, with its barbs, the positioning won't be the same as what you tested with.)
I plan to use mortised hinges on my next box, and probably future hinged-lid boxes, following Doug Stowe's "flip stick" method. (Let me know if you need a link to it, but it's pretty well known I think.) Some advantages I'm anticipating:
1. If I do the work well, the appearance will be excellent.
2. The hinges can be tested before the box even has its final sanding, and, because they're screwed in, the final fit will be identical to the test fit. Minor discrepancies can be fixed in the final rough sanding.
3. If a hinge is tested with one screw (one of three, say), positioning the remaining screws can be used to nudge the hinge one way or another.
#2 and #3 afford degrees of freedom that kerf hinges don't provide.
Advantages of kerf hinges over mortised are that they're cheaper and quicker to install, but for a one-box-at-a-time pace, those don't matter to me.
Anyway, as you can tell, I'm new at this, but I thought I'd share my thinking, in case anyone wishes to help me along with some commentary.
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Originally Posted by Marc Rochkind
