Installing Small Quadrant hinges???

I recently purchased a set of Quadrant hinges (http://www.rockler.com/solid-brass-quadrant-hinges-pair ) for a box I’m making. I have installed the hinges to the point where I now need to mortise the box & lid for the stops. The depth of mortise will be much deeper in the box (approx. 1 ½” deep) than in the lid (approx. ¼”). The curved stop is 1/16” thick x 3/16" W x 1 13/16" long O/A.

I’ve searched the Internet for information on installing Quadrant hinges, but each shies away from the part dealing directly with the mortise for the stop.

Since I don’t have a router bit, or end mill that small of a dia. or length, I was thinking of drilling a series of 5/64” dia. holes connected next to each other & angled back, then using a hack saw blade, or jig saw blade, to manually saw though the holes to open up the slot. This seems to be a crude way to do this. I’m tempted to simply not install the stop, but am concerned that if the lid is accidently opened too far that may “pop” the hinge as the screws (steel) are very small (#2?), and I really don’t want to install a chain stop.

Is there a better way to mortise for the stop?

Also, what is the purpose of the hole in the stop? Is it for a short cross pin to keep it from falling out?

PS: I've looked at the RotoZip bits, but am not confident they would work well, especially for that dia. & depth.

Since you apparently don't have a 1/16" chisel (most folks don't.). your drilling plane seems the most viable way to do the job. To clean it up, though, instead of sawing, consider sharpening the end of a jig saw blade to make a very thin chisel. Then use that to clear the mortise.

Thanks Jim - good idea. I like that better than sawing with the blade. And after chiseling the mortise I could then grind a "hook on the end of the blade to "dredge" out the bottom of the mortise to further clean out the bottom of the mortise.

Al Launier said:

Thanks Jim - good idea. I like that better than sawing with the blade. And after chiseling the mortise I could then grind a "hook on the end of the blade to "dredge" out the bottom of the mortise to further clean out the bottom of the mortise.

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If there's a Harbor Freight near you, consider getting a set of dental tool scrapers. They work well enough , and are pretty cheap. I think a set of four was under five bucks. I sure hope my dentist uses better quality ones, though. I wouldn't want any of those in my mouth!

Searched HF & couldn't find them. I have a bunch of dental scrapers that hygenists in the past gave me when they were ready to throw them out. Handy at times. However, the modified blade worked very well. I held it in a small 2" C-clamp as a handle & it was all good! Thanks Jim!

Unfortunately, the curved stops wants to catch when opening the lid. Tried a few things, but not there yet. If I lean the whole box & lid backward, i.e. tip the front up, the curved stop "floats" back & the lid opens easily. Tried filing the slot on the back side where the stop seems to catch, but it's still binding up. Time for a break - will go at it again later. Still don't know what the hole in the top of each stop is for. To keep it from floating down? Gotta figure something out, otherwise I'll take them off. More research tonight.

I don't know if it would help you but I have an 1/8" chisel that you could use. Or you could even grind it thinner if need be.
I also have HF's dental picks.
Happy to let you borrow them if the need arises

I always did the mortise with a 1/8" router bit. They are not hard to find. There are 1/8" router bits available at Rockler and lots of other on line sources. Just make the two mortises are longer than the total length of the lid stay. There is no need to "angle" back the mortise. A straight mortise cut longer than the lid stay slot is wide with the extra length in the direction of the curve is all that is needed.

Here is a little help I was able to find. https://forum.canadianwoodworking.com/showthread.php?14711-Installing-Quadrant-Hinges

Bob, thanks for the offer, but I was able to drill out the two mortises on my drill press. I then used the "chisel" that I made from a jig saw blade, as Jim suggested, and it worked beautifully.

Mike, thanks for the referral. That happened to be one of the sources I found when I was researching Quadrant hinge installation.

Actually, the mortises came out very well, unfortunately when closing/opening the lid it "catches" just after starting to open it. After several frustrating attempts to determine why, I finally found the reason. After raising the lid about 1/2", the top of the circular stop would slide forward & drop a bit. That causes the "hook" portion to partially fall out of the slot & that would prevent the lid from opening. When this happens I can hold the stuck lid in place & slide a 6" scale between the lid & the box & move the stop forward. Doing this raises the hook to its original position & I can then open the lid the rest of the way. This only happens with the right hinge, the left one works as it should.

So now I have to figure out a way to keep the stop from shifting out of position causing the lid to lock up. I'm suspicious of the holes in each stop. Why the holes? I'm thinking perhaps there should be a small pin that goes through the hole to prevent the stop from shifting. I can make a couple pins to try this out, but I'm going to call Rockler, or the manufacturer, first to inquire about the hole & the problem I'm having with this hinge ( http://www.rockler.com/solid-brass-quadrant-hinges-pair ). Each hinge is installed "perfectly", everything aligns beautifully, but I'd be way too embarrassed to say how many hours I've put into the installation of these hinges. I think the holes are key to the solution, but if so, why didn't the pins come with the hinges?

PS: The depth of the stops are 1 5/8" in the down position & the depth of the mortises are 1 3/4" each, so the bottom of the mortises do not interfere with the stop.

I called the Rockler Tech Dept & discussed how the hinge (Item # 48068) was “catching” & preventing the lid from opening. I was told the following:
· Neither instructions nor pins come with the hinges.
· The hole is used by the manufacturer during the manufacturing process, probably with a pin to position the Stop when stamping it out on a die???
· The hole serves no purpose, so the Stop can be installed with the hole end at either the lid arm or box arm.
· She heard of this particular problem from other users.
· She didn’t know why both hinges don’t hang up – just one of those things.
· Some users have epoxied, or used JB Weld, to secure the end of the “Stop” to the back of the lid arm with the “hook” against the arm & against the end of the slot.
· I’m going to try pressing a short pin through the hole to see if that resolves the problem. If not I’ll use epoxy to hold the Stop in place.
· I’ve spent way too many hours installing this hinge, being very fussy about the mating alignments of box & lid, etc.
· Given all this, I cannot recommend anyone purchase this hinge. I’ll use a different type of hinge in the future.

Maybe this is way off base, but two things I might try, and I don't even know why I would try either. Have you switched the "arms" between hinges to see it the problem move from one hinge to the other? Second, would it do any good to file the offending arm a little at the end hanging up, maybe smooth the edges a little?

Just a couple thoughts that came to my mind, I have never worked with this type hinge before.

Al Launier said:

Bob, thanks for the offer, but I was able to drill out the two mortises on my drill press. I then used the "chisel" that I made from a jig saw blade, as Jim suggested, and it worked beautifully.

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Great method Al. Thanks for letting us know how it turned out.