Lesson: Hinges

Lesson 2: Hinges

Straight hinge:

• Cut tubing into 3 (+) equal pieces
• Make sure that the tubing pieces together equal the length of the side you will be soldering them to.
• File a groove into the edge of your piece so that the tubing fits into the groove.
• Use the third hands, pins, metal shims, binding wire, or graphite to hold the tubing in place for each side. Place the sides close enough together to be able to check alignment without worry of soldering everything together.
• Solder the tubing to the piece- 2 pieces to the top and bottom of one side, the 3d piece to the middle of the other side.
• After piece is almost complete (exceptions: patination, epoxy, other color treatments besides enamelling), set the hinge.
• Remember that a hinge is a glorified rivet.
• Ball up one end of the wire
• Feed through tubing
• Clip off the other end approx. .5-1mm above the end of the tubing.
• Rivet in an X pattern
• Do any polishing necessary.

Alternative Hinge soldering (bridge method)

• Cut 2 pieces of tubing- one as long as the overall hinge, one the length of the center knuckle.
• Mark the long piece where the end knuckles should be.
• File halfway through the tubing in the middle of the long piece. Take care not to file into your end knuckles.
• Solder the long  piece to one side making sure to align it so that the filed area is against the piece- this allows you to solder both end knuckles perfectly into position at once.
• File or cut out remaining center part of tubing.
• Solder middle knuckle onto other side of tubing.

Tips and tricks:

• You can also ball the other end of the wire instead of hammering, or set a hinge with a tube rivet.
• Use the amount of pieces that seem to fit proportionally. Long seams should have more than 3 pieces.
• Never use an even number of pieces. The hinge is much sturdier with an odd number.
• Cut your tubing a little long, and file off if needed. This way if the edges of the tubing get singed (melted) while soldering, you’ll still be ok.

• Your tubing should line up straight and fit tightly together- no gaps. Besides looking much more professional, this helps the integrity of the hinge.
• If the wall that you are affixing the hinge to is thick- 18ga (depending on size of hinge) or a construction; you can use your round needle file to make a channel for the tubing to sit into.
• Make sure to heat the piece MUCH more than the tubing. The tubing won’t require any direct flame; it is so much smaller it will come to soldering temperature through heat transfer.
• To perfectly position your tubing, use your scribe to make marks on the piece. Markings made with a Sharpie will just burn off.
• Make sure that the tubing you are using can accommodate a 20g wire or thicker.
• Just like with pin backs, nickel is the strongest, copper the weakest.
• You can use a dab of super glue to secure your tubing in place prior to soldering, so that you can make sure you have it placed correctly.
• Use the Stop-Flo or yellow ochre powder! Paint it with a small brush anywhere you do not want solder to flow. Let it dry completely before applying flux and soldering.