.jpg)
why buy smartHinge? | comparison dimensions | buy smartHinge | full fitting instructions
watch now on 
Why not come and do a weekend box making course? - go here for info and available dates.
why buy smartHinge? | comparison dimensions | buy smartHinge | full fitting instructions
Box makers have long searched in vain for the perfect box hinge. Now Andrew Crawford, in collaboration with precision engineer Clive Jarman, offers the innovative new smartHinge ... simply the best box hinge there is!
...
Now reviewed by Robert Ingham in the current issue [March 2011, no 177]
of Furniture & Cabinetmaking magazine:
"Why hasn't someone thought of this before? This is a phrase that is often quoted when a breakthrough occurs in almost every field of human expertise and it is certainly true of the smartHinge ... Fitting these hinges is very straightforward and easy ..."
Click one of the magazine images above for the full review [or buy the mag!]
... and here's the F&C verdict on the brand new smartHinge:
.png)
...
.jpg)
"For professionals in a hurry,
or home woodworkers
frustrated by ill-fitting lids,
smartHinge is a revelation,
a real Eureka moment ...
worth the cost for a quality result.
They will transform your boxes and boxmaking."
[from Nick Gibbs' 'British Woodworking' review,
out at the end of January 2011.]
...
smartHinge - the movie: watch now on
Still not convinced what makes the new smartHinge so special!?
- here are eleven excellent reasons to choose smartHinge:
1 - the smartHinge is not a quadrant hinge
- but nevertheless stops the lid securely at 93˚. At the heart of this innovative new hinge is a beautifully conceived but simple hidden stop incorporated into the knuckle. And because there’s no separate stay to accommodate there’s no fussy, angled excavation under the hinge flaps, and no problems screwing in the back screw around the stay when you come to fit ...
2 - the smartHinge is not L-shaped
- doing away with this redundant legacy feature, only ever necessary on cheap hinges made from sheet material, means that no expensive template/setting up is needed and fitting is hugely facilitated.
3 - the smartHinge is the easiest box hinge to install - bar none!
- the smartHinge’s two key features - no stay and no ‘L’ shape - make the smartHinge the easiest box hinge to fit. And because they are precision made and absolutely consistent the result is 100% accurate every time. One pass for each leaf using an 8mm [or 5/16” for US] cutter on a table mounted router, drill and screw in place and ... job done! And remember - NO awkward digging out under the hinges to take a stay!
4 - the smartHinge comes with high quality brass countersunk screws
- plus spares, [and hopefully steel screws for pre-threading eventually - when I can find some!]. The quality of screws supplied with many ‘high quality’ hinges is obviously a common problem and regularly moaned about in WW forums ...
5 - the smartHinge comes with full fitting instructions
- most box hinges come with NO instructions at all, a lamentable lack of support for what is an extremely stressful, and crucial, part of making a box. And in order to ensure that the whole business of hinging a box is as stress-free as possible, I’m planning an area on this site that will give regularly updated advice based on any feedback I receive. And perhaps even a smartHinge users’ forum, who knows?
6 - the smartHinge is brand new and designed from scratch
- this is not just a marginal upgrade based on an existing hinge. Every element, from stock thickness to the leaf dimensions, from the size, spacing and positioning of the screw holes to the exact stop angle has been carefully considered to ensure that the smartHinge is the very best box hinge you can buy.
7 - the smartHinge is not mass produced
- precision machined from solid brass the smartHinge is carefully made to exacting tolerances achieving a level of consistency not possible using normal mass-production techniques. Every stage of the manufacture is regularly monitored to ensure that the smartHinge is the most accurate and beautifully made hinge there is.
8 - the smartHinge is good looking!
- you could be forgiven for thinking that all this emphasis on the ease of fitting and function would in some way involve a compromise in the way it looks. But definitely not - the simple, elegant good looks of the smartHinge will fit in with almost any style of box. And with lacquered, silver and gold-plated versions on the horizon the future looks bright!
9 - the smartHinge is the easiest box hinge to fit retrospectively
- we’ve all done it, avoided the hinge issue until it’s too late! The result? - you have a perfectly good box for which you can’t find suitable hinges. Well, the smartHinge is the best hinge there is to solve this all-too-common problem. As long as your box has a wall thickness of 10 mm or more, the smartHinge will do the job for you. Simply, easily and elegantly.
10 - the smartHinge is competitively priced
- the smartHinge is not available through any retail outlets so there’s no retail markup. This ensures that a higher proportion of the price you pay goes into the actual hinge, not into admin/markup/third-party profit. At £39.50 a pair plus p&p it’s not the cheapest box hinge you can buy, but it’s not the most expensive either - and the huge savings in time and effort will very quickly become apparent!
11 - buy smartHinge securely online using PayPal/credit card
- or email me if you’d prefer to pay by some other method
smartHinge dimensions:
leaves are 8mm wide and 3mm thick
45mm long overall
42mm to centre of the pin
opening to 93˚
a brief survey of the other hinges on the market:
I have spoken to many, many people at shows, during my own teaching and have read many, many posts on WW forums and I do know how difficult people find it sourcing and fitting box hinges. And the lack of a simple, straightforward solution can be a real disincentive to many who would otherwise be happily making boxes!
Brusso is perceived to be the pack leader at the moment, but although well made their hinges are, in my opinion, ugly and over-engineered. Also, they advise you to buy an expensive, dedicated template for each of their various hinges in order to do the job ‘properly’. Anyone seriously involved in small scale woodwork should be using a table-mounted router, but Brusso advocate use of a hand-held router. This, together with their sticking to a tradtional stay and ‘L’ shape format, causes all sorts of problems and consequently their hinges are difficult and complicated to fit. Just have a quick look at the instructions for fitting their HD-680 quadrant hinge on their website and you’ll see what I mean. And for a premium [and very expensive] product you'd at least think they'd check their instructions for misteaks!
There are many other quadrant hinges available, none is as well made as the Brusso and most share all or some of the same shortcomings.
The ones I’ve used most in the past [pre smartHinge!] have been the ‘siderail’ hinges offered by BC Specialties and shown here. These are also available at Woodcraft and other US sites. The #CAH 061 solves one of the problems of many box hinges in that they don’t have the ‘L’, but they do still have the stay.
A slightly smaller version of this hinge offred by BCS and Woodcraft goes one stage further and doesn’t have the stay either. The stop is achieved by a square knuckle and on first inspection this version looks similar to the smartHinge. But don’t be fooled - it is nothing like as well designed or well made as the smartHinge. Go here to see this hinge at Woodcraft and note particularly the poor customer review.
And there is good reason why they don't show the smaller hinge fitted: The problem is the square knuckle - in order to allow it to rotate you have either to project the hinge out of the back of the box by the full thickness of the knuckle [see below right] or, if you want to place the knuckle further in so the centre of the pin is in line with the back of the box you have to cut an escapement channel above and below the knuckle.
.jpg)
Both options really spoil the look of the back of your box. Also, with the full knuckle protruding this means that when the box is open a wide gap opens up along the back edge between lid and box as shown below right, rather than the far more elegant minimal gap achieved by the round knuckle of the smartHinge shown on the left.
And incidentally, any hinge that achieves a stop with a square knuckle, including Brusso’s stop butt hinge, share this shortcoming.
There are many others but they are all broadly similar to the ones I’ve described above and suffer all or some of the same shortcomings. Only the smartHinge has NONE of the shortcomings I have referred to above, or any for that matter!
And, of course, there are plenty of perfectly decent butt hinges out there - but they will ALL need cleaning up and fitting of these is always awkward if you're not used to the process.
I've been making boxes for 25 years and there has never been anything on the market that comes close to the new smartHinge. So, when considering purchasing hinges for your next box project, don’t be fooled into buying cheap, difficult to fit [or even expensive and difficult to fit!] hinges - and ask yourself this question:
“Why use a stupid hinge when you can use a smartHinge!”
buy smartHinge
 |
Box makers' newsletter
Click here to read the latest edition. |
smartHinge - the movie: watch now on
Why not come and do a weekend box making course? - go here for info and available dates.
www.fine-boxes.com - almost anything is possible
www.box-making.com - box making courses and books
why buy smartHinge? | comparison | reviews | buy smartHinge | newsletter