oops.... Piano hinge issue

[Capt. Tobb]

I have been wanting to cut my 5' long fish box covers in half and put in a piano hinge. I saw the same thing done on the same boat at the FLIBS a few years back and it looked and worked great. While I am re painting the cockpit I figured I would go ahead and do it. Well, I realized that there is a 3/8" camber......after I made the cut. Any ideas??? Thanks

 

[REBrueckner]

Can you hinge the perpendicular edge...if it is flat...??

The difficulty is that as an end opposite to the hinge is lifted, the distance between the two parts changes due to the curve/camber....

Maybe you can use a pair of short (like door) hinges.......the only other approach I can think of is to build a reverse camber shape to go between each hinge and the curve so the hinge fastening is flat...that will create a "bump" and be uncomfortable if someone places a "cheek" there....

 

[rrrestorer]

Don't run your piano hinge all the way to the end, the curve starts toward the end, try cutting your piano hinge down and put it in the middle, you should have hinge on more than half of it so it will be plenty strong. Your already screwed, since you cut it, put the hinge on as much of the lid as you can , and I bet it works just fine.

 

[Bob Bradley]

Or, cut the hinge into 3 or 4 sections and install them that way.

 

[rrrestorer]

Hinges work only if the line through the center of the hinge is a perfectly straight line, the two ends have to turn on the same axis, cutting and attaching in more pieces really wont help anything, the lid would bind. The strngth of a piano hinge comes from the length and the multiple attaching points spread over the whole hinge.
If you drop your pivot point down too much so that the ends of the hinge are below the top edge of the lid than the middle will probably touch each side of the lid and chip it. The only way to put the piano hinge in from end to end is to drop it down and then you would have to sand the edge of your lid,kind of veeing it out in the middle with the hinge in the center. Depending on how thick your hinge is, you might not have to take too much of the middle.

 

[fissioneng]

Thinking out-of-the-box - How about cutting two pieces of wood to match the curve on one side and creating a flat mounting surface underneath and then attaching the hinge from the bottom up to this wood? You would need some grab rings to pull the hatch up. This would make the hatch open in an inverted V instead of the other way around.

Probably not what you want, but it would completely conceal the hinge for a clean look.

 

[Capt. Tobb]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.... I may look at putting the hinges on the other end like "suiside doors". Might be kinda cool.... I may test it out tonight, I will take some pics. Thanks again...

 

[Tim Powell]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.... I may look at putting the hinges on the other end like "suiside doors". Might be kinda cool.... I may test it out tonight, I will take some pics. Thanks again...

OK THE 45C IS A TWO PART FISH BOX IT WAS ALWAYS A PAIN LIDS EVERY WHERE NEVER COULD CONTROL THEM AND THE FISH AT THE SAME TIME.I PUT HINGES ON THE OUTSIDE AND PULLS IN THE MIDDLE. HAD THE SAME PROBLEM U HAVING THE LIDS FIT INTO DRAIN U SHAPED.I CUT THE LIDS AN THE U SHAPE HINGED FROM INSIDE OUT. HINGES NOT VISIBLE JUST THE SCREW HEADS WITH FINISH WASHERS HAD TO USE THREE HINGES PER SIDE

TIM

 

[Glory]

Making a new cover might do the trick.

JM

 

[Capt. Tobb]

I think I may have the problem solved. I should have posted these pics last night but anyway, this is what I have

This is the boat I saw in FL, this is what I want to end up with....

This is how I plan to solve the problem. I made cuts into the back of the balsa cored hatch making it easy to take the camber out. I plan to fill the cuts with epoxy and glass over. This should make a nice straight surface to attach the hinge to (in theory).