big hinges, redux

madwing · August 5, 2014

back in may of 2013 my friend michael helped me start some strap hinges (to be mounted on lag pintels in 6x6 redwood gateposts), from 2" wide, 4' long, 1/4" thick mild steel: >big hinges i have attached a picture of michael heating up one in his forge, so we can spread out the "branchlets" from the main body of the hinge.

as i wasn't done with the 80 feet of fence, let alone the gate that would hang by those hinges, finishing them quickly wasn't an issue.

fast forward to last october, and one was basically done, and the second had the hinge bent and pre-cut with a plasma cutter. my friend joe, the machinist, did the plasma cutting. we'd done a couple of the cuts on the first one with my grandfather's hot cut, but it was going to take too long for us to do that (even with no time pressure!)...so the plasma cutter came out and saved us a bunch of work. see the second picture below, they're leaning up against michael's anvil.

then, this past may i knew i wanted them up by the end of july (my 50th birthday party), so we accellerated production. we spent a long day and finished the second one, except for the final hammered finish. that's the third picture.

over the course of the last couple years i've been acquiring what i need to forge with coal at home. i picked up a nice, home made forge (angle iron and welded diamondplate, with a tuyere and ash dump: the fourth picture), my soderfors anvil (fifth picture, mounted on an oak stump), and a post vise that i am still finishing the parts of. in early july i knew i needed to put the peined finish on the hinges, because the fence was done and i needed to build and hang the gate. so i found a nice shady spot under a walnut tree, between the house and the garage, behind a (lockable) fence, nearly perfect for a small smithy, the sixth picture. i had to clear it completely out of ivy, junked bicycles, old brewing equipment, and other items, and make a wooden top for a low metal table for tools, etc. i also used michael's loaner mapp gas forge (see it on the coal forge in the sixth picture) to make a water dipper (seventh picture) before i could start on the hinges with the coke that came with the coal forge.

i finally got started, and it took me the better part of two days to get the hinges hammered and the bolt holes punched/drilled/squared. i left one hinge in too long at one point, and the spark rats gnawed a bit, but it wasn't horrible. i don't have any pictures with the holes in them; but the eighth picture shows the hinges after they're done, before (i) punching one hole with an unhardened square punch, and (ii) drilling the rest and using the unhardened punch to square the holes to receive the carriage bolts holding the frame of the gate to the hinges.

once they were done i built the frame and marked everything for mounting, then built the gate and marked and drilled for the hinges. my son and i hung the gate on the lagged pintels, and it hung true. the ninth and tenth pictures are the hung gate, in the finished fence. i also built the bridge leading to it.

one cool feature i wasn't expecting is, after i was done getting the bolt holes into the hinges, i wirebrushed the hell out of them, both sides, to get rid of as much rust/slag/etc. as possible. i then gave them a double wipe with acetone, and after that'd evaporated sprayed them with clear satin spray lacquer. they turned black! i had wanted a black finish, but was prepared to go with "natural" as i couldn't figure how to get enough oil together to try and make a black oil finish. the lacquer was perfect, and hopefully the lacquer will keep them from rusting as quickly as they otherwise would.

thanks for reading!