Two down, sixteen to go

January second. The tree is on its way to the chipper, the gingerbread house is collapsed, and somehow we’ve found homes for most of the new toys and books. Most importantly, the guest room has been converted back into a train room and office; time to get back to business!

As I’ve not come up with a good way to mass-produce the hinges, I’m relieved this roundhouse has only three stalls. Even so, it requires 18 of the blighters!  I want the doors to function, and so, there is no cheating with cosmetic chunks of styrene.

The plan is to use a strap hinge on a peg. I recall my grandmother’s farm had some doors like this. If I learn later that the hinges had a different shape at the jamb, then I will add some styrene to dress up the pegs.

The straps are .003 brass, folded around a peg, then the two layers are soldered. Perhaps it’s overkill, but the straps are then drilled for NBW castings. I’ll leave those off until I get the high resolution version of the Mattingly photo, when I hope to learn what those undifferentiated lumps looked like.

On the first hinge, I learned that I want to start with the strap material as close to the final size as possible, to avoid filing.  On the second and third, I found that the peg material serves as the best handle for finishing the shape of the strap.  By the time I’ve completed eighteen, I should be pretty good at making these straps!