Why does nobody talk about how long it takes to fix a bad hinge?

I had a custom order for a leather journal with a hidden hinge. The first try was a total mess, the leather tore right at the joint. I thought it would be a quick fix, maybe an hour. It took me THREE FULL DAYS to get it right. I had to scrap the whole cover, re-cut the leather, and hand-sew the new hinge with a different stitch pattern. The client was patient, but I lost so much time. Has anyone else had a simple hinge repair blow up into a multi-day project?

2 comments

2 Comments

wyatt5131d ago

Hidden hinges are the worst. I had a box where the internal brass hinge tore through the thin wood veneer. What should have been a glue job turned into a full rebuild of the lid structure. The alignment is so easy to mess up.

the_wesley1d ago

Yeah, "the alignment is so easy to mess up" is the whole story. @wyatt513 is right, and I had a hinge on a small cabinet door that looked fine until I put weight on it. Fixing that tiny angle problem meant taking apart the whole frame to re-cut the mortise.