Box Lid Alignment Question

[hankgillette]

I recently made this box:



This was my first attempt at making a “nice” box and I am fairly pleased with the way it came out, but there is one flaw that is bothering me. The divided lid swivels on brass pins. As you can see in the next picture, the lid meets the top of the box where the pin is, but there is a small gap between them on the opposite side (the other side looks similar).



I doubt I can fix it on this box, but are there suggestions on how to avoid this in the future? What did I do wrong?

[Chuck Nickerson]

This issue could be caused if the holes for the pivot pins were not drilled perpendicular to the surface.

The way to check this at this point would be to remove the pin and insert (not glue) a longer pin. Then use a square to check the hole's orientation.

There may well be other causes, this one just came to mind.

[hankgillette]

Chuck Nickerson said:

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This issue could be caused if the holes for the pivot pins were not drilled perpendicular to the surface.

The way to check this at this point would be to remove the pin and insert (not glue) a longer pin. Then use a square to check the hole's orientation.

There may well be other causes, this one just came to mind.

---

I had that thought, but since I used the drill press, I assumed that perhaps it was something else.

I tried your method to test it, and sure enough, it is slightly off from 90° in the direction that would cause the opposite side to rise.

I was able to eliminate most of the gap by very slightly bending the pen to bring it closer to perpendicular. I was very hesitant to mess with a finished box, but I am glad that I did.

That is something that I will test next time prior to drilling the actual holes. I’ll also use a flat-bottomed saw blade to cut the key slots, but that’s another subject.

Thank you for responding and for your testing method.

[Edited to reflect later events.]

[KyleD]

The alignment of the drill press may not be the problem in this case. Smaller drill bits do not have sufficient rigidity to start and keep a straight hole and not be led by the hard-soft characteristics of an open grain wood such as oak.
This flex can be minimized in several ways. Center punching the wood or using a centering drill to start the hole can help to keep the drill bit from wondering about. Also, chucking the drill bit deeper in the chuck of the drill press can eliminate some flex.
I tried all these tricks when trying to drill 1/8" holes for pivot pins in the ends of 1/4" oak slats when building a large run of plantation shutters and still could not get straight holes.
I ended up using a shop-built jig and a plunge router with an 1/8" spiral bit rather than the drill press to get nice straight holes for the pivot pins.

[EricU]

you can check the drill press alignment.

It's also possible to get things off square in a drill press by poor housekeeping or other factors that don't allow the part to be perfectly flat.

I supppose the drill bit could have wandered inside the hole, particularly given the wood.

[tomsteve]

hankgillette said:

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[blockquote]Chuck Nickerson said:

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This issue could be caused if the holes for the pivot pins were not drilled perpendicular to the surface.

The way to check this at this point would be to remove the pin and insert (not glue) a longer pin. Then use a square to check the hole's orientation.

There may well be other causes, this one just came to mind.

---

I had that thought, but since I used the drill press, I assumed that perhaps it was something else.

I tried your method to test it, and sure enough, it is slightly off from 90° in the direction that would cause the opposite side to rise.

I was able to eliminate most of the gap by very slightly bending the pen to bring it closer to perpendicular. I was very hesitant to mess with a finished box, but I am glad that I did.

That is something that I will test next time prior to drilling the actual holes. I’ll also use a flat-bottomed saw blade to cut the key slots, but that’s another subject.

Thank you for responding and for your testing method.

[Edited to reflect later events.]

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[/blockquote]

if ya wanna get dead nuts perfectly square on your drill press, pick up a wixey gage. I THOUGHT my dp table was squared up to the spindle until I put my wixey gage on the table, zeroed it out, then put it against a drill bit. 2 degrees out, which could be enough to have happen what ya had happen.

[AHill]

If that one lid has the gap on both sides, I'm wondering if the hole for the pin on the lid (or box) wasn't deep enough. If the hole was not drilled perpendicular, you'd notice the lid binding as it rotates open and closed.

[hankgillette]

AHill said:

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If that one lid has the gap on both sides, I'm wondering if the hole for the pin on the lid (or box) wasn't deep enough. If the hole was not drilled perpendicular, you'd notice the lid binding as it rotates open and closed.

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No, I wasn’t quite clear. Both parts of the divided lid were touching on the pin side, but had a gap on the opposite side of the box.