[modeleng] Re: Smokebox Door Hinges (again?)

----Original Message-----
>From: Jeff Dayman <jeffdayman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>It's a lot of work, but . . . 

Barry, Jeff, Al, et al,
I'm crushed.  All this knowledge, all this talent, no magic bullet.  Well, no 
one said it would be easy, but it's occurred to me that decent results might 
not be as difficult as I (or you) imagine them to be.  A short while ago I cut 
a narrow strip of writing paper and laid it along the approximate path of the 
strap.  To my surprise, as it made the transition from flat (smokebox front) to 
curving door surface, the strip did not go wiggling off at some odd angle, it 
actually appeared to the eye to remain relatively straight.  Somehow this also 
suggested to me (I can't explian why) that it won't take all that much relief 
on the back sides of the straps to appear to lay flat aginst the door, perhaps 
a few strokes with a disk in a Dremel.  (BTW, the door front is 8-5/8" radius.)

Still, some change in angle was visible at the transition and confirmed what 
I've suspected all along, that it would be necessary to somehow determine the 
shape of the straps "in-the-flat" such that when applied to the door would be 
visibly straight.  How to do this then?

In a brain wave just now it occurred to me . . . glue strips of paper to the 
door and mount the door on the mill.  Chuck a tube in the spindle and in the 
tube insert a pencil, maybe with a light spring behind it.  Move the mill table 
so as to scribe all edges of the straps.  The pencil will automatically follow 
and account for the compound curvature of the door and then you have a fairly 
accurate template for the straps, which I would guess will not be all that 
curvey.  A little bit but not much.  This won't elimnate the work of shaping 
the hinges but it should all but eliminate the tedious cut-and-try of getting 
the straps straight.  I'll report back on this in a couple of days.
Regards,
Harry

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