The hinges on my doll-sized 17th-century embroidered casket are giving me troubles. I considered using the post title “unhinged”, but that’s too cutesy for what I’ve been experiencing, so I opted for my old stand by, alliteration.

I spent all afternoon on Sunday, most of Sunday evening and all afternoon yesterday fussing with the $#*& hinges. And they still aren’t right. If I added all the time I’ve spend figuring out solutions, I’d never sell one casket because they’d cost way too much.

Here’s where it now stands. I have to remake the left door because I messed it up too much.

This was attempt 3 on the quest for perfect door hinges. And it’s a failure.

My original intention was to have the hinges on the inside only, but that made the doors stand too far away from the casket. So I moved one part of the hinge to the outside edge of the door, but it still offsets the door too much.  It is supposed to line up with the top, but it doesn’t.

Next, I cut away the wood to recess the hinges, but things still don’t line up.

So I forged ahead and installed the hinges on the lids.

They look stupid with only one side of the hinge on the outside.

And the nails stuck through the wood, so I’ll have to file them down.

My next attempt will be to place the hinges on the outside, but countersink them so they will be hidden by the embroidery and the doors will line up with the lid.

When selling caskets, I’ll think I’ll give people the option of having the hinges recessed or flat on the surface of the casket. That way they can choose to cover them or let them show.

I’d make a new left door, but I had to get a new saw blade.  When I made my casket, I used a cheap saw with an expensive, fine-toothed blade and it left the edges smooth. I started cutting with the blade that came with my new saw, but it left rough edges that need to be sanded. I’m not interested in sanding 4 edges on all 161 pieces of the caskets.

So I ordered new blades. They came yesterday, but I had trouble finding the correct allen wrenches to replace the blade. DH came to the rescue last evening and I no longer have blade issues.

My saw lives on top of the wine fridge in my kitchen next to my lovely Goodreau BJD, Rumor. I put the right allen wrenches into the box she stands on, along with other miscellaneous saw parts so that I’ll be able to find them next time I need them.

But it’s rainy all week.

I guess I’ll stay inside and work on $#*& hinges some more.