drill jig...

Accurately drilling hinge pin holes on the drill press requires a simple drilling guide to hold the stock in the right position so that pins, left and right can be positioned in perfect alignment. If they are off slightly from each other, the lid will twist and bind.

As you can see, part of the fun of woodworking is figuring out how to do what needs to be done and eliminating probable error. The pins in the photo above will be trimmed after they are driven the rest of the way in. The business card in the photo below serves as a shim, providing just a bit of clearance so the lid does not bind.

I hope this box is one that my readers will want to make. The small pin hinges in association with the rare earth magnets used to hold the lids closed make for a delightful user experience. The lid operates smoothly, and pops tight when closed.

According to Dale Dougherty's article with KQED:

Dougherty knows many young people ready to go to high school who don’t see their passions being supported there. A lot of high schools got rid of classes like shop and metal work that were the “maker spaces” of a previous era. Parents didn’t see a use for those skills and they were gradually phased out.

Those who were engaged in teaching shop classes were unable to push aside the onslaught of purposeful misinformation that all kids were to go to college. The great lie was that we were to have a "service economy" in an "information age" in which making and the lack of making did not matter. There was huge stupidity in that. "Making" is not just making stuff, it's the means of making lives that matter. Parents could not imagine that kids left to their own passions might create futures for themselves if provided the materials and tools to do so.

Make, fix and create...