Screwing In The Hinges

With the hinges now properly in place and aligned, it was time to get the screws put into them. This will fully secure them to the body, and make it near impossible to snap the door off at the hinges.

I knew drilling the holes for the screws was going to be a drill press operation. I was not confident that I could get the precision I wanted from a hand drill.

I placed the tricorder into a vice, so that it would be held steady inside the drill press.



I then took the vice over to the drill press, and very carefully drilled out all 12 holes. I tried to center the holes as best as I could inside the hinges. There's always some bit wander as you start to drill, but I find it can be minimized if you chuck the drill bit deep into the press. That way, there's only a tiny bit of the drill bit sticking out. Less wobble.



Here's how it looked when all was said and done. A couple of the holes weren't perfectly centered, so I took my dremel with a grinding bit to the holes and expanded them a bit. Just enough to make it so that the tapered head of the screw wasn't likely to push the hinge out of alignment.



A few minutes later, and all the screws are in place.



So far so good. The tricorder still opens and closes smoothly, and all is looking good.