Home Made Hinges

i had planned to to some painting .but when i got my trestle ladder out one of the hinges had broken .i had inherited them from my grandfather so they were at over 40 years old probably more, so a bit of maintenance is to be expected. i thought it would be easy to fix , so of to my local hardware store .where i found that no one has that type of hinge. so time to get the welder out and make some custom ones.

items needed :
bolts
washers
locknuts
flat bar

tools needed:
welder
grinder
cutting,grinding,flap disks
wire cup wheel
drill
drill bits
clamps
ruler
sharpie
center punch
hammer

safety equipment :
ear muffs
gloves
goggles
welding mask
welding jacket
fire extinguisher

cut along old welds with grinder.a hammer helps in removing. clean up any daggy bits with grinder ready to weld on the new ones.

mark out flat bar stock . ( i'm not going to specify measurements , feel free to make to any size )
secure with clamp and cut your pieces.
now weld together forming an L shape . this is so the trestle will fold flat .
mark ,centre punch and drill holes for pivot bolts .
bolt together , i added a washer between the hinge leaves,to reduce friction.

position hinge on trestle. clamp and tack weld ,rotate trestle and repeat. now open ,close trestle to make sure it doesn't bind . if happy we can move on to next step .if it binds cut tacks ,adjust as needed and re tack .

crank up the welder and lay down some beads .once fully welded clean up wire wheel and flap disk ready for paint .

shake your spray can and give your finished product a lick of paint .
once painted my trestle should last another 40years .
feel free to adapt these hinges to suit your application. cheers