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I am currently working on a conversion, but I have hit a snag. I need to fashion a workable hinge mechanism to raise and lower a square tube. The tube is going to be recessed in a small opening where the side will have to be glued on after the tube is in place, so my first thought of a rod and socket hinge will probably be too difficult to align properly. I have a bit of space at the bottom to work with, but want as strong a hinge piece as possible. Any ideas or pictures that could assist with this? Thanks in advance.

Sorry, I've read this a couple of times and can not picture in my mind what you're trying to achieve. Could you maybe do a sketch of it (even in paint or something)?

This is the vehicle:


The square tube on it's right lifts like this:


The tube is sitting flush with the floor here, the side track unit hasn't been glued yet.


I have roughly this much space underneath it, lifting the top to be level with the track unit.


O had thought of rigging a post on either side, going into a hole on the walls of the tank and the track unit, but I fear lining those up while gluing the track unit onto the tank will be too difficult, so I was looking for a hinge unit that could fit in the space underneath the launcher tube, while being strong....It will be difficult to repair if something goes wrong after everything is glued together, so I want to be sure the initial job is done strongly.

Sorry for confusion earlier. I hope these pics make what I'm asking more clear.

I would just take a large tube of plasticard (perhaps 3mm diamater) and drill an appropriate hole through the square section, and into both the track unit and the tank housing on the other side of your square section.

Pop the tube through and as long as it is long enough you wont have to bother gluing it, as it wont have any lateral movement once the the tank is together.

My first thought, 3 options.

The first one, what AG said, I think this will be the cheapest option. Reasonably easy. But I think it'll be hard to make it look spot on (lining everything up, drilling holes which aren't too small and cause excessive friction, but also aren't too large, causing excessive rattle and not letting the tube stay in it's angled position without falling down). But still a good option.

My other 2 thoughts, get yourself a hinge. I'm in a rush right now so can't track down specifically which ones right now, but if you look online you'll find hobby hinges for RC planes for a couple of dollars, or you could go to a hardware store and find cabinet hinges, toy box hinges, and also piano bench hinges (these are very long, but can be cut with a dremel/angle grinder/hacksaw).

You can then just mount it like this...



You can prop it up higher with a spacer and move the hinge forward to tune the height of the tube and pivot point, or even modify the hing to mount it internally (closer the pivot is to the centre of gravity, the more it'll want to stay in an angled position).



I suggest going to a shop to look at some hinges, I think you'll find many hinges have sufficient friction to keep your tube in an angled position without modification.

Alternatively, you can get a hinge like on of these (I'm not saying this one specifically, it's just the first thing that came up when I googled)...

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/rob/rob308.htm

And mount it internally as a support rod....


Now obviously this will have to be combined with something. Either a simple pivot near the rear, and then leave where the front of the hinge touches the tank loose, so it can be rested against the tank surface to keep it propped up. You might have to use something like gluing sandpaper to the tank to get the friction surface so the tube doesn't just slide down, BUT, you could make it look nifty by adding a slot which the control arm goes in to, so it looks like some mechanism underneath is raising and lowering the tube, something like this...



Alternatively, you could attach the front end of the arm to the tank (again, at a pivot point) and glue the other end of the arm in/on to the tube, but then don't glue the tube itself to anything, so the tube is free to move around. Then you can raise the tube and rest the back of it against the tank surface to angle it up, this will bring the tube forward as it raises. You might be able to get away just with the friction of the hinges to keep it upright, otherwise you might need some friction material under the tube so it doesn't slide down (similar to the sandpaper idea). Again, you could model it to look like slotted control arms.

So there's a few ideas of varying complexity that will give you a variety of results. I think the third idea would look the coolest, since it'll look like a support arm, but it'll also be the most fiddly to make.

Thanks for the suggestions, you've given me several ideas. I'm not too worries about the friction issue as I have a magnet in the back of the tube and will be gluing a thin piece of metal to the back so it will stay upright when raised.

thanks again!

Dollhouse furniture hinge?

Or just use paper clip wire through plasticard tube to create a pivot? Glue tube down and wire to the part that moves.

If you're magnetising it anyway, you could just use the magnet as a hinge. Mount one in the side of the tube and another in the side of the tank, the magnet can be your pivot point. That'll let it pivot good and proper and you won't need any hinges (unless you simply want to add hinges for aesthetics).

I'd just buy a small brass hinge and mount it underneath the rear of the tube, as AllSeeingSkink suggested in his first option, if you're worried about aligning a rod (which would otherwise be the simplest option). I've found them to be even cheaper than he guessed, if you avoid specialty suppliers and fancy hinges.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
If you're magnetising it anyway, you could just use the magnet as a hinge. Mount one in the side of the tube and another in the side of the tank, the magnet can be your pivot point. That'll let it pivot good and proper and you won't need any hinges (unless you simply want to add hinges for aesthetics).

this was my first thought as well, but AllSeeingSkink got here before me :p a large, flat magnet on each side should give you plenty of hold and let you easily pivot the tube. as an added bonus, you can even pop the whole tube out since it's just held in by the magnet. might not work well if the top end of the tube is heavy, though.