I saw the snack tray by @MartinSR, and it looked fun so I did a lidded box with a dished bottom and a wooden hinge. The box is cut from a single block of wood and I attempted to match the grain. The hinge is the one that Rob Cosman has shown on his Youtube channel and one that I have come to really like. When done completely right you cannot tell the hinge is anything other than a strip of wood. This attempt was not quite perfect… Although requiring a tool change you can cut the hinge channels with the CNC.
I used a Rockler Dish Carving bit with an outside diameter of 1" and 1/4" radius. The hinge channel was cut using a 3/8" core box (round end) bit. The wood is Litchi wood that a friend gave me and I finished it with Deft Lacquer. The wood is interesting in that it has not only pattern rings, but ripple across the grain like some maples. But, it is VERY hard and required smaller passes for the dishing. I’m showing the detail of the hinge below also.
