flipper door slides

[Charles Spitzer]

i'm looking to make some panel doors for a cabinet that will contain stereo equipment, as swmbo has requested non-glass doors. the shelves are going to be rollouts, so i can't use regular flipper door slides. what i'd like to do is attach the doors like single panel garage doors in some manner. would flipper door slides work in a horizontal use, or are there other options for this?

[Upscale]

They work both ways.

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[Pounds on Wood]

Actually you can. You just need a second panel, inset from the outer panel. The flipper doors mount to the outer panel, and the shelves mount to the inner panel. Ideally the inner panel could be removed to access and work on the flipper hardware. So, it is an option but might not be what you want.

-- Bill Pounds

[Charles Spitzer]

yeah, there is that, but since it'll have 3 doors (or 6 if i make 3 pairs) across the front, i'd loose a lot of internal space for each door.

thanks, charlie cave creek, az

[Mike Hide]

I have yet to use flipper doors . I came up with a simple solution that can be done in the shop years ago and have used it ever since .

I have done a crappy sketch and will post it on ABWP together with a shot of a breakfront that used it extensively

It involves two small teflon pins attached to the the vertical ends of the door, one at the top and the other close to the bottom. these teflon pins available at the local hardware store generally have to be cut down to 3/8" to 1/2" long. corresponding to the pins a vertical and top horizontal channel is routed out the same diameter as the pins [this is the track] .make it slightly less deep than the pins protrude from the sides of the doors. Run the horizontal track all the way to the back of the cabinet ,to allow the doors to be inserted . the horizontal track is alligned with the top pin so as soon as you attempt to lift the door it starts running in the lower side of the horizontal track while the lower pin is running up the vertical track . Once the lower pin gets up to the horizontal track it will start running back also .

When the door gets to the desired open position screw in a stop to prevent the door going any further .

this method can also be used for normal opening doors .Again the pins are guided buy the sides of the track ,so make sure the pins are not quite as deep as the tracks . In addition in this configuration the weight of the door is taken on the bottom edge so I line that edge in this configuration with teflon tape.

Using this technique you can quite easily end up with essentially zero clearance both open and closed. A much better solution in my opinion.......mjh

[klaatu]