A potential client wants some custom-made cabinetry to fill up an alcove by her fireplace, and one of the cabinets would be for he television. They would like this cabinet to have doors on it. Trouble is, the span is 63″ wide, which means doors of at least 30″ wide (really no room to build out from the walls). Another guy she talked to said that you couldn’t have doors that wide; they’d be too heavy on the hinges. I told her I’d give it some thought before I said yes or no.
Anyone ever do anything like this? What did you do to deal with it (tambour, garage-style, accordion, etc etc).
Replies
Piano hinge will take an enormous load,just that it doesn't look great
johnniev,
Depending on the design details , pocket type doors or ? You may considere Bi- fold type doors .
good luck dusty
use several blum/grass type cabinet hinges depending on how heavy the doors are...Look at the spec sheet for the specs.
I have a cabinet that has two 20" wide by 6'7" doors hanging on three salice hinges.Im sure that you could hang 30" wide doors on 4 or 5 easily...
How wide is the TV that has to be accomodated? And what is the depth you are working with?
Suitable hinges for a 30" door is not so much a problem, but I think they would probably look weird.
I assume you know about the flipper door hardware from Accuride.
Or, is it possible to do a 15" shelf unit on either side of the TV cabinet with sliding doors -- which could then be pushed over the shelf units when the TV is used?
You are likely to have problems with a tambour of that width (or length either). I think I would be inclined to use a garage type (lift and slide) set-up for that size TV door. Most customers that have that size TV's have me house them in an open cabinet (with no doors). An accordion type door would certainly be feasible too, as I have seen many of those that were sized to divide huge banquet rooms into smaller units. I would also consider the possibility of something creative like a roller shade curtain closure (perhaps bamboo?) or wood slat blinds.
What about doing a bi-fold pocket door? Piano hinge for the bi-fold, since it won't be seen anyway, and 3 hinges for the other. If you can make the doors light enough in the design you and the client want, it shouldn't be a problem. The TV height is probably around 42", right? Will they close the doors after each use or generally leave it open?
You might need to go to a tri-fold door setup. I've never done one, but I've seen pictures and it seems to work just fine.
This picture shows a bi-fold door I made a few months ago. Each bi-fold door was approx 27" wide and 37" high. I used the Accuride flipper hardware and their locking bi-fold hinges (the black hinges on the right). Just to be safe, I planed all the door lumber by 1/16" to cut some weight.
Oops - forgot to post the pic.
As a followup to the door size question, I just finished a bid for an entertainment center and saw some new Accuride flipper door hardware on the Rockler website. It's heavy duty hardware with three hinges instead of two and handles doors up to 75#. It has a cable tensioning system to prevent door racking.
You might want to check them out.
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