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Hide a door behind a book case, need some ideas for the hardware.

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Gfercaks33

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Oklahoma City
So i am tossing the idea of taking a door to a closet in my hall out and building a bookcase to hide the closet/replace the door. The issue I am running into is the hard ware for this, I would rather it not pivot as the hall is somewhat narrow. So the Idea I for a slider mechinism is this. On the back of the shelf near the top (about 7/8 the way up) I want to mount a 26" full extension drawer slide ( I have found some 500-1000lbs weight limit slides), on the bottom I was gonna build some what of a kick panel that would hide 4 casters so it will roll in and out and left and right, the back side of the slide I was going to mount to a plate that's welded to a pipe, that pipe would ride inside another pipe that's slightly larger and would be mounted to the wall (that would give me my x axis and the slider would give me my y).

Have I over complicated this or am I missing something?
 
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Kaizen

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I don't get what you are describing. if the door opened why wouldn't you have this open the same? easiest thing is make the bookcase shallow and flush with the wall......so a built in look. on the front side hidden is the hinge. no need for a cabinet slide. you tube it and you'll see a bunch of peoples designs.
now if you can add a maltese falcon mounted to the lock release that would be cool
 
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Gfercaks33

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It will be sunk in and flush to the wall. The ones I have see will "Pop" out from the wall about 6" and then hinge like a door. I don't want the hinging part I want it to pull out from being flush and then slide to the right and out of the way yet still leave full access to the hall.

Did that help any?
 
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Gfercaks33

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As for the mounting a lock I haven't crossed that bridge yet, I want to have a lock on it but all I have came up with is a steel rod and a spring to plunge the rod into a hole "locking it in place" my neighbor has somethjng like that on his house.
 
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Cyberbear

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Try going Online to a TV cabinet door hardware supplier and see what you can find that will be adaptable to your needs. Years ago when in the custom furniture business, I had a customer who wanted a very large TV cabinet made that allowed the doors to open, pivot straight out and then slide away back into the cabinet next to the TV.
 
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nicksnothereman

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In the Mojave
Panic room? They can see through walls. Just saying.

The best "plan" is to have access out. A drop through the floor and access out the house preferably not ending right at the house but some distance away.

That's assuming human interlopers, can't always assume human. You'll go crazy thinking about this stuff and people coming to get you. Just um...got to let it go and try not to be important enough that anyone comes after you.
 
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Gfercaks33

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Oklahoma City
Nope not a panic room, it's just a closet where I will be putting a safe in. The safe I want will fit better if I can get ride of the door frame completely (widening the space and door will be more work, and I will still have an odd door in the hall) . Another reason behind this is we have some particle board dvd shelves that are full and unsightly so this kills two birds with one stone.

I know this idea of mine won't stop a determined Theif but what it will do is help deter a smash and grab type crime where they are trying to leave since my alarm is going off.


Plus having a hidden room is cool!
 
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HoosierMark

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Southeast IN
I think you need two parts to this, one is the part that slides to the right and one is the part that slides out of the door frame and into the the hall. So when unit is closed it is recessed, one slide moves it forward into the hall and then the top front part would be stationary to the wall allows the whole unit to slide to the right. Build the wall sliding unit and then build the bookcase sliding unit and then combine them
 
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Gfercaks33

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Mark- that's what I was planning, I need one mechinism to pull the shelf away from the wall and then a second to slide it out of the way.

Don- I have seen that link but that hardware pivots like a door would.

I drew this up and it makes sense in my mind but sometimes that doesn't transfer to paper very well...

 
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Worsedog

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Here is my scratch paper solution.

It take six heavy duty drawer slides. Four handle the in and out motion. Then two for the side to side. Dimensions and mounting details are on you. I think that you will need both top and bottom slide for the sliding motion because the bottom will want to walk away from the wall as is slides. Of course this will create a trip hazard at the bottom, so my quick answer here would be to raise the floor like a small step up just a bit higher than the bottom slide. Your framework that the shelf unit would attach to would need to be fairly robust to tie all the slides together to prevent it from racking, but the eyeball engineering says it would work.
 
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Ray916MN

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I'd just make a bookcase with handles on casters that fits in the closet doorway space with some flanges to make sure the doorway gaps are hidden.

I've made sliding bookcases (about 800 lbs loaded) with casters for my study with a guide track to guard against tipping and alignment for smooth movement is a major challenge. I believe the approach you are contemplating will very difficult to align and keep aligned when you consider variances in the casters, floor, closet door frame, bookcase frame particularly in a loaded and unloaded condition with 2 axes of desired movement.

Potential for lack of alignment will cause binding and necessitate some pretty heavy construction to prevent any binding while moving the bookcase from twisting or distorting the mount if you use your slider approach.
 
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Shadowdog500

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I always wanted to do something like this!


You may want it to look like a built in book case. If they see a stand alone bookcase that jiggles when pushed they will know something is behind there.


Chris
 
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