Knock Down Hardware

[Buck Williams]

I would appreciate any recommendations that anyone could give me on Knock Down Hardware. I’m building a radiator enclosure for a kitchen remodel similar to the one below. There will be a wall cabinet mounted above the enclosure, so lifting the enclosure straight up to access the radiator is not an option. The top of the enclosure will be removable, so that I can access the bleed valve, but I’d like to be able top remove the front panel of the radiator cover in case at some time it would be necessary to access the radiator.

I’m thinking of screwing the back of the enclosure to the wall and either making the front panel removable by using a Connector bolt and a Cross Dowel. The stiles of the front panel will be 2” wide by 1-1/2” thick, I thought that I could run the bolt through the
Stile and set the cross dowel in the top and bottom rails of the side panels. The downside is that the bolt heads would be visible

The second option that I can see, would be to make a three sided enclosure with the side panels mortised and tenoned, and glued into the front panel, and use either a Cam-lock connector, or a Rapid Corner KD Connector. The Rapid Corner looks to be something like a tab in a slot connector that slides up slightly to allow the pieces to unlock. Has anyone used either with any success. I think that the drawback of the cam connector would be that it would only be accessible from the top, so I’d only have two points that were fastened to the back panel mounted to the wall. Thanks for any advice offered.

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[Max Neu]

I would look at keku KD fasteners, they might have what you need.

[Thomas S Stockton]

Try Hafele they seem to carry a bunch of different knock down hardware.
Tom

[Jamie Buxton]

The front of the example cabinet sure looks like doors to me. Or you could modify the design a little bit to make them doors. And doors wouldn't look out of place in a kitchen.

The point about transforming the front into doors is that you open the doors, screw the cabinet back to the wall, and close the doors. Done.

[william watts]

Would a french cleat work to hold the cabinet against the wall? Then you need to only lift the entire cabinet slightly to lift/slide it away from the wall. You could use conventional construction without any knock down connectors.

[Buck Williams]

Thanks good ideas, I hadn't seen the Keku fasteners before, Hafele actually makes them as well. Hadn't thought of turning the front panel into doors, I'll have to check the layout of the radiator feeds and valves etc to see if that would give adequate access. Duh, a French Cleat, have hung a few cabinets using that technique, nice simple solution. I've been stuck on having an actual back panel because I want to staple a reflective plastic bubble wrap behind the radiator to reflect heat. I did that in a radiator enclosure in a bathroom remodel, and it seems to work well. No reason that I couldn't screw some 1/4" ply to the wall and staple the reflective material to that. Looks like plenty of ways to make it work, thanks again.