Hidden door / bookshelves units.

[Paul Girouard]

Who's built one , and what hardware did you use?
Did the hardware work as well as you expected it to?
I have a gun room the client wants a hidden door that appears to be a bookshelves.

I've looked on line and Invisadoor hinge's at $150.00 seem pretty good, rated at 250 lbs. Halefe has some spendy hardware @ $1,600.00 + , but the description on line doesn't merit much consideration.

So who's done one or more , and what's the straight skinny on the hardware, and /or other pit falls?

TIA.

[Ken Grant]

I like the the Rixson 370 hinges. The concept is similar to the ones you are looking at, but I have never used the Invisadoor hinge so I cannot comment on those. I will say that this style of hinge has worked the best of the ones I have seen so far. There are lots of details to figure out on these projects, and I am far from an expert on them. A couple things I have found-if you can do full height columns between each section of bookshelves, then that is an easy place to hide the door joint. Swing-in is much easier to hide then swing-out.

Whenever I see a bookcase built into a cased opening in a wall, it just screams "hidden door" to me. These things can be built in such a way that no one, including carpenters like us, would ever be able to tell there was a hidden door, but the details need to be worked out for that to happen.

[Mark Gibney]

The Rixson 370 is a pivot, not a hinge, just to clear up any possible confusion.

I bought one set a couple of months back but the project is still in the design stage, the client keeps coming up with a new idea, so I can't give you any tips.

[Paul Girouard]

Thanks Mark and Ken.
Both the Invisadoor , and Rixson are pivot's , but they both include "Hinge" in their product description.

Gotta love the client with the moving target/ new idea! LOL

[Aaron Conway]

Can't help with hardware resources but thought you might like to see this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PDoACW96OM
It's in the Boston office of the company I work for. You lift a speaker on the bookshelf to open the door.

[Mark Henshaw]

Paul,
I have built several of these in the past 15 years with the best success coming from using pivot hinges. I put one in my daughters room approximately 10 years ago and it has not sagged or moved more then a couple of thousandths and can be opened and closed with 1 finger. I use 3/4" plywood for the sides and built in shelves along with a 3/4" back. All joints are both glued and screwed. The bookcase structure must be very rigid. I use 3" hardwood face frames across the perimeter and across the shelves to further add strength. The pivot hinges are easily hand made from 1" bolts and brass bushings at both the top and the bottom of the bookcase. Both sides of the door/bookcase use full length moldings to hide any opening. One of the moldings is attached to the door and the other to the wall. When closed there is no visible gap at all. The most important part of the project is determining location for the pivot hinges, both in depth from the front of the door as well as the length in from one of the sides. I found that Sketch-up did wonders for me as it greatly reduced the time that I had in trial and error on previous builds.

[Lee Schierer]

Tom Silva did this recently on Ask This Old House (http://www.thisoldhouse.com/how-to/how-to-install-hidden-doorbookshelf).

[Charles B Wilson]

Just completed a pair a few weeks ago. Like Ken we use the rixion pivot setup.341970

CW