Soft close hardware for solid wood bench tops

[Phillip Mitchell]

I’ve got a bit of a dilemma and am hoping to draw on the vast experience this forum has to offer.

Ive made / installed these solid Cherry hinged bench tops for a client as part of a larger custom interior remodel and the soft close lid stays that I selected aren’t strong enough for these bench tops. When closing, the benches go from fully open to about 60-70* open and the weight of the tops becomes too much for the soft close lid stay and they slam shut. I was concerned during design and fabrication that this would likely be an issue, but this hardware was the best I could find online at the time.

These tops are 2” thick and about 16” deep (from the hinge point) read: heavy...

Pretty much all of the soft close lid stays for bench top application are designed for 3/4 ply tops.

Does anyone have any advice, thoughts, particular products or hardware to recommend for this situation?

This can be the hardest part of doing custom work like this for clients...finding and figuring out the appropriate hardware for these atypical situations.

The concealed SOSS hinges are working great, but obviously offer no amount of soft close support.

thanks for any help!

[Jim Becker]

I think you're going to need some kind of gas piston type soft-close/safety setup for something with that weight. See if the weights can be accommodated by these:

http://www.leevalley.com/us/hardware/page.aspx?p=74618&cat=3,41419,43745

[Jamie Buxton]

Have you considered these https://www.wwhardware.com/blumotion-971a-cabinet-mount-b971a or these https://www.wwhardware.com/salice-heavy-door-soft-close-add-on ? They're just the softclose oil-filled piston. They have limited travel, so they're not going to be helping you when the seat is opened thirty degrees, but they might slow the seat for the last couple of degrees of closure, and so reduce the slam.

If just one doesn't stop the slam, you could use several. Heck, use ten.

The manufacturers suggest installing these on the hinge side of the door. I don't understand why. I'd try them there, but you might try installing them on the latch side.

[Jamie Buxton]

I'm guessing the seat is about 36" wide, which would make it about 25 pounds. Sugatsune makes a soft-down device spec'd for that -- https://www.sugatsune.com/products/productdetails.cfm?catid=6&subcatid=1&productid=HDS%2D20

[Mike Henderson]

Rockler has some soft close hinges that I've used on a blanket chest - they work well and don't show any more than regular hinges. You can buy them for different weights of your tops. I thought the price was reasonable.

Here's a link (https://www.rockler.com/lid-stay-torsion-hinge-lid-support-rustic-bronze?sid=V9146?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=&utm_content=pla&utm_campaign=PL&gclid=CjwKCAjwk7rmBRAaEiwAhDGhxFL8VcYOiWJlIi_8rpyj 5KbqA_XMFDatYuUAaP3t5KeGWG7nXnEsRhoC0pkQAvD_BwE). I believe you can get them in different colors than the ones I linked to.

Mike

[Zachary Caldwell]

Hafele makes a nice piston style in two different options for weight rating. https://www.hafele.com/us/en/product/lid-stay-e-z-open/000000a90000864400030023/#SearchParameter=&Category=zL0KAOsFFMsAAAFd4LUEfqHI&@P.FF.followSearch=9950&PageNumber=4&OriginalPageSize=12&PageSize=12&Position=44&OrigPos=&ProductListSize=99

Zach

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thanks for all the replies!

I should have looked more extensively on Sugatsune's website the first time around (thought I did, but...) as that's where these first lid stays came from. The ones Jamie linked to look promising.

I calculated the cherry tops to weight around 26-30 # each (36-39" long) which is right in the ballpark for the Sugatsune HDS-20 H (heavy duty) . They are on order and we'll see how the work out.

[Stan Calow]

I use the Rockler hinges that Mike links to. No side pistons or arms to get in the way. You got to do the weight calculation to pick the right ones.