Swinging Hinged Cabinet.

[Leo Graywacz]

Making a cabinet, in a closet, to hold folded items and shoes. It'll swing into a small room hidden behind it. I decided against using store bought hardware because of the swing geometries. I made my own.

I bought a 7 foot section of DOM tubing with a wall thickness of 3/16" and a diameter of 1 1/2". I also obtained a pair of flange pillow block bearings.

The DOM tubing was a few thousandths over 1.500" and I used my belt sander to reduce the diameter by a small amount. For the end near the floor I made it tapered so it won't go through the bearing, and the top I made it so it can go down about 4". I think the top will be flush with the tube in the end.

Here's the cabinet with the "hinge" resting on the part that it will eventually go through.



Closer view of the flange bearing.



The 5 1/8" x 5 1/8" squares sticking out of the cabinet are part of the top and the deck, so it's a solid part of the cabinet.

I made a box for the tube to ride though. The 2 sides of the box were 5 1/8" x 72 1/2" and I put a "V" groove in the center for the length of each one. I drilled three 3/8" holes, top, middle, bottom in the center of the groove through the thickness of one side. I took the tube and laid it into the groove and put the side with the 3 holes on top of the tube. I measured the distance between the two boards and made a few sets of spacers slightly smaller than the measurement and clamped them trapping the tube inside. I made sure the ends of the board were in line with each other using a square.

Then I brought it to the drill press and using the 3 guide holes I drilled through the wood and tube sandwich.

I did some testing and found the 15/16" thickness of the sides was too thick and put them through the planer to end up with 3/4"

I glued the boards onto the cabinet on each side of the squares to form a box. Glue and pocket screws and the ends were screwed to the squares with 1/4" x 3" lags.

I drilled a 2 1/8" hole in the top and bottom square.

I slipped the tube with the 3 holes into the box and then put three bolts with a bunch of nuts and washers to hold the tube in the box.



The advantage to doing it this way is I can move the tube in the box to adjust for a slight tilt if the wall isn't plumb.

Then I did a test of the hinge.



I've made the shelves and now I need to make the back, the trim and casing that will surround the opening the cabinet will go into.

[Jim Becker]

Leo, very smooth. It would be very instructive to see some detailed photos of the way you set things up...both to learn and because some community members can't really watch video because of "low speed" Internet connections.

[Leo Graywacz]

I have a couple of still photos up there. My photo server seems to be having issues currently. They'll show back up when the Fototime is back up.

[Yonak Hawkins]

It looks interesting, Leo. I'm not really grasping the concept but I'm sure, when it's complete and you post final pics, it'll become clear.

[Leo Graywacz]

Think of the cabinet as a door that will let you enter a hidden room. The video was the test to make sure what I was doing was going to work before I continued on with the build and finish of the cabinet. Last thing I need to do is complete the project and the hinge didn't work.

In my head I knew it would work. I just don't trust myself.