Are there any hardware genius in the house?

[Chris Hughes]

I'm designing an entertainment center for a client and I have an unusual situation with the door set up.  The cabinet is a floor to ceiling design, single panel with a door panel cut through the center portion.  The cabinet is only 9" deep and 48" wide but about 96" tall.

Here's the hitch, the door panel needs to "lift" (as in Salice's Lift product).  The tv and sound bar that must be able to clear the opening in order to pass through on its arm for veiwing at a weird angle.  The tv is 30"tall and the sound bar that I plan to mount is another 4".  Salice's lift only goes 26" and so far the only Blum "lift" I found goes up to 18".

I'm trying to not use any other types of door movement because I need to keep the cabinet front as simple as posible.  Salice sent me an idea using their "bi-fold" mechinism but that requires the door be cut into 4 peices. 

Anybody got any ideas?

 

[peter halle]

I have absolutely no experience in what you are doing, but after reading your post, how about a a lift that goes down or a tambour door that goes down.  I might be stupid but sometimes we get used to looking at things one way.

Peter

 

[Rick Christopherson]

OK, I think I understand what you are planning. You need the 30+" tall door to lift up above the TV, but the standard mechanism for this type of door only raises 26". The existing mechanism allows the door panel to pull forward from the cabinet, and them move upward. The limitation is how far it moves upward.

To overcome this, while still using the standard lift-type mechanism, I would mount the cabinet-side of the hardware to a slide, where the slide allows the whole mechanism to move upward the extra distance. Normally, the cabinet-side of the hardware would be fixed to the cabinet in a non-movable fashion. Instead of that, mount it to a slide. To keep the slide from simply dropping down to the bottom due to the weight of the door, add a spring-loaded cable or counterweight to assist the slide staying up when the door is opened. Or you could also use a catch on the slide to lock the slide upward any time the Lift mechanism is in its extended position.

A lot of the cabinets that I use to build had complex engineering behind their mechanisms, and this is what made them fun to design and build. Developing the slide is easy. Developing a latching mechanism would be fun.

 

[Chris Hughes]

I though about that.  I'll look at the "lift" to see how complicated it would be to mount to a slide.  I was kind of looking for a "oh yeah, I did that before.  Here's the part number, it travels 36""

You did make me think, "can I mount a lift upside down"  If I split the door horizonally and open the doors parralle and open them in opposite directions I could open a set of door up to 52".

Thanks for thinking about it though.  If any thing else pops to mind, post it please.