Secret Doors

[jmbfestool]

I did not do this bathroom but I did rip it out and built the wardrobes with a secret hatch.  

This bathroom was done by another joiner who worked for the company.  The bathroom was umm no more than 1 month old and it was all ripped out and thrown into skip!

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You can see in the corner der is a door with a little chrome knob well da is where the toilet is that stayed as they love loads of toilets as I can remember the house had 11 toilets!
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Then I built this its not finished I did a little more work on it since the photo like fixing the styles in line with the walls but it never got painted it got ripped out again and burned!  [mad] as they had another change of mind and it become the landing instead of a bathroom so with in a few months it went from bathroom to walk in wardrobe to smaller dresser room/landing/ secret cupboard all walls knocked down and new studding dividing it all up

I made a secret hatch to store his naughty stuff  [tongue]

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[jmbfestool]

Just quick Vid of the secret hatch.  I used the Paslode boxes as weights just to test it out as you can see it was a little heavy for me to pull down so I removed one lol  [embarassed]  The where going to be replaced with sash weights  but unfortunately it all got  ripped out again and burned again!   

For Fog

 

[jmbfestool]

I know its OFF-Topic but it was on the same job and I found these videos and pictures in the same folder so I thought I would still post it in here!

I was walking into the canteen you can see it in the video in the background  its a green container thing!  Well you come round from the front so you can EYE the wall down and  I have always noticed the wall with a bow in it BUT this time I noticed the BOW in the Wall was more I first thought nothing off it but I decided to walk over and I noticed the wall crumbling and I touched the door and it was loose and I remember it was fixed solid.   I still didnt think much off it and just as the Forman past me I said do you think that wall is more bowed!   He said yes!  

Then he panicked and told every one to get out of the building and told the ground workers to move away from the wall!   One joiner ran back inside and put a acro prop under the oak truss to stop the roof going if the wall went!

Watch what happens next!
For Fog

The reason the wall collapsed because the grounds men where digging the ground away and dug below the footings and then when they where wackering the ground the wall started to give.

So maybe I saved some peoples lives? or maybe some one else might of noticed it a few sections later who knows!
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[jmbfestool]

You can see that one acro prop holding the entire roof  stupid thing to do really wasnt worth risking his life for!  but if it had gone it could of damage the building next to it which we had just finished making into a gym I need to find pictures of that aswell da is a nice looking gym!

JMB

 

[jmbfestool]

In terms of installing/removing pivot hinged doors-
I've DIYed some pivot hinges for beveled edge doors, they were actually like giant shutters over windows but door-size and same concept.  The fronts are perfectly flat/seamless and they attached through the back- mine were like 1 1/2" thick or so but you could do this on a 3/4" panel by routing out for it.  I used round steel rod bent into an L, which acted as the pin and locked the door into place.  I used sealed round (skateboard!) bearings set into the window sill and the bottom and top of the door.  Since the appearance of the back of the door really didn't matter on mine I just attached a plate over the whole opening in the door to keep the L from swinging out when the door was opened, but I'm sure a nicer looking method could be engineered.  This might sound confusing;  think of one of those door bolts that flip down into a set position when locked so that they can't be shaken open.  These were full size doors and worked flawlessly.  Magnets for keeping them closed.

Sorry I missed this post before!    I think I understand how you have done it!  Im not sure what to use yet for the push latch a magnet or non magnet I want a really strong heavy duty one but all I can find at the moment see medium duty and one heavy duty one but it looks ugly!

JMB

 

[gckc117]

yeah they are all totally ugly!  CRL makes a decent stainless one for glass that you could epoxy to anything.  The nice thing with a pivot hinge system is that they tend to swing real easily, so in my case we just used regular magnets, not too strong but they stay shut fine, and since the pivot is not all the way to the corner you could just push them open.

 

[tiralie]

So maybe I saved some peoples lives? or maybe some one else might of noticed it a few sections later who knows!

Unbelievable! Good thing you said something. Jeesh...

 

[fdengel]

Secret doors are considerably less secret once documented, or when pictures are available...

Probably why good info is so hard to find?

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Secret doors are considerably less secret once documented, or when pictures are available...

Probably why good info is so hard to find?

Same with that secret opening into the building.  It aint a secret no more.

So, JMB, who's picking up the tab for that disaster?

Are you adding that specialty onto the side of your van?  "I check walls for plumb, then run!"

 

[woodguy7]

Ken, good one  [thumbs up]

 

[jmbfestool]

lol!  Funny Ken!

Well turned out for the better any way because instead of doing up the entire building which was the idea initially  we knocked the hole lot down and rebuilt it and much bigger!

the building far left was the building to the right side of the fallen wall in the video and its the only part which was left up!
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I am trying to find the photos of the roof  I did i built the roof in a big field  and then we got a crane to lift the roof on in a few sections. It was fun never made a roof on the ground for it to be lifted up.
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[Ken Nagrod]

That's one heck of an incline to walk up and down.  Must be fun in the winter when there's ice on the ground.

 

[Steve F]

JMB,

Maybe it's just me, but I am concerned about you're clientele.  Why do they need so many hidden rooms?  Other than the fact that it's cool, is there some special reason for them to have a rooms with a hidden door? 

Just curious

Steve

 

[jmbfestool]

JMB,

Maybe it's just me, but I am concerned about you're clientele.  Why do they need so many hidden rooms?  Other than the fact that it's cool, is there some special reason for them to have a rooms with a hidden door? 

Just curious

Steve

No just they have the money and its like a game to them. They love having stuff going on around them all the time they love people on hand. One day they might just want round windows the next day they want square and same with secret doors its like they go through phases. They would have use do stuff we would not see them for months they come round one day and alter everything so ripping out everything we done.

JMB

 

[Steve F]

No just they have the money and its like a game to them. They love having stuff going on around them all the time they love people on hand. One day they might just want round windows the next day they want square and same with secret doors its like they go through phases. They would have use do stuff we would not see them for months they come round one day and alter everything so ripping out everything we done.

JMB

Must be nice!  What a cool niche market - hidden science labs, gambling parlors, speakeasies, weapon and ammo rooms, war rooms, "hiding from the kids" rooms . . . the list is endless.  I am starting to want one.

Steve

 

[mattfc]

No just they have the money and its like a game to them. They love having stuff going on around them all the time they love people on hand. One day they might just want round windows the next day they want square and same with secret doors its like they go through phases. They would have use do stuff we would not see them for months they come round one day and alter everything so ripping out everything we done.

JMB

JMB, I see a great opportunity for you here.. suggest to them that you can build some panic rooms (easy peasy.. lots of shuttering and even more concrete), they must also have some cash to blow on sub-terrain cinema rooms p.s are those all garages?

 

[jmbfestool]

Lol. Yeah they got the cash. We built a dog house. When I mean house I mean house.  Proper building  roof on tiles all done  they came from holiday and wanted it knocking down and rebuilding on the other side of the property. Started the footings for it again then they decided they wanted the house extending over that area instead.  It just kept going on and on.

Unfortunately that job is finished now it's an old picture I just brought up as it's associated to the secret doors.

Apparently so the electrician told me they found out I went self employed and asked him for my number not so long ago so might get a call in the future to work back on that job again.  They don't have the company doing any work for them any more you see it kinda ruined the company wen they stopped all work on this property and all der other properties  I left the company 4months before it happened and the company had to let all 20 contractors go and 14people on the books so lot of people lost dee jobs.

And yes they are all garages for his nice cars lol

Jmb

 

[Deke]

Okay, all of you pros have covered this pretty well, but what I am not seeing is how you hook up the statue, say a small bust of Caesar, Napoleon, George Washington, Beethoven... and then activate the secret door by tilting the head of the statue. I will not be impressed until I see a Sketchup of that!  [big grin]

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Okay, all of you pros have covered this pretty well, but what I am not seeing is how you hook up the statue, say a small bust of Caesar, Napoleon, George Washington, Beethoven... and then activate the secret door by tilting the head of the statue. I will not be impressed until I see a Sketchup of that!  [big grin]

...watching way too much Batman as a kid!  I did too.

 

[Deke]

...watching way too much Batman as a kid!  I did too.

What! Are you saying that wasn't real!?!? Oh man, I am crushed....