Help - sliding doors

[woodcanuck]

I've got to build some cabinets for a laundry room and my wife wants a couple of them to have sliding doors as they'll be more functional for her than doors that swing open.

I'm trying to figure out what the best way is to build these. I'm more than a little stumped on the whole 'sliding' part. The way I see it there are two possibilities:

1 - no hardware: build some sort of rail system that the doors glide on similar to a drawer.

2 - hardware: LV has sliding door HW for ~$20/door, which is ok, holds up to 27lbs, but this probably isn't my only option...just the only option I've found.

I wouldn't mind trying something a bit different, but at this stage I'm not sure where to go.

I've got two sets of doors to contend with:

1 - a cabinet with an opening that's roughly 32" high x 36" wide.

2 - a full height 'closet' that has a max opening 88" high x 72" wide.

Help?

[Lawrence Brown]

Didn't marc do some kind of sliding doors in one of his videos for an entertainment center? I can't remember which one though. So much awesomeness it's all gotten to be a blur of woodworky goodness

[Beechwood Chip]

Low Entertainment Center This is part one, I don't know which part has the sliding doors in it.

I think full height doors would have a tendancy to tip and jam in the tracks. For those I'd spring for the hardware to have them hang from rollers on tracks in the top.

[Bombarde16]

You can indeed make sliding bypass doors with no hardware. (Precisely how it's done with the Japanese shoji, for example.) The tracks are nothing more than dadoes on the threshold and extra deep dadoes on top that allow you to lift the doors up and out.

The problem I see is that both cabinets you describe will result in doors that are quite a bit taller than wide, making them likely to tilt and jam on the diagonal unless your wife is careful and diligent when sliding them. I vote for hardware of some sort. Perhaps not the $20 solution you found, though. At least for the smaller cabinet, could you adapt the spring-loaded wheels they make for sliding screen doors?

[Bobby Slack]

You are right that the hinged doors allow for more access to the inside of the opening, the sliding door has an advantage that you are able to open it if you have objects (clothes) in front of the opening, so that is for sure an advantage. In my home I have two pocket doors and by the time I will have 4 out of 6 openings with pocket doors.

Another solution would be to have a bifolding door.

Another consideration is that the wider the opening the best results you will have on a pocket door versus the hinge. The hinge if the door is wider than taller will create sagging problems. I like using Salice hinges instead of Blum because they take 20 Lbs per pair of hinges versus 15 lbs ... but that is not the case in this opening. On a wider than taller door you will have sagging problems guaranteed.

An advantage for a 165 degree hinge with a bifolding door if your cabinet door is flush with the opening is that on a narrow hallway the doors sort of get out of the way.

In my laundry I used the bifolding solution with a 165 degree hinge for a full height cabinet door.

Reading your door for the 32 high and 36" high, a sliding door will never sag. The only other option is to have two doors per opening and then you deal with the issue of the protusion (how do you spell this) of the hinge plus the door in the cabinet. I vote ... sliding.

There is some really cool sliding Swiss hardware out there. Are you in Canada? Contact Richelieu

There you have my $ 0.02

Good luck.

I've got to build some cabinets for a laundry room and my wife wants a couple of them to have sliding doors as they'll be more functional for her than doors that swing open.

I'm trying to figure out what the best way is to build these. I'm more than a little stumped on the whole 'sliding' part. The way I see it there are two possibilities:

1 - no hardware: build some sort of rail system that the doors glide on similar to a drawer.

2 - hardware: LV has sliding door HW for ~$20/door, which is ok, holds up to 27lbs, but this probably isn't my only option...just the only option I've found.

I wouldn't mind trying something a bit different, but at this stage I'm not sure where to go.

I've got two sets of doors to contend with:

1 - a cabinet with an opening that's roughly 32" high x 36" wide.

2 - a full height 'closet' that has a max opening 88" high x 72" wide.

Help?

[woodcanuck]

Thanks guys...I think I'll be mocking up something with hidden bearings/wheels that it can roll on or hang from.

Richelieu (whom I'd never heard of before) has lots of interesting stuff, but seems to be kind of persnickety about who can buy from them...can't even see prices until you go through a credit check for your 'company'. Such is life.

[Beechwood Chip]

If you haven't heard of MacMaster-Carr, you are in for a treat.

[Karl Bauer]

Try this

http://www.cabinetparts.com/

[Bobby Slack]

Just "create" a company and tell them you are a cabinetmaker. Then the rest is history. You will be able to buy at wholesale prices. Great supplier for Canada.

If you have problems, I can hook you up with another vendor ... Hafele who also has a branch in Canada and sells amazing Swiss made track.

The secret is to match the weight of the door to the right track and running gear.

For hinges (European) I am sold on Salice because the distance between the edge of the door and the beginning of the hole (tab) never changes whether your door is inset, half overlay or overlay, or whether your opening angle is 90, 110, 155 or to 165 degrees. They make the best hinge in the market. Everybody is stuck with Blum which is a mistake in my view.

Thanks guys...I think I'll be mocking up something with hidden bearings/wheels that it can roll on or hang from.

Richelieu (whom I'd never heard of before) has lots of interesting stuff, but seems to be kind of persnickety about who can buy from them...can't even see prices until you go through a credit check for your 'company'. Such is life.