Built-in wardrobe project, thoughts...

[Greenbeast]

Looking to knock up something like this for my new bedroom.

 

I'm thinking 25mm/1" angle for the 'frames' of each door, with some kind of painted sheet timber material (ply or mdf) for the infill, i may inset mirrors into the sheet, undecided

 

 

I'm looking for thoughts on hinges, how to fix it all in place, and what to do about tracks

I'm thinking of drilling and tapping for a short bit of threaded bar to act as the track follower

Should i go with a 'pin into plate' method for hanging/hinging all the frame mounted doors (obviously the bifold doors will need some kind of standard pintle style hinge) or 

[DSW]

Weight is going to be one of your biggest enemies with the bifold doors. Normal bifold door tracks and hardware doesn't hold up especially well even with the light "stock" doors home centers sell. I know I've seen heavier duty bifold hardware available, but it may take a bit of digging to locate it. I could probably fabricate all the hardware for the bifolds from scratch looking at a stock kit, but time wise it might be better and simpler to just buy one of the heavier duty kits.

 

 

One key part of stock bifold doors is that the top pins are spring loaded so you can get them in the track and hinge bracket. That's going to be slightly complicated to do from scratch, but not impossible, depending on you skill at machining and so on. You might find a pin that you raise manually and then lock in place to work better. The other thing a scratch built one may need to differ from a stock kit is that the bottom of the moveable door at the edge is typically unsupported. Heavier track doors often have a lower track and guide, or some sort of roller to take up some of the weight.

 

 

Last option I can think of would be to change your design somewhat completely. Instead of the bifold following a track, you hinge it to the wall with heavy hinges to take the cantilevered weight, then do away with the guide and track on the other end and replace it with a stop on the inside. Now the door can open like a standard door if need be, or fold in the middle back against the side. It can make the doors a bit more cumbersome to open though. I've seen a lot of stock bifolds used this way when the guide pins fail or pull out of the track.

 

 

The back to back connection of the standard doors and the bifolds may also cause you some issues. You are going to be relying strictly  on the top and bottom pivot points to counter act the weight of the doors. You may find you will need a vertical post in that location to give you a fixed support to hang the doors from, changing your design appearance somewhat.

 

 

Good luck

[SmoothBore]

This "wheel" has already been "invented", ... and thoroughly tested.

 

Bi-fold doors are generally a bad idea, and a poor solution.

 

Does the entire panel actually NEED to be collapsable ?

 

( This doesn't seem reasonable, for a Wardrobe. )

 

 

Don't want to come off as arrogant or condescending, ... but I'm uncomfortable offering advice on how to build something that I know will prove unsuccessful in practice.

 

 

 

That being said .....

 

 

 

I see 6 full rectangular doors, and what I judge to be a "filler" panel, on the right, shaped to conform to the contour of the existing wall.

 

My sugestion, would be to consider 3 pairs of "conventional" doors, ... and forget about complicated systems of tracks ...

 

 

If the need exists to actually clear away the center of the partition from time to time, "Pin & Plate" hinges would be a good choice.

 

Two sets of "Plates" ( 2 top and 2 bottom plates ) with 2 pivot holes each, ... located in such a way as to accomodate the junction of doors 2 & 3 ... and doors 4 & 5 ... are all that's needed to install this system.

 

ALL the doors can be made easily "removeable", by using a fixed "Pin" on the botton, ... and a simple "barrel bolt" design for the top.

 

thrust bearings on the bottom "Pins" would be a nice touch, ... and magnetic or detent type closures finishes out the job of keeping all the doors closed.

 

 

If you're determined to build steel frames for the doors, ... 1" channel on the sides and bottom, with 2 strips of flat across the top, ( leaving the top edge open ) ... will allow you to slide your wood or glass panels into the finished "frames", without need of any fasteners.

 

A piece of flat across the "back" side of the door frames would act as a "stiffener", as well as provide an anchor point for the door pulls and closure devices.

 

 

 

 

.

[Greenbeast]

Thanks guys! Going to reread your posts, digest what you've given me and possibly think about redesign a little

[LastRonin]

You might think of maybe putting the track followers in the middle of the moving doors, with the end doors being half the width of the middle ones. This would avoid the problem of the weight of the doors pulling it out of whack.

[Greenbeast]

I think the initial decision behind the bifold was a) because it would be cool and b) because i've not fixed down in my mind the layout of the wardrobe in terms of hanging space and shelves/drawers.

Having an open design like this means i can make those decisions later but you are right, 3 pairs of standard doors would make this project so much easier.

 

Given that the span of each pair is 1400mm (55"?) i have plenty of flexibility in fact.

 

 

So i think i will go for standard pairs of doors, Smoothbore, i had already thought about the drop-in idea for the door panels, thanks for that.

I can install some substantial uprights between each pair of doors. Maybe 1" square bar drilled and tapped for countersunk fixings for the hinges (which can all be a more standard design now)?

 

 

Out of interest the original logic behind the standard pair on the far left is that it will contain this: