Secret Doors

[Squid]

Has anyone made a "secret door" ? By this I mean something like a bookcase which fits into an existing doorway, which opens to reveal another room behind it. Anyone have any plans or know how to find hinges, etc for this type of project ?

[pelligrini]

I haven't made one, but we've done plenty of them in the houses we design. The better made ones had several extremely stout hinges and a roller on the bottom. I'm not too much help on the particulars.

Some of the ones on this site are quite impressive. www.hiddenpassageway.com

I ran across this site once, http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_bas...case_Door.html it has some basic ideas and considerations.

[BobSch]

I helped a friend install one. He built the bookcase with a 3/4-inch back to minimize racking and used four heavy duty door hinges made for a metal door. If you go that way be sure to reinforce the frame on the hinged side to support everything, especially if you're going to fill the shelves with books!

[twistsol]

There was one in a model house we looked at a number of years ago. In a wall of bookcases, they had on 30" section that rolled out on the slides that they use for pantry cabinets. It seemed to be impractical and it was difficult to get into the room behind it.

I have done one and built two 24" bookcases which went between my office and the utility room at our old house. For each bookcase I used a 72" piano hinge on the side, a ball caster near but not exactly at the pivot point and two three inch fixed wheels. The two bookcases opened like french doors. On mine, you could see about a 1/4" space between the two bookcases and a gap at the bottom so the toekick wouldn't drag on the carpet. Just before we moved, I covered the gap between them with a fluted pice of maple. I could never think of what to do with the toekick so between that and the visible edge of the piano hinges, it was never completely hidden.

[ivwshane]

I don't know if this will help but the instructables website has a couple of instructables on it.

http://www.instructables.com/pages/s...&q=hidden+door