Bi-fold wardrobe doors

[DTR]

Morning all,

I am currently building a built-in wardrobe in the spare bedroom. The door opening is roughly 4' wide. One half of the wardrobe hides a combi boiler, so I was reluctant to put a central muntin(?) in the opening in order to maximise the access should the boiler ever need to be replaced. I have however put a central partition inside the wardrobe that can be easily removed should the need arise.

I was thinking about putting in two sets of bi-fold doors, so each leaf of the doors will be approx 12" wide. I was going to make the doors as frame & panel, using tulip for the frame and 1/4" or 3/8" ply for the panels. I am reluctant to use a modern bi-fold sliding track etc as this seems to me like an over-complication for these relatively small doors. As each pair of doors will be less than the width of a standard interior door, can I not just hinge the doors together without using a hanging track? Obviously there would need to be some kind of device to stop the "floating" door from swinging aimlessly. That could be as simple as a dowel projecting from the top and and bottom of the door that is captured in a ploughed groove in the top and bottom of the frame.

If it hasn't come across yet, I'm not a fan of modern complicated hinges etc (apologies to any who take offense at this). So I guess what I'm asking is; how would Charles Haywood do it? :lol:

Thanks chaps and chapettes

 

[Woodchips2]

Hi Dave
I'm sure it will work fine. I've just fitted Magnet bi-fold doors of similar size and they join the doors with three 75mm flush hinges (the ones you don't need to recess. They use a pivot system and top track but a hinged system instead would look a lot neater. It's the way I would go next time.

Regards Keith

 

[DTR]

Thanks Keith

 

[AndyT]

I like your approach - I have most of Hayward's books. I think he would have used ordinary butt hinges, neatly let in, but flush hinges would be perfectly fine.

A couple more thoughts: a central muntin could be fixed from behind with screws at top and bottom and so be removed if needed. Small magnetic catches could tame the bifold doors into working like one piece doors most of the time.

PS . I see Lost Art Press are planning a big reissue of much of Hayward's work later this year.

http://blog.lostartpress.com/2014/04/17/upcoming-projects-at-lost-art-press/

 

[DTR]

Thanks Andy

I saw that blog post yesterday, I am certainly intrigued by the Haywood book. I have a collection of Woodworker magazines from the late 40s to the early 60s but I haven't got round to reading them yet.

I've been eagerly awaiting Furniture of Necessity for a while now too!

 

[DTR]

Morning all, apologies for the thread bump. Any more thoughts on this before I get started?

One idea that popped up was using a horizontal ball-bearing race instead of the dowel so it will roll inside the groove, rather than rub like a dowel would. I don't think this would be necessary though as the dowel is only there to capture the door, it doesn't take any load.

 

[MMUK]

Would a continuous piano hinge look better to join the two sashes together, rather than 3 butt hinges?

 

[DTR]

Certainly not! [-X

 

[RobinBHM]

Bifolding one door off another works fine, esp when only 12inches wide.

If you aim to keep the most frequently used stuff in the middle of the robe, the middle pair of doors will act conveniently as French doors. The doors they are hinged off act as jambs.

Both sets of hinges will have their knuckles facing the outside. It helps if you make the centre pair narrower than the outer pair and use flush handles, that way you can open a centre door 180 degrees back onto an outer door and open that to 90 degrees plus without fouling. Strong magnetic catches will hold the outer set in place and could act as the stop as well.