Doors, doors, doors…
Fitting the bifold doors has taken a fair while. Small adjustments were required to the frames of the doors respective of the carcase opening, as well as adjustments along the doors stiles to create suitable gaps between the leaves.
Here I’m giving my Genmyō plane a workout on one of the inner stiles:
After adjusting the inner stiles of each pair of bifolds, I set them up together with a slight space between stiles, shimmed with 0.01″ gages, and then mortised for the three hinges using a router and small pattern bit followed by chisel work:
These are 1.5″x2″ Brusso hinges, which are good quality however they come with rather tiny #4 brass screws. They provide a steel screw to pre-thread the holes, however in bubinga, even the steel screws are a tightrope walk in terms of fitting them without breakage, never mind the brass screws, which combine material weakness with a cursed Phillips head. Breaking screws off in hinge holes is a territory I prefer to avoid, having visited previously I will say it can not be recommended as a destination resort.
I dump the screws that come with the hinges and go for stronger #6 screws with a Robertson head. These require that the countersinks in the hinges be enlarged slightly, however for trial fitting purposes, a single screw on each side, although protruding, will suffice so long as I do not fold the doors completely up to one another:
I patinated the hinges using a gun bluing chemical.
At last the bifold arrangement can be mounted on the cabinet:
At this juncture the fit is a hair tight, as intended, between the pairs where they meet in the middle. I will make further adjustments of course until the operation is as it should be.
A view with the doors open a bit:
The green tape on the right set is to aid in opening the doors when together.
Another view:
A closer look at the exposed surfaces of the inner stiles and hinge pivots:
Because bifold doors can be put together by swinging and sliding movements, or a combination, I will need to consider carefully how best to deal with the junction between doors in the middle, along with how the doors will latch into position. I’ve been mulling this matter over for months now, so I do have some ideas and there are various hardware options.
All for this round. Hope you enjoyed the visit! Ready for more? Post 94 follows.
Those #4 screws are the bane of my existence recently.
For the patinating you can buff it out a bit if you would like it more evenly black.
I'm watching with great interest of course, these doors are really incredible.
Brian,
thanks so much for your comment. I am not quite finished on patinating those hinges, and wanted to do an install first to see if they were the right choice before putting more time into them. I'll investigate your suggestion to try a little buffing to see how that works. Was wondering if a little wax application might be worth a look too…
~C
They are nice and dark so I think it's coming along pretty well. Haven't tried wax but I think that'll look nice and probably darker still.