radionightster

Hi guys,

I've been teaching myself woodworking by trying to make furniture. I really love the mid-century modern style furniture and I've been trying to duplicate some of the pieces while adding my own flair to them. Boy I've spent some money on tools! I think I'm going to break down today and get a table saw finally!

I'm curious the best way to make these sliding doors in furniture. It *looks* like he just used a dado to run two grooves on the bottom/top panel to let the doors slide in. What do you think about that? Also what would you use for the doors themselves? I've seen some thin, stiff material at the hardware store that I could use, but it seems pretty rigged.

Also, how would you put those doors in? Would you assemble the box part of the furniture, and then kind of "bend" the doors to get them in the tracks?

And lastly :) :), what color stain would you think that is?

Thank you guys for any input!

RN

Attached Thumbnails

 

woodnthings

Most sliding doors, the bypassing type, have 2 grooves top and bottom, the top being more deep than the bottom to allow for an up and over method to insert them. The top depth must be at least 1/8" or so deeper than the bottom, to allow for material thickness swing. My suggestion if they are wood in wood tracks, is to laminate a formica or other smooth hard material strip on the bottom edge of the door for a "friction free" slide and to reduce wear on the wood. Wood to wood will work, but it should be waxed occaisonally to prevent "stiction" I have used black plexiglass for sliding doors, but it's a pain to cut without a special blade on the TS, or use a bandsaw and polish the edges, another PITA. Lexan is great but pricey. Any built up type lamination of disimiliar materials is a warp waiting to happen if you only glue on one side. Veneered pywood like birch would stain black well to maintain the Style you like. bill

__________________
Never stand directly in front of a horse or tablesaw that's running!
If you're not making dust, you're gathering it. After I reread my own posts, I agree with myself even more.

cabinetman

There's a few ways to do sliding by-pass doors. Of course the basic method is to make a double dado in the floor and top to guide the doors. There's a lot of friction there, and the best dust collector.

An easy method would be to use this type of guide system, where the lower guide just fits into a saw kerf.

Another type that I use quite often that offers height (and alignment) capabilities is this one.