[Hendu3270]

Need some additional brain storming from guys in the know...

A friend of my wife, has a daughter who is pregnant. She is paralized from the waste down and when they started looking for a crib, that had wheelchair access, found they were pretty much on their own. They've asked if I could modify a crib to allow her to roll up under the crib, and then be able to access the crib through a door of some sort. I've looked over the net and found a handful of sites that have photos of what others have done and I've decided to create bifold doors out of the existing front of the crib. I'll cut it down, install hinges, etc. The crib they've chosen has a front panel fashioned with the main frame, and then vertical "rungs" for baby to see out of, etc. What I'm struggling getting my head wrapped around is, the sliding mechanism. Everything I'm seeing online seems waaay too big for this application. I could pretty easily route a groove in the top horizontal support, and route the same groove in the bottom support, then intall a track that pins could slip into from the top and bottom of the doors to slide in. I'm thinking, however, that this setup would bind and not open smoothly. So now I'm thinking I will need the top to have rollers some how. Whatever I end up doing has to be secure, obviously, and also not "huge" and clunky and within reach of the little one. Any thoughts of what might work for this application?

 

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How about some T-Track installed on the underside of the front crib railing beam. You could rout a dado into it so that the T-Track remains unseen from the front. Then you could remove the stiles, cut them down a little in length (the same length that the stiles were cut), attach a new beam that would hinge in the middle. Then have a bolt with a nylon roller guide on the end of the new beam that would fit in the T-Track. The bolt with the nylon roller would roll in the T-Track and the stile assembly would accordian to one side. You could do the same with the bottom in regards to the T-Track and roller system.

I hope that I'm making sense. But it seems like a bulletproof idea to me. You could then install a latch at the operating end (the same end as the nylon roller) to latch it to the post of the crib so that it cannot be pushed open by the baby.

To get the nylon roller into the T-Track you could have the T-Track stop short on the side opposite the latch so that you could fully hinge the door and slide the nylon roller into the T-Track, then once the roller is in you could install a screw into the end of the T-Track by the opening so that the roller hits it and doesn't exit the T-Track.

 

[Hendu3270]

How about some T-Track installed on the underside of the front crib railing beam. You could rout a dado into it so that the T-Track remains unseen from the front. Then you could remove the stiles, cut them down a little in length (the same length that the stiles were cut), attach a new beam that would hinge in the middle. Then have a bolt with a nylon roller guide on the end of the new beam that would fit in the T-Track. The bolt with the nylon roller would roll in the T-Track and the stile assembly would accordian to one side. You could do the same with the bottom in regards to the T-Track and roller system.

I hope that I'm making sense. But it seems like a bulletproof idea to me. You could then install a latch at the operating end (the same end as the nylon roller) to latch it to the post of the crib so that it cannot be pushed open by the baby.

To get the nylon roller into the T-Track you could have the T-Track stop short on the side opposite the latch so that you could fully hinge the door and slide the nylon roller into the T-Track, then once the roller is in you could install a screw into the end of the T-Track by the opening so that the roller hits it and doesn't exit the T-Track.

Alright Luke, After reading your post about 15 times I finally have my head wrapped around the idea. (I was watching the new episode of Duck Dynasty so I wasn't as focused as I could have been). I like the T-track idea and it would definitely not be a bunch of large hardware hanging everywhere. I see Rockler has T-track but I don't see any rollers for it. I believe T-track isn't actually designed for this purpose so I'm wondering if rollers are even made for T-track like this. I've only seen the t-nuts for it. Do rollers exist for it?