Bi Fold hinges

[stuartpaul]

After much discussion and debate my wife and I have 'agreed' on the following design (I've got to clean my blood out of the carpet later!).



There's going to be a central divider with glass shelves in both sides.

She's now decided that the doors should be bi fold but I'm worried about the weight of glass doors that are nearly 1140 high and 315 wide. I've also struggled to find suitable hinges that would do the job. Do I need to consider a runner system to deal with the weight?

I thought about 'reversing' ordinary butt hinges but not sure this will work?

Also, - what sort of span will glass deal with? I'm more than happy to use thicker, toughened glass if I have to. Will it do the full 1200 width which would remove the central divider?

Any thoughts or pointers appreciated.

Please, - no comments on the design. My medical insurance won't take any more! :roll:

 

[9fingers]

4mm glass in the doors will weigh less than say 18mm mdf so with your proposed width, I can't see a problem there.

6mm toughened glass supported at 1/4 and 3/4 along the length should be fine but if you must support from the ends alone, tot up the weight you need to support and consult your glazier to be sure. Not sure if the 'Sagulator' tool covers glass shelves. Google it and see.

Why wouldn't standard hinges work for bi-fold doors?? 3 or 4 per leaf should be fine. Or maybe look at Soss type for a bit more 'interest' when the doors are open. Or maybe consider Soss ones set in the inside faces of the inner bifold pivots - there will be no visible hinge when open.

Outer hinges with a built in spring mechanism will help keep the bi-folds closed in a nice straight line - might be worth making some dummy doors to evaluate hinges before cutting into the real doors. Nothing worse to my mind having reflective glass doors in-line that don't show a true reflection because they are not in the same plane.
Also consider bevelled glass- looks very classy IMHO.

Don't forget the WIP pictures....

hth

Bob

 

[petermillard]

FWIW 4mm glass weighs about 10 kilos/sq metre, 6mm ~15 kilos/sq m - about thre same as 18mm MDF. Agree with 9fingers, no reason why standard hinges won't work - I've used them myself on a set of mirrored tri-fold doors that were 30-odd kilos a side.

HTH Pete

 

[gardenshed]

IMHO, i'd go for a bifold hanger system, that way you can if you want you can sling the whole lot on one side and create a full width opening or you could lock say 3 doors and have a normal door opening for everday use. Much more versatile................

 

[stuartpaul]

Thanks for the thoughts.

A look at soss hinges and the overall cost has made for a radical change in design.

It's now going to be more modern with glass doors on top (not hugely more expensive when considering the cost of bevelled glass in wood frame doors, - might actually be cheaper) and glass door hinges are relatively cheap.

I'll post the latest design when I have access to my desktop.

Found a site (locksonline.com) that I hadn't come across before with some useful hinges.