On Sat, 19 Jun 2004 10:58:41 -0700, charlie b
wrote:
Have been "commissioned" (read 'Dad, I've got a project "we"
can work on.") to build two record (yes, those round vinyl
things with the grooves in them) cabinets. The design
constraints a
[snip]
7. The Kicker - they have to be lockable - but they
can't have visble locks.
Started out wanting to do a pull down tambour door,
inspired by a recent article about a similar cabinet
in Woodworkers Journal or the like. But the tambour
door tracks took up too much precious space. Decided
on a tilt out front panel. The stumper was criteria
#7, a hidden "lock" mechanism.
After playing with ideas for hidden latches it hit me.
MAGNETS!
[snip]
Saw the drawing and it looks effective. FWIW ... there is hidden and there
is HIDDEN. The magnet idea is good, but how about making it completely
invisible? I've seen child-safety latches added to kitchen cabinets that
require a magnet to open and there is nothing seen on the outside. They do
come with a stick-on so you can see where the magnet needs to be held on
the cabinet door/drawer front, though when you hit the right spot a "click"
can be heard. It is a strong magnet. Here is a source that I quickly found
with a froogle search:
http://www.hofshomesafety.com/Cabinetbath.htm
You could try making a version of this yourself with a gravity-fed locking
pin and a sweet-spot for the magnet just above the latch-side of the door.
To reduce the magnetic requirements, you could drill a hole inside the
cabinet over where the ferrous pin would be so the wood would be thinner
there so that the head of the locking pin in the locked/down position would
not be so far from the outer surface of the cabinet.
For an electronic approach, one idea that just came to mind would be to use
a part from a doorbell. Maybe this part exists on its own somewhere, but I
am thinking that when you press the doorbell button, on a ding-dong
version, it causes a striker (i.e., a pin) to be pulled back and then when
you let go the pin springs forward. With a not-too-small battery you could
power this thing and build it with parts from the cheapest doorbell from
the local big-box store plus some parts from Radio Shack. ("Where you have
questions, we have answers, and the answers always are, 'Uhhh, I duuno.'")
If you can find the same kind of pin part separately at an electronics
source it might well require less amperage, which would simplify things.