Need a hinge guru....
 

Lol I know this sounds strange - but....

I want to make 4 sides (about 15" tall) to my 16x7' trailer, which
currently has a 6" steel side wall. I want it to carry mulch and
driveway rock gravel.

So, what I really want is a single hinged rectangle that folds up to
16' max, with one corner only to join together to fix it in place. I
can get three sides to fold in on each other flat, but I can't work out
how to do the last side. Need some special type of hinge or something,
I am not sure.

All help welcomed!

Thanks

Dean

wrote in message
oups.com...

I want to make 4 sides (about 15" tall) to my 16x7' trailer, which
currently has a 6" steel side wall. I want it to carry mulch and
driveway rock gravel.

So, what I really want is a single hinged rectangle that folds up to
16' max, with one corner only to join together to fix it in place. I
can get three sides to fold in on each other flat, but I can't work out
how to do the last side. Need some special type of hinge or something,
I am not sure.

Dean...

One way might be to make 8 panels: four 3'6" wide and four 8'0" wide. I'll
post a drawing to alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking to show hinge scheme. If
you use hinges with removable pins you can store it as a 16' flat assembly
or two 8' flat assemblies.

Be wary of overloading your trailer and/or tow vehicle with the gravel.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
www.iedu.com/DeSoto/solar.html

What you need is a special type of hinge that folds both ways, called a
double-acting hinge. Imagine a Jacob's ladder toy, except of steel.
This type of hinge has two sets of overlapping leaves, and can be
folded completely back on itself in either direction. This would let
the sides fold back and forth in a zigzag pattern. Like this, except
bigger: http://www.guden.com/display.asp?name=BIF

These are the ones you commonly see in restaraunts between the kitchen
and the dining area, where they have the doors that you push open and
they swing close, back and forth until they stop. In fact, the spring
type might be useful for keeping the sides closed until needed, rather
than flapping open. Hope this info helps.

McMaster Carr

--

Rumpty

Radial Arm Saw Forum: http://forums.delphiforums.com/woodbutcher/start

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wrote in message
oups.com...
Lol I know this sounds strange - but....

I want to make 4 sides (about 15" tall) to my 16x7' trailer, which
currently has a 6" steel side wall. I want it to carry mulch and
driveway rock gravel.

So, what I really want is a single hinged rectangle that folds up to
16' max, with one corner only to join together to fix it in place. I
can get three sides to fold in on each other flat, but I can't work out
how to do the last side. Need some special type of hinge or something,
I am not sure.

All help welcomed!

Thanks

Dean

ww88 - thanks for the hinge info. I'll look into it. But I think that
Morris is right, I don't think there is any way to get it to fold up to
16' long with two 16' uncut lengths.

At least, not with my logic anyway

Dean

It should work, because the pieces fold back and forth in a zigzag
patter, 8'-16'-8'-16' sections

"woodworker88" wrote in message
oups.com...
It should work, because the pieces fold back and forth in a zigzag
patter, 8'-16'-8'-16' sections


Smallest zigzag would be 24'

Best solution is segments no larger than 8' - with the right hinges it would
zigzag to 8' and be six segments thick.


V

In article .com,
wrote:
ww88 - thanks for the hinge info. I'll look into it. But I think that
Morris is right, I don't think there is any way to get it to fold up to
16' long with two 16' uncut lengths.

At least, not with my logic anyway

Dean


_Of_course_ there is a way to do it.

Think about how a paper-bag folds flat. where the short sides 'V' in, and
the long sides just collapse against each other.

Apply the same logic to your project.

1) lay in the two long sides, as single pieces.
2) make the short sides, so that they butt up against the long sides.
3) Now, _cut_them_in_half_, and put flat 'butt' hinges on the *outside* of
that cut-line.
4) lastly, put the short sides in between the long sides, mark the _inside_
corners of those joints for hinges, and install those hinges.

Robert - That's it! Great solution! I can put an external plank on each
of the shorter sides to hold them out flat, ye-oldy-castle-door style!

Thanks

Dean

In article .com,
wrote:
Robert - That's it! Great solution!

Almost painfully obvious, once it's been pointed out, isn't it? grin

I can put an external plank on each
of the shorter sides to hold them out flat, ye-oldy-castle-door style!

One caution on that, the supports for the castle-door 'bar' have to be
on the _long_ pieces, in order for it to fold up 'flat'.

Or, depending on how much time you're willing to allow for install/remove,
you could run carriage bolts (head on the _inside_ of the container) out
through the reinforcing bars.