Hi experts!
I am building a display cabinet that will have glass doors. I don’t like the idea of plastic or metal parts that rattle and make unfriendly noises as the doors are open and closed…like the sliding glass doors on most commercial display cases we see in stores.
So, if I have the top and bottom edges of the glass “pencil” polished, do you think they will slide easily enough in dadoes routed in the case? The case is 40 inches wide and 30 inches tall. Hence each sliding door is about 20 inches wide with a height of about 30 inches. Since children are around, I was planning to use tempered glass, one-quarter inch thick. I googled to find a place that stated 1/4 thick glass weighed about 3lb per square foot, which would put the weight of each door at about 12 lbs.
The thought was that with the pencil polished edge, which would be convex, only a narrow portion at the center of the glass door would be running at the bottom of the dado…I thought I would simply wax the dadoes?
Do you think 1/4 inch tempered glass is the right way to go? Shelves will also be glass.
Any thoughts?
Replies
The 1/4-in tempered glass doors in the 60-in-wide by 60-in-high wenge case in the attached photos are on Hafele's "Labora" tracks and fittings. They glide relatively quietly and effortlessly on bottom mounted wheels and open tracks on the top. I think the advantage to separate tracks is the ease of installation and that the tracks can support considerable weight while requiring a light touch to move the doors.
Wood might work, but proven, existing systems appeal to me.
Gary W
gwwoodworking.com
If the glass doors were only opened infrequently, perhaps once or twice a week, having them slide in a wood track would be a workable solution, but I wouldn't use wood tracks in a cabinet that would be opened more frequently.
Doors of that size will slide on a waxed hardwood track but it will take a more force than most people would consider acceptable, they might occasionally stick, and over time the track will wear and get dirt in the grooves, both of which will make it even harder to slide the doors open.
So if it is a display cabinet that only you would open occasionally, then wood tracks are worth trying, but if it is a kitchen or media center cabinet, that everyone in the family will be using repeatedly every day, then you should plan to use a track system.
Unless the doors are in a location where they would be likely to be struck, like a kids room or an active public area in a store or office lobby, I think that 1/4 inch thick tempered glass will be adequate, but I would check with a glass shop to get their opinion on this.
John White
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