One for the woodworkers!  

Interesting approach
Nicely done and well-constructed replies, too. Congratulations. Thanks for sharing.
It will be interesting to watch your cabinet evolve over time as the door panels find equilibrium and the maple darkens. I noticed that you alternated the annular ring orientation. Maybe that will help. The brass on nylon bearing surfaces should preclude most binding, even assuming some seasonal movement.
Those corded Milwaukees are worth their weight sometimes, no?

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Very nice Stephen.
Doesn't need pull hardware.
I'm making a flexible room divider with a similar layout.
It needs to fold like a pleated curtain.

If you had run a length of...
If you had run a length of threaded rod through from top to bottom with a flush cap nut at one end and an allen nut at the bottom might they not then have been adjustable?
Hungover so please excuse any stupidity if I'm wrong on that.
Rockland, this is my Aalto ish screen, 1/2" thick hardwood, Looks much better than it photographs. Stainless 3mm cable (3 lsngths) with stubs of thread soldered onto the ends and tiny nuts to tighten it, if you are doing something like that gaps to let some light in are an easy option, just need more cable, if you have a heap of hand drilling to do I'd suggest making a jig made with a steel bush.
Or are you doing something like an Eileen Grey screen?

We made a copy
of the Eileen Gray screen for a client, a few years ago. Fun job -- I had to "reverse engineer" it from available photos. Worked out all right. Heavy in painted MDF !
Thanks for all the kudos. I appreciate it. I am concerned about wood movement with so much solid stock stacked up -- one of the panels grew by less than a 1/16" and curved a bit, after I accidentally exposed one face of it to the dampish basement atmosphere for a week (!). Otherwise they haven't moved -- yet -- and now that they're coated (three coats, acrylic and polyurethane) I might be out of the woods. But bathrooms do get steamy . . . I'm going to measure it again after a month of use. The panels are hung is such a way that they can grow or shrink without pulling themselves apart -- and since side panels and doors would move to the same degree, I don't expect binding.
But the hinging method is inherently lacking in adjustability -- like any leaf hinge, really. The only way to move the doors in any direction is to move the panels they're attached to. As it was, they installed pretty easily. I gave the doors roller/spring catches at the top, and (anticipating possible twist) made a pair of projecting dowels at the bottom, to help regulate the planarity of the pair of doors when closed. But I didn't have to install them, and the affair looks cleaner without them. Now to decide what if anything to do about the pair of 1/2" holes in the bottom rail of the face frame . . . !

I'm waiting
for Arthur to submit drawings of his proposed project, so we can tear it to shreds -- (I mean) thoughtfully assess its various aspects.
Anything on paper yet, AS ?

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Or if Arthur could post a photo of something similar?
Often the basic desire comes from something that is already
out there. Many here can help!
We are always making something. But i have a very large shop
and every tool and talent nearby to pull it off.
I'll do a mock-up of the screen. It will hang from a track system.
Just fussing and killing time, we are making music today...
using scrap stuff.

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Can you describe how you made the Grey screen?
Sounds like trouble SDR, I suppose I'm getting pretty conservative, I'd rather stand on tradition these days and be more assured of success.
Yes Arthur lets see some ideas, Rocklands project sounds cool too, was talking to my old man a while ago about an adjustable wooden 'venetian blind' louvre system where when you turn one strip by hand they all turn....maybe one day.

Isn't that how the
traditional shutter louvers work -- each one stapled to a single vertical stick ?
What trouble, Heath ? The Gray screen ? My piece ?
The screen calls for panels that have additional thickness in the center -- two plates added to the principal one, on each rectangle, all the edges rounded over (radiused, we call it). I don't recall how we made the hole for the steel rods -- perhaps by making the main panel of two halves glued together, enclosing two dados to make a single bore.

A wooden tabletop,
and a folding screen. Have fun with wood !

yes you're right, I think it...
yes you're right, I think it was more to do away with the ugly handle on the horizontal louvres popular here and how to cut a series of accurate square holes in a strip of steel.
I like the last screen, maybe changed to hinge more like your cabinet doors? The sort of hinges most people use on screens are really unsightly.
If somone had asked me about the Grey screen and how to do it I would have said each brick was a lamination with the inner two having a slot routed down and lined up before gluing, is that what you're saying? Yes of course it is, just woke up sorry, wouldn't it have been better, at least lighter in a solid softwood or birch ply or something?

Yes, yes,
and yes. Not sure I know about the strip of steel with square holes . . .
The reason for using a homogenous material like MDF has to do with the edges and their ability to take a painted finish uniformly. Plywood would be considerably lighter. The only way to put a rounded-over edge on it would be to edge each piece of plywood with solid material and rout that to a radiused edge -- and the joint between solid and plywood would still telegraph through the paint, sooner or later.
It's a conundrum. There's light-weight MDF, but it's too soft for most furniture applications.
We need a cellular plastic substitute for wood. Then we can save the best wood for the best uses. Makers of exterior products like deck railing systems, etc, are leading the way there.

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Shaping Modernity: Design 1880?1980
December 23, 2009?ongoing
This lacquered wood screen is composed of several horizontal rows of panels joined by thin vertical metal rods. It functions not only as a movable wall that demarcates space but also as a sculpture composed of solids and voids, ...
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A...

That one doesn't have raised ...
That one doesn't have raised panels, I prefer it, a checquered version?
Not sure about the edges of mdf taking a good finish, always been a bit nasty in my experience, grooved and laminated good pine or beech with a finish cut blade on the saw would be finer in my opinion. Its a fairly simple thing really, less work than the Aalto screen.
Yeah theres a lot coming technologically, its taking a while though, where is this adhesive based on how clams attach themselves to rocks?

Tear my dreams apart SDR
I posted the thread to have my deflated enthusiasm gently inflated with wise words of wisdom from the yoda like woodworkers on this forum... I guess I should have expected everyone to want a car crash!
Anyway here is a floating shelf I made for the house which was the idea for the larger unit. Tear away:) ( I hate these bloody smiley faces but it seems the only to convey sarcasm or humour)

Hmm --
the "Eileen Gray screen" we built had raised panels which are apparently not the original design. My bad.
We don't have much plywood in this country with a finishable edge -- though "Apple Ply" is better than the usual stuff, I guess. But those plies are always going to be visible -- and not bad, if you accept the look. MDF needs to be "sized" with glue before the edge will take a high finish like the face. No plywood has as uniform a surface as that stuff. . .yet.
I like that piece, Arthur. How is it held to the wall ? Speaking of smiley faces, is the curve in the shelves intentional ? I admire the design. So, you would want the outside corners of such a piece, in wood, to be mitered ? That's not hard -- if you have the saw to make the miters easily and accurately. A sliding table saw (the Martin is nice) is the Rolls Royce way to do it . . .