Armoire with Hidden Drawer Mechanism

That is some great engineering and even without that feat, it is an awesome piece of woodworking! Top notch!!

-- -=Den

Extremely cool!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Brilliant!
Now we know where it is!
Laugh.
It’s not exactly secret now!
Well done, I also love these…
Best thoughts,
MaFe

-- Mad F, the fanatical rhykenologist and vintage architect. Democraticwoodworking.

This is extremely nice work. I think the hidden drawer is quite well done and the overall piece is excellent looking.

-- Chris K in Georgia

That’s a great idea. Very creative and well done.

-- Rod -Cincinnati, Ohio

That’s very cool! You have the same problem I do: when you make secret compartments, you tell people about them, and then they aren’t secret anymore!

-- http://www.peteroxley.com -- http://north40studios.etsy.com --

Very clever.
Thanks for posting the close up of the Mechanism.

-- Scott Smith, Southern Illinois

Mike,

That’s quite the engineering feat! A wonderful armoire; great-looking piece of furniture. Thanks for sharing.

L/W

-- Jesus is the ONLY reason for ANY season.

I spent about 30 hours trying to make something that would latch the hidden drawer. I wasted a lot of time trying to find some purchased lock system. Ultimately what worked was completly homebrew.

I built a mock-up of the whole thing to be sure I could make it work. I was so unsure it wouldn’t work that I even built standard drawers for the top locations. I go in these drawers every day and after 3-4 years they still work and have never released without pushing the release buttons.

Waxing the surfaces was the key to make it all work. The only downide is the drawers are slightly heavy. But they are big drawers so it’s difficult to perceive.

RSLater,

RSmike

-- Mike

Great minds must think a lot. You did a beautiful job on this piece. Very impressive hidden compartment. I have always loved hidden compartments. Take a look at the dresser I made for my granddaughter. The hidden compartment is opened by a fairy house. Let me know what you think. This one has to go in my favorites. Thanks for sharing.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Brilliant! Thanks for showing the details.

-- Jason - Colorado Springs

That is a VERY cool design, within a beautiful piece of furniture.

I know … in the 20’s … people didn’t really have “wardrobes,” so … I get why there wasn’t a lot of lineal feet of closet space, but … the darned things are so shallow that you can’t put a six-pack inside them !

We loved our 19-teen’s craftsman house, but … you had to love it to live with the day-to-day tradeoffs that it presented.

Really nice work. Thanks for sharing !

-- -- Neil

A fifth laying down will fit. :)

I will add that my house has zero closets and the tinest bedrooms. To your point, people “back then” didn’t have ten pairs of pants and month of socks, so closets weren’t so necessary. Were people tiny back in the 20’s? ;)

RSLater,
RSmike

-- Mike