Backyard Birds – Part 34

I had already designed an opening mechanism for my cabinet door, but I couldn’t fully implement it until the door was hinged and could close all the way. Now that that was done, I could finally install the opening mechanism and try it out.

This is what the mechanism looked like from the inside of cabinet.

Here’s a video from the outside of the opening mechanism at work.

And here’s a video from the inside of the cabinet.

I wanted the trompe-l'œil book to pop back outward after pressing it, so that it would be flush with the front of the cabinet. So I designed a mechanism that would push the book back in place.

The mechanism was comprised of a cherry dowel and a spring, embedded in a block of wood that would be screwed to the inside of the cabinet behind the book.

This is what the mechanism looked like from the inside, along with a ball catch that I added to hold the door closed.

Here’s a video from the outside, showing the opening mechanism combined with the spring mechanism,

And here’s a video from the inside.