Making Sliding Doors
Sliding doors can offer many advantages in your woodworking. For a start, not having to fit hinges saves time and expense, and you can also save space if there’s no room for hung doors to swing open. Sliding doors can also add a point of difference and can be made without special equipment.
Doors that slide are common in Japanese design. A few years back I had the privilege of a private tour, including the residence, of the Nakashima Estate in New Hope, Pennsylvania. I was amazed at the simple yet ingenious ways that sliding doors provided storage solutions or concealed certain areas.
I often use sliding doors for some or all of these reasons. Here I’ll show you some of the techniques I use to build them into smaller-scale work such as the console table shown above in photo 1. There are commercial hardware products available for larger work such as built-ins, but I won’t discuss those here.
Anatomy and design
The doors
Sliding doors must be designed with minimal mass in mind to avoid excessive friction. Your choice of species,
