secret drawer hardware experiences?
Not asking for pictures of your stash of contraband.
I have an end table or bedside table on its way through the shop now. I want to use one of the aprons as a secret drawer front.
Let us say at ground level outside the second floor master bedroom window is a raised garden bed where my life likes to grow leaf lettuce, and neighborhood felines like to use that area as a latrine. I have at my bedside a water pistol that shoots streams of water to encourage neighborhood cats to do their business elsewhere. So I want to put a concealed drawer in my new nightstand, and in the future, I would like to store my (rifle length) super soaker water gun, again for the neighborhood cats' harmless motivation, in what might be called a tactical coffee table.
There is a snag. My wife and I are both bibliophiles. If I were to line up all my cookbooks down the hall from the living room towards the bedrooms like an extra long book shelf, I probably have 40 feet of cookbooks in the house right now today, and I am the recently downsized lightweight compared to her. We got books everywhere. Stacks of them. I really need hidden drawers, not liftable tops or drop down compartments. Taking the time to clear off a table top, or the shelf under a table top, to reach a hidden compartment will allow the neighborhood miscreants to both finish their business and get to yowling about having done it before I wrap my palm around cheesy leaky plastic.
It seems pretty straight forward to sink a rabbet into the front legs, and the corresponding area of the table top to fit some angle iron in there to replace having tenons on the front apron fit into the front legs. I can see setting the top up so all the seasonal wood movement goes to the back, and I am going to lose some longevity on the finished item because of seasonal wood movement versus fixed metal.
What I don't see is how to latch the drawer shut so it stays shut. Decades ago I worked for a small startup with a cash drawer. The vast majority of our business was electronic, but we had a petty cash drawer with 4 finger pads underneath. When I put my palm and thumb on the drawer front, remaining fingertips 1:1 with the four pads, I could flex my pinkie, ring finger and index finger (not middle finger) hear a slight click, and slide the drawer open. When closed, the drawer would auto lock shut and latched. These aren't a thing anymore, I have been watching my local CL for a bit and have looked on amazon.
Do you know of a system that might meet my needs?
Thanks
