Raising a 25lb monitor on a cabinet door

[Roger Feeley]

I have a Dell 30" Ultra Sharp Monitor that I used in my daily work (actually, I have two). I work out of my home in a spare bedroom where I built a corner desk. There is a great deal of waste space behind that monitor. Distance from the back of the monitor to the corner of the room is about 32".

It just occurred to me that, if I could just figure out a way to raise the monitor up out of the way, I could have a cabinet back there for my wireless router, cable modem and other electronic gizmos.

I envision a cabinet where the monitor is the door and the monitor swings up while staying vertical like THIS

Building the cabinet is no big deal but the weight of the door with attached monitor is a very big deal. I'm not finding any hardwre rated for over 12 pounds. The other big deal is that the monitor is 18" high.

I could make the monitor swing out like a regular cabinet door but I would prefer that it raise up.
Any suggestions?

[Michael Wildt]

Blum has what you need from what I can tell.

http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/10/30/

Download their brochure and read the weight to power conversion. A 25 lb weight should be easy to do. I didn't check on the height it could open though. You may need to have a 'door' per monitor.

[Jamie Buxton]

There's also a whole class of products generally called TV lifts. They're motorized devices intended to lift a flat screen out of an enclosure, or slide it up a wall. They'd surely be able to handle a 30" flat screen. Auton is one manufacturer (http://www.auton.com/), but there are many others.

A different approach would be to put a hinge across the top of the monitor (well, okay, on the wood panel the monitor is fastened to). The monitor is horizontal when the door is open.

[Justin Ludwig]

Blum has what you need from what I can tell.

http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/10/30/

Download their brochure and read the weight to power conversion. A 25 lb weight should be easy to do. I didn't check on the height it could open though. You may need to have a 'door' per monitor.

The Aventos are nice, but it will definitely sting the wallet, especially for a simple application like this.

Have you thought about hinging it to flip up horizontally and installing a locking device? The storage behind the monitor (IMO) is for rarely accessed items. I'd just make sure the locking device isn't easily "unlocked" by bumping in the event you're replacing routers/modems or digging around back there.

[Steve Baumgartner]

Blum has what you need from what I can tell.

http://www.blum.com/us/en/01/10/30/

Download their brochure and read the weight to power conversion. A 25 lb weight should be easy to do. I didn't check on the height it could open though. You may need to have a 'door' per monitor.

I've used Blum Aventos in some overhead kitchen cabinets, with good results. Sized and adjusted properly, I think they ought to be able to handle your load (I didn't fetch and re-read the literature, though). The door is spring counterbalanced, so it opens with very little force. The spring strength is easily adjustable. Then it closes with the typical Blum gentle "sigh".

There are little plastic stops you put into the mechanism to control the maximum angle that the door opens. As I recall, you could go from 110 degree "over-opened" down to something like 75 degree "under opened" in a couple of steps.

The main downside is that these things are expensive.

[Michael Wildt]

The main downside is that these things are expensive.

I didn't check for any pricing, so you & Lud are most likely correct. Nice solutions are seldom cheap. Now for cheap just use a piano hinge for the door and then a 2x4 (constructed as a frame that tilts out to hold the 'door'. Mounted with bolts in the bottom of the frame to the side of the cabinet so it the top of the frame can pivot outward) to hold the monitor/door when open. Frame sits inside the cabinet just behind the door. A couple of dowels could be used as stops so it didn't cause an unnecessary close of the monitor/door.

[Justin Ludwig]

A homeowner was wanting some of her doors to open with Aventos. That is until I told her the price. She changed her mind quickly. $120 a pair if I remember correctly. I had my supplier quote me a price over the phone almost half a year ago, so I could wrong. My listening memory is 25% as good as my reading.

[Jay Radke]

why not mount it on the wall with a flat screen TV mount. you should be able to find some that can swing. store flat against the wall then swing into place when working. to me that would be the much easier solution.

[Roger Feeley]

thanks to all for the great suggestions. I'm leaning towards home brewing something with gas springs from ebay somewhere.