I've read most of the archived cabinet gas/spring strut postings the past few days till frankly I'm tired of it all. However, we're in need of a bunch of the darn things. So before we order 20 of them I thought it worth the effort to see if anyone on the forum has found or heard of a suitable alternative which would last longer than the struts? (other than a piece of wood!) There just seems to be a better way to accomplish this function...possibly w/ a locking hinge or an extenable drawer bracket?
Any ideas?
On sailboats they use a spring to hold up deck hatches. To drop the hatch, you "fail" the spring column, and it folds to allow the hatch to drop.
Not sure they are any less expensive than new struts. Try West Marine:
WEST MARINE Hatch Arms at West Marine (http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=14243&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&storeId=11151&storeNum=50667&subdeptNum=50680&classNum=50683#.UhLX6qziQ1I)
Those aren't any cheaper than the struts from FOT. We got ours on sale for under $10. My buddy has the ones shown in the picture that are spring operated. They were on his when he bought it and we don't know where to get them.
Rich
No, but they would last forever.
I worked on a yacht that had one of those springs for the engine room hatch. I learned to hate it after it would collapse on your hand. Just the slightest tap of it and the spring bends out allowing the door to fall. Now maybe the cabinet doors are light enough to not matter. On the yacht we replace the spring with a gas strut.
Here are some other alternatives but I think the gas struts are the nicest for the user: McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/#furniture-brackets/=o5bbss)
I bought some last year from Encore and while I don't remember the price, it sure didn't get me too worked up so it couldn't have been too much. They were running some sort of "sale" back then and I bought some spares.
I agree with John, as I to have experience (mostly bad) with the spring type openers on boats.
They are sensitive to springing shut at the slightest touch and when you want to close them, you have to manually "break"/bend it/them.
I would recommend sticking with the struts.
Brett
I just purchased a batch of gas struts from Foretravel this morning. They are currently on sale for $9.95 with an additional 10% off for Motorcade members.
Ken Bowman
Bill,
I believe you are thinking of something like this.
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=425&rrt=1 (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=425&rrt=1)
Looks like it might work in the opposite direction than shown as would be required for the overhead doors.
Good luck,