Bi Folding doors...

[pawnhead]

I made my own bifolds. Six leaves with a total opening of 4.6 metres wide X 2.5 metres high plus two windows. I designed the track system myself as well, using a pair of old carriages that I had, and a piece of appropriate sized channel from Lysaughts. The track itself cost about $50, and the whole lot, doors, frame, glazing, seals, furniture,(handles, locks etc.) plus two windows cost around $1500. I'm sure that if I didn't already have the carriages that I could have made them myself out of some plate metal and bearings for less than about $50. Of course there'd be a bit of work involved.
Unlike your normal bifolds that only open up to 90 degrees, mine fold right back (180 degrees) flat against the outside wall.

You can buy glazed leaves from doors plus pretty cheap if you don't want to make your own doors ( I wanted 2.5 high doors, so a standard height wasn't a good option for me), and a track from Centaur ( I was surprised at how much they cost) if you don't want to stuff around making your own.

There's a thread of mine on it here;
https://www.woodworkforums.com/showth...ghlight=bifold
and lots of pictures illustrating it in this post from the thread;
https://www.woodworkforums.com/showpo...3&postcount=26
and this post;
https://www.woodworkforums.com/showpo...4&postcount=27

And I gave some advice on the subject to someone here;
https://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=43764

[BigCal]

Cheers Pawnhead, I actually stumbled accross your threads yesterday in my searches had a quick read and book marked them for future reference... From the pics your posted it looks like you did an excellent job!!

Our bunnies at the moment has glazed leaves for $129 so thats pretty cheap, it'd just be a matter of getting the hardware and the know how after that... plenty of time to work that out tho...

[JDarvall]

How many boxes of beer does it take for a few to be lost out the back door?... only kiddin of course...

If I go down the path of making them myself I will have to take everything into consideration, this will def be a 2009 project thats why im starting my research now, i like to feel knowledgeable before starting something... then i usually find once i start im not half as knowledgeable as i had hoped...

If your interested I suppose I can take a photo of an offcut from work, and post here, to see how that particular design comes together.