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MyztikJenz

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Wasn't sure where to ask this, apologies if I'm in the wrong forum.

I'm attempting to build my own candy cab-like cabinet, complete with rotatable 25" monitor. I've been using the Q25 as a model and for the most part, it's been super helpful and not impossible to discern ways to make this work based on what I've been able to see from the few videos/photos of these things that are online. However, I've run into a bit of a roadblock: I can't reason how the front cover lid does what it does. My attempts to replicate always end up with the bottom corner of my lid running into the housing of the cab.

Some pictures will help. This the side of my cab currently (I've yet to cut the sides of the cover, because of this problem). The red lines are the bare minimum the cover needs to clear to allow the lazy susan on the inside to rotate. The white lines are my speculative cut lines and the green are 2" from the top and bottom edges of the front of the cab:
https://imgur.com/MoLiD44

I've been trying to find the right pivot with a template that I hang off the side. I've found that unless I'm at some pretty severe pivot really deep in the cab (where the top of the cover wouldn't clear), I always run into some variation of this:
https://imgur.com/v4tOGh5

where the bottom corner will run into the housing of the cab. I also know that cutting the wood will leave some additional space (I do expect some amount of gap, probably 5mm or so) but that's not going to be enough.

What I could use are better videos of how this mechanism works. Or if someone's in the Bay Area who happens to have one of these who'd let me study it for a while, that'd be optimal... but I recognize that as a long shot. I'd also appreciate someone giving me hints on what keywords to search for that describe this problem. I'm not a mechanical engineer or terribly good at woodworking so I'm guessing there's some way to describe the problem that isn't "the bottom angle doesn't clear the housing". My kid's 8th grade geometry has been helping a lot on this thing, but I'm afraid even that has its limits.
 
Not sure if im following correctly, but why dont you make the lazy susan smaller or make the lid bigger. Also if you google egret rotation, theres some examples of the rotation mech
 
Here’s some pics:

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Not sure if im following correctly, but why dont you make the lazy susan smaller or make the lid bigger. Also if you google egret rotation, theres some examples of the rotation mech
The details I'm looking for are the lid pivot/rotation, not the monitor (unfortunately this project has two rotations: the monitor and the lid). I believe I have the monitor part working, and the pics that @d7onr8 provided are great (thank you!) and are more what I'm looking for.
 
What I'm most curious about is how the pivot works. I think the entire lid slides on from the front (there's a bracket that has two tension screws, one that you can see in the image below, and a third that hold it in place) and then the pivot/rotation happens in the area I have circled here:


video wanted of this area.png


@d7onr8, if you're up to it, is there any way you can prop your phone up inside the cabinet and record that joint moving as it's closing and opening? If not, that's cool... I appreciate the help you've given me so far.
 
I can see what I can do when I get home, but I don’t think it’s a special hinge or pivot. Looking at other pictures on the internet and your first pic (also your thread on Engineering Stack), I think it’s the shape of the lower cab part that needs to be altered.
 

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I agree with you, I don't feel it's a special hinge/pivot anymore. It's more the placement of that point relative to where on the lid does it attaches. My crappy drawing on Engineering Stack assumes the pivot is really close to the lid itself, but it feels like it's inset from the lid by some amount. I was hoping a video would show how that behaves. Every new photo I get of this thing shows some additional detail I hadn't noticed before.

As for altering the shape, I'm smoothing out the corners so they have less of a chance to bind. Plus, I'm assuming my tolerances are going to be in the 3-5mm range (or greater). But I see what you're saying, maybe the cuts that are perpendicular to the lid are flaired out just a tish. I wonder if they did that to match the curvature of the lid (something I'm not doing on mine). Hmm...
 
Seeing more pictures of what youre talking about. I took a look at my aero city and
I think what your looking for is a curved hinge.
Not this exact one but the design that works with the q25
 

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30 degree and 130 degree angle.
 

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There is no traditional hinge I can see. The third pic in my last post shows the white metal simply pivoting against the darker metal as a fulcrum. I have a video that shows it but can’t figure out how to post it.

Edit: We found the hinge and it seems jermz1 was correct! MyztikJenz will post pictures!
 
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It appears that @jermz1 is correct. This is a concealed curved pivot butt hinge (or something very similar to one). Through the magic of FaceTime, I grabbed these shots as @d7onr8 poked around in the cabinet: https://imgur.com/a/RDZEOIs

Looks like the backside of the hinge attaches to the top bezel of the cab. And the front attaches to the lid surface. So hard to see what this was without peering behind the bezel.

I cannot thank you all enough for the help on this! And to @d7onr8 for offering to FaceTime with me.
 
It appears that @jermz1 is correct. This is a concealed curved pivot butt hinge (or something very similar to one). Through the magic of FaceTime, I grabbed these shots as @d7onr8 poked around in the cabinet: https://imgur.com/a/RDZEOIs

Looks like the backside of the hinge attaches to the top bezel of the cab. And the front attaches to the lid surface. So hard to see what this was without peering behind the bezel.

I cannot thank you all enough for the help on this! And to @d7onr8 for offering to FaceTime with me.
Now that you have the last piece of the puzzle, we will eagerly wait for the grand unveiling of your finished Q25 project @MyztikJenz!
 
Hello folks, sorry for the delay in responding... life got busy. But, I'm happy to report I've got my lid and hinge issue resolved.

I started by ordering concealed butt hinges from Guden, part number WHSS9291. But when they got here, it was pretty clear they were going to be too small for3/4" plywood. An email or three with the fine folks at Guden and they confirmed my suspicions. They recommended Soss invisible hinges over the butt hinges, but they were happy to manufacture me larger hinges... if they could get bigger drawings. Mechanical designs, probably not going to work out for me.

I ended up ordered a pair of Soss 204CUS19 hinges from Amazon and after some pretty spectacularly bad trial runs, two friends of mine borrowed a plunge router from another friend and we got them installed. You can see the pics here: https://imgur.com/a/c9pCvWW

Not the perfect solution, though. As I hinted at in my Engineering Exchange post, the further away and centrally located the pivot is to the top of the lid, the better it performs (which I imagine is why Sega used butt hinges). The Soss hinges move the pivot closer and less centrally located... so the worst possible situation. But they do a fantastic job of never binding the top of the lid (they are quite neat how they work, to be honest). To correct for the inevitable binding on the bottom of the lid, I just added in a "handle" on both sides that allows the lid to clear the frame and it looks pretty reasonable as well. You can see the handles in the video.

I still have a ways to go with the cabinet, but the lid is pretty much complete now (save installing the plexi and sanding/painting). Again, thank you all for the help. With any luck, I'll have this whole thing wrapped up in a few more weeks.
 
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