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Most people will not see this storage unit
at first glance unless they go down to the
basement. The only thing any one will
notice in the kitchen are the support
beams and the ceiling motor for this wall
sized retractable shelving unit.
In its resting position the top is flush with
the
kitchen floor and sturdy enough to
walk on due to the fact that the shelves
are built to rest on the basement floor. If
the motor dies you only need to go into
the basement for your pantry items.
recently posted
http://www.halfbake...idea/Hide_20Kitchen
sounds similar [joking victim, Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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Sounds very doable, except for the heaviness of the shelf structure and add the cans, bags and boxes of foods and maybe appliances, thats a lot of weight. I would recommend beefing up the supports of the kitchen floor from underneath. I'd like one of these. |
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Use your refrigerator as a counterweight. + |
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I'll just order a basement! |
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a bit like those little butler's lifts whose name escapes me... |
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except a dumbwaiter assumes a person or robotic butler is down there filling it up. I want one of these too. |
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I remember film clips from the 50's and 60's showing the "kitchen of tomorrow" having pantrys just like this. If I recall correctly, a fruit basket would decend from the ceiling, too. |
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How about this: Instead of shelves that just move straight up and down, make a bunch of bins mounted on a sort of conveyor belt that loops up through the ceiling, down into the basement through the wall behind the "shelves", and then back up again. The weight of the goods going down would more or less balance the weight of the goods coming up, and you get double the storage space. |
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Buckminster Fuller proposed a similar system for books. |
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5th Earth. We had one of these down in a 'well known Pharmaceutical Company in the South East of England'. It contained all the old installation and O&M documentation listed under a huge database (held centrally). We were on the 1st floor and the rack went to the ground and back and balanced the weight (roughly) as stated. Damned thing worked as well! |
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It seems that with the counterweight idea, the shelves would begin to sink as you filled them and rise as you emptied them. |
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Well shoot, someone done stole the idea I had, before I had it. Lucky I did a search before posting and caught the time-traveling thief. :-P |
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I still want something like this for my home. We have too much stuff here. |
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Yeah, I had the same idea, but for the roof space rather than under the floor. |
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This version is especially good for a kitchen, as it would act as a cold-store cellar for those who don't have a proper cellar. Many foods - most fruits, eggs, hard cheeses, cured meats, wine - are better kept at cellar, rather than refrigerator, temperatures. |
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wel yes and no: you still need to devote floor and access space to it even though it's retracted so I don't see the benefit. And floor beams are generally what, a foot'n'half apart ? not the 2-3 feet you want for a shelf. |
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I would slightly disagree. Shelves about 8" deep, and 12" - 14" tall, are very useful in kitchens, although much smaller than that gets poky and annoying. Deeper shelves mean stuff gets pushed to the back, and you lose random access convenience. So you could fit a useful double-sided shelving unit, or a generous single-sided one (big enough for most domestic pots and appliances), within most joist spacings. |
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I'm sure some would love a wine-cellar that worked like this; a wine bottle is about 12" long, so it would fit beautifully. |
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//you still need to devote floor and access space// That's why I was thinking ceiling, rather than floor. |
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Those exist, [bigsleep], but it would be overkill for a unit to rise out of the floor and then unfold. Plain shelves is all that's needed. |
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Won't the //support beams and ceiling motor// get in the way nearly as much as a fixed storage unit would? Or is it monolithic, with a single pair of lifting mechanisms more-or-less flush with the end walls? It would be more mechanically challenging to house the apparatus entirely under the floor, but it would leave the kitchen space entirely clear. |
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The entire thing could be sprung counterweighted
to slightly more than the empty shelves. If it was
underloaded it would be easy enough to push
down, if overloaded, it wouldn't be to heavy to lift
up, no motor required. If you're in the habit of
keeping it heavily loaded, simply adjust the
springs for a little more tension, and it will just
get a little harder to close if it's emptied. |
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//ou still need to devote floor and access space
to it even though it's retracted// |
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When closed, the top would rest directly on the
joists (or a frame mounted on the joists), and be
heavy enough so you'd be walking on a top plate
at least as sturdy as normal flooring. You can a
ton of these in the average kitchen, and as long as
you had at least three or so, the closed ones
would provide all the access space you need for
the open one. |
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Yeah, I was thinking exactly what MechE said. |
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And you could have it positioned in the middle of the floor. Have furniture against the walls, but if you're not accessing storage you have the whole middle of the room to do whatever. I picture a very large cube, with shelves on all sides, coming up out of the floor in the middle of the room. |
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