Cabinet construction question

[dema]

I have a cabinet building quesiton that I figured I'd pose to the board, since most people have a great grasp on woodworking. I am about 50% completed with the entire project, and I have a slight problem that I could use some help with.

I am building a cabinet with rotating panels. To hold the panels intact and to allow rotation without opening any doors or anything I'm installing 3/8" diameter pegs into the side of the cabinet which will sit flush to the wood (there will be a spring mechanism allowing them to pop out). The problem I'm having is that the pegs are metal and they currently make contact with the wood on the side of the cabinet and the interior control panel triange. Right now this works great and keeps everything in place, but as time goes on and the panels take some abuse the wood will compress, the holes will increase in size, and there will be more give in the panel. Obviously this would be bad for a rotating panel cabinet.

What I thought of to solve this problem is to epoxy the appropriately sized washers around the holes so that the metal pegs insert into the holes and would never increase the hole beyond the center of the washer, which would keep the woode from expanding. However, when I tried to do this my results were not as stellar as I had hoped. When I finished epoxying them in place and tested the results I had a very hard time getting the pegs to go through every triangle, since everything to align perfectly. Being off a millimeter or two prevents the pegs from sliding into the hole, and it's darn near impossible to get it precise when I'm dealing with epoxy and small washers.

I'm wondering what you all thought would be a good solution to this problem? Is the washer method a good solution? Is there another way to keep the pegs from damaging the wood and causing more give in the panel? Is there an alternate locking mechanism that you'd recommend aside from steel pegs going through the panel? I was originally thinking of a slide bolt or a window lock, but I would need a panel that flipped open to do that, so I could conceal the lock.

I'm at a loss about this and I want to make sure it's perfect, so any help is immensely appreciated.

[Fat_Trucker]

Some sort of photo would help to specifically identify the layout you are describing.

Off the top of my head have you thought about using a split pin rather than a peg?. That way even if there were minor irregularities in the dimensions of the hole the pin should just expand to compensate.

[Flinkly]

i second that...a pic is badly needed.

[dema]

Here are some pictures of what I'm referring to...

[dema]

And a couple more...

[Fat_Trucker]

I see what you are talking about now. had a completely different picture in my head.

If its viable have you thought about fabricating the triangular sections from heavy duty plastic or perspex?, that should alleviate the problem.

Other than that you could always re-inforce one side if the triangular sections with a thin metal plate bolted flush to the side, which you could then drill your holes for the pegs through. It should maintain the integrity of the wood and spread any load from the peg throughout the section.

[Monkeystoe]

You could also drill the holes a little bigger and use plastic or metal tubing with a 3/8" inside diameter placed into the larger holes.  Things should still line up that way and the insert can always be replaced if it should ever happen to wear out.

Monkeystoe

[Samstag]

I think what you probably need is tapered pins.  That will give you extra clearance for the initial contact without too much loss of strength.

[dema]

Thank you for the suggestions. I was thinking of bolting a piece of metal to the triangle to add the support, but I wasn't sure I'd have clearance on the inside with the lazy susans. I also thought about something that could act as a sheath to house the pin, so the pipe is also a good idea.

I can't visualize how the tapered pin would work to fix the problem, but I'm definitely open to alternative suggestions.

I was actually wondering if there was an easier way to solve my problem. I'm mimicking the panels on Rebirth's design, but I'm using both lazy susans and a PVC pipe for support to help take some of the weight off of them. I am changing the way the panels are secured though because I want it to be a very clean look. I wish there was something that could be done with slide bolts in an inconspicuous manner because they have a metal receiving end that keeps it from damaging the wood. The best I could come up with is loading a spring into the control panel that would pop the pin/peg out when you press it.

[Samstag]

I can't visualize how the tapered pin would work to fix the problem, but I'm definitely open to alternative suggestions.

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[dema]

It's definitely something I could experiment with, although the only problem is that I must ensure there is no give with the panels. If they rattle even a little it'll screw up game play. I would also still need to settle on a method of protecting the interior wood so that it doesn't wear out the edges and increase the hole size over time.