A Hidden Lock

To me, the book-opener is what puts the magic into a hidden door bookcase. When I ask a client to pick a book to use as the opening mechanism, they will undoubtedly pick a well-known or vintage title, or perhaps a book with a pleasant color scheme. Whatever book you choose, ensuring that it has ample height clearance to fully open hinging outward and that the page thickness is a number that can be divided in quarter inches will save you some headaches later on.

A book with a page thickness of 1 1/2" is ideal for use as the hidden means of opening the door. This is because, you will be cutting out some pages to use solid stock or make a glue blank to fill them back with. This keeps things disguised while creating a sturdy place to mount your hinge and anchor your cable out of sight below.

A Using a square, make a mark across the pages a little over half way up. With painters tape, tape all edges of the pages together along with one cover to keep them from flying apart when cut. Leave the other cover free for holding while cutting. With the book next to the blade as a depth gauge and using your adjustable depth stop, set your sliding miter saw to make a cut that is shy of touching the back cover by 10 or so pages. Place a sacrificial board of about 3" wide between the book and fence so that you can creep up on the line and complete the exit cut on the backside of the book Next, lay the book open with the cover bent towards you to hold onto and make the first cut across the pages. Turn the book 90° and make your second cut about 1/2" or so from the spine. Then finish both cuts making scoring passes with a utility knife.

B-C Make a block to fill the void (minus an inch or so in width to hide hardware) using either solid stock or a combination of solid stock and 1/4" plywood. Apply PVA glue liberally to both faces and all edges except the bottom and the outside facing edge of the block and clamp the assembly overnight.