revolving / rotating door hardware?

[theatrix]

Greetings all - working on an upcoming production that will require a row of doors that can completely rotate. Front painted one color, back painted a different color.
We were going to just use stock hollow core doors, but we're puzzling on how to do the hardware at the top and bottom of the door for the pivot. I've seen a few productions of "Anything Goes" where the doors rotate like that, and wondered if anyone had a solution to share?

Much appreciated!

 

[JLNorthGA]

How do you want them to rotate? If you want them to rotate on say the left (or right) side - just put some all thread or a steel rod in the stiles of the door on the upper side and lower side. The rod goes into steel cups that are slightly larger in diameter. The steel cups are mounted in a frame.
If you want them to rotate around the center of the door, mount the rods in the center.

 

[FatherMurphy]

Not sure stock hollow-core doors will work for you - they tend to come in 32" and 36" widths, so if you spin them in the center, you only have 16" to 18" clearance to walk through.

Some commercial doors, especially glass ones, open on top and bottom pivots instead of hinges along the sides. You might be able to find the hardware they use, but I suspect it will be pricey. If you are able to weld (or have welding done), you can probably invent your own version cheaper.

 

[JBrennan]

I've done a couple of different things. One was for Thoroughly Modern Millie where we rotated hollow core doors which were one side hotel room, one side skyscraper exterior. In that case I used pipe flanges, McMaster-Carr , as the pivot point. It was a very cheap solution and worked well. One flange was mounted on the deck and allowed the center of the door to turn around it, the other was built into a flat frame and had the door hanging from it.

A more elegant solution may be to use a small turn table, McMaster-Carr , or something similar as your pivot point. This could allow you to pivot from either above or below depending how you mount your door to it.

You could also do something with UHMW , McMaster-Carr , which is a super slippery plastic. Felt pads also work wonders depending on what the coating on your deck is.

 

[theatrix]

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts! We'll start playing with things this weekend!