Yesterday was the first of February. It seems like we just celebrated the new year! We had sunny skies for Super Bowl Sunday in Phoenix. This was a welcome change from all of the rain we had since Monday.

I puttered around after sleeping in. I refreshed the nectar in the hummingbird feeder. We finally have birds visiting it. I relaxed and read a bit before turning on the TV for all of the Super Bowl hoopla. The game turned out to be a competitive and interesting contest. I’m still trying to understand Seattle’s last play. Why throw the ball from the two-foot line when you have Marshawn Lynch in the backfield?

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned the hardware used in our cabinets. Today I’d like to describe it further. When we’re traveling down the road, we want our cabinets to be securely closed. Our cabinets have clever hinges, clasps and struts. The spring-loaded struts primarily hold the doors open, but due to their mounting geometry, they also provide some resistance when the door is initially opened until they go over center and hold the door open.

The hinges have a roller on a spring. When the cabinet is closed, the roller contacts a cam-shaped tab and rolls around it to a detent in the closed position. The spring holds the roller in the detent, providing resistance to opening the cabinet. The spring tension is light though and the roller will come out of the detent and roll around to the open position without too much effort.

Hinge with roller

Now we have resistance from the roller on the hinge and the geometry of the strut. Next, there is a spring steel tab formed in the shape of a diamond mounted to the door. On the cabinet we have a pair of spring-loaded plastic rollers. The diamond-shaped tab fits between the two rollers. They give way when the door is closed and the diamond-shaped tab snaps inbetween them.

Tab on cabinet door

Rollers for door tabs

With the geometry of the struts, the roller in the detent on the hinge and the spring-loaded clasps on the cabinet, the door is held securely in the closed position. No worries of it opening as we roll down the road.

These are the kind of little details that make a coach durable and suitable for full-time use.

Today is shaping up to be another fine weather day. We expect the high temperature to reach the mid-70s this afternoon under clear skies. Time to get the bicycles out again.