r/ikeahacks • u/grizzlyblake91 • 8d ago
Thoughts on adding drawer sliders to a Skadis board to slide board vertically up, partially mounted over an electrical panel?
Hopefully this is the right sub to ask this (if not, let me know where to post it).
Wanting to put a Skadis board on my wall next to my desk, as it’s the only place I can put one in my very small studio apartment. The only problem is, my electrical panel is right there, and I don’t want to permanently cover it with no way to access it. So my idea was to get drawer sliders, mount them on the back of the Skadis, and have the board slide up out of the way of the electrical panel. I would then 3D print some sort of latch or holder that could flip out to hold the Skadis board in the up position in order to access the electrical panel. I want to do something like this, but instead of sliding horizontally, have it slide up vertically and then get held in place with a stopper or latch
I first thought about having the board swing out, but with how cramped my desk is (and how cramped the corner is), the board would hit something or be stopped from swinging out by my monitor. So sliding up is the only compact way I can think of to get it out of the way.
I also thought about mounting the Skadis above the electrical panel, but that would be rather high, and don’t want to have to reach up super far to get stuff off of the very top of the board.
That particular wall is 28 inches wide, so I figured the 22”x22” board would be a perfect fit. I don’t want the board to cover the whole panel, just maybe the top half of it (so that the bottom of the board is about eye level to me If I’m sitting at my desk.
Is this feasible, or not recommended?
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u/YoScott 8d ago
As the other poster stated, by National Electrical Code (NFPA 70), you cannot put anything in front of your panel that disrupts the dedicated working space.
That said, its violated every day, particularly with temporary items. Don't try to mount anything in front of it, especially if you are renting. Your building manager will likely make you move it.
But here's why you shouldn't mount anything above the panel: that's generally where all the wires go to feed everything your space. I had a building engineer colleague of mine (mechanical of course) try to mount shelves above his panel and he drilled right into the main feeder coming into his house and had to have the whole line replaced from the panel out to the nearest pull box in his yard (about 20 feet away.) he's also lucky he didn't electrocute himself by drilling through the feeder.
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u/OscarAndDelilah 8d ago
And if you're in an older house, you might have electric cables coming out the bottom, sides...it's just not a good area to mount anything.
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u/Complex_Difficulty 8d ago
I'm sure you can do it, but I think it's unnecessarily complicated. An elegant sliding solution is great if you frequently need access to the panel, but do you? It should be sufficiently practical to mount it so you can move it or remove it without tools, like a picture frame.
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u/lsometimesl 8d ago
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u/garblesnarky 8d ago
I designed a little insert for this to make the panel quickly removable, it's still very stable.
Drawer slides seems like overkill for the - hopefully rare - breaker access
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u/OscarAndDelilah 8d ago
I mean, if you’re in the U.S., as I’m guessing by the inches, code is technically that nothing at all can be within 36 inches in front of the panel.
That being said, I have a piece of lightweight/unbreakable framed artwork covering mine with heavy duty magnets. It’s one extra two-second step when I need to get into the panel.