Hi there,
I am new to this forum but have been a profesional woodworker for several years now.

I am curently working on a project that is making cabinets,desks,racks etc for music studios (yes lost of famous clients)

I am trying to design some hidden panels in the top of some of the desks and i was wondering types of mechanisms would be best for the hinges.

So far the idea i have is that i will make tray in the desk the size of the item that needs to be concealed that will either lift up like a box lid or preferably slide horazontaly into a concealed slot.

I would love for this to be done automaticaly for example you get into the drawer by pushing the top down and it automaticaly slides out of sight to reveal the item inside with mayby a spring loaded or electric mechanism that close and open the lid when desired.

My question is how would i go about doing this,
i could go down the simple route where it simply slides by hand on rebates and tennons,or simply lifts up on hinges.
But i was wondering if there ware any automatic products that would work for this.
They tray its self will only about 6" x 12 so the mechansm would have to be quite small.

Or is there a clever way of making a spring loaded mechanism? for concealed drawers like this.

Any help would apreciated.

Thanks,

joel.