I recently built a prop with a hinged door that I would like to be able to swing open with as little fuss or tweaking as possible by the user.  While I have built static props before, I've never set one up with a moveable part.  I have seen props with doors that open and close using dials, but I don't know exactly where to begin and I don't want to spend countless hours doing trial and error.

Any advice/suggestions/tutorials/ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!