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View Full Version : Which is Stupider?



Brian Kent
01-20-2009, 3:00 PM
I have several home repairs that came up at once, and I can afford to pay for them only if a delay a couple and don't buy woodworking tools for months. So I am thinking about doing two of them myself and want to know which is stupider - most likely to cause permanent injury.

Stupid #1
First, the garage door jammed. It's the new rolling kind and the right hand cable roller lost all its cable. While trying to force it I jammed the right and left bottom guides. The roller is attached to a giant spring in the middle with another roller with the cable in place on the other side. I am picturing that when I release the tension from the jammed guides or try to roll up the cable, that giant spring will grin at me and either grab my hand in the roller or whip off the side of my face.

Stupid #2
I have a couple of palms that need to be removed. The biggest one is knocking over a cement block fence. It is about 15+ feet high and has a half dozen trunks out of one massive base. My little Remington electric chainsaw died and the palms are so wet and fibrous that they close right up on my limb saw after about an inch. I could buy an axe and learn how to chop trees and feet, or I could get a better chainsaw and learn how to saw trunks and toes.

Which is stupider? Your advise could change my future for the better.:o

Prashun Patel
01-20-2009, 3:07 PM
Stupider isn't a word. That's the stupiddist by far ;)

I think you can improve your palm cutting ability with a regular hand saw by making 2 cuts for each limb. Google "tree pruning"; you make a relief cut first, then make a 2nd cut on the opposite side which causes the limb to close towards the 1st cut and prevents binding during the 2nd cut. Tree pruning actually uses a 3rd final cleaning cut, but since yr just trying to break stuff down, you don't need to.

Be very careful when dealing with a surprisingly heavy garage door and faulty rollers or springs - or you'll be dealing with a different kind of cut palms!

Lee Schierer
01-20-2009, 3:23 PM
Being stupid is taking on a job that you really don't understand teh risks and not having the proper tools to do the job. Garage door srpings are worse than a bear trap and can permanently maim or kill you if you don't know what you are doing. Those palms weigh at least double what you do each and will have a mind of their own once severed from their root ball. In this case, I strongly recommned a professional be hired for each job.

Rod Sheridan
01-20-2009, 3:25 PM
I agree with Shawn, an agressive hand saw like a bow saw is designed for cutting green wood, and will take care of your tree issue.

Cut small pieces off, no point proving that you aren't actually Paul Bunyan by dropping the tree on your neighbour's car.

The garage door spring is a very dangerous item to attempt to repair if you don't have the training and tools.

The amount of energy that can be released by a spring that large can kill or seriously injure you, it may well be prudent to pay a garage door serviceman to take care of it.

Regards, Rod.

Brodie Brickey
01-20-2009, 3:35 PM
Garage door goes to the professional.

Relief cut the tree, and have another person with a line around the tree to add tension to one side so if the tree goes, it goes in the direction you want, not on the wall. You really don't want another project do you?

At the same time, price it out first. You may find that you can get a couple done for less than you thought.

Tom Veatch
01-20-2009, 3:36 PM
Of the two offered, "Stupid #1" scares me the most, by far! Hire that one out!

Tyler Howell
01-20-2009, 4:02 PM
Call the Man on the G door. Worth every penny

Gene O. Carpenter
01-20-2009, 4:09 PM
If the spring is a long "twist" type coil with a shaft running through it from rail to rail DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REPAIR it yourself!
During my 27 plus years with the Co. I installed quite a few Sears GDO's..If it was a replacement where the old GDO had to removed I was forbidden, by order from Sears Headquarters in Chicago, to touch the old GDO, if it was that long coiled spring. I would call the Install Dept and they in turn called in one of the local Commercial GD Co's
Their reasoning , it was cheaper to pay an expert on that particular piece of equipment than to pay the expenses for a Repair Tech's injuries and med bills ..Plus his recuperation time..
So if you value your fingers, hand, wrist,
teeth, eye's or any other body part farm it out to a pro!

I just know that someone's going to disagree with me and say "I fixed mine and it was a piece of cake" ! To which I would say " you were extremely lucky"! And this guy might not be!
And I hate saying "I told you"!

Gene

Chris Padilla
01-20-2009, 4:15 PM
Garage door springs and gas lines are two items I have no qualms about paying someone else to do.

Taking down sizeable trees near my house would rank a close second to the above two. :)

Neal Clayton
01-20-2009, 4:22 PM
meh, gas lines are pretty simple, as long as the threads are sealed and you check the joints for leaks it's no big deal.

i agree on the garage door being the most potential for winding up on the local news.

Randy Cohen
01-20-2009, 4:23 PM
Buy a better chain saw and do the palms. or if you don't need a chain saw otherwise see if you can rent one.

Bob Rufener
01-20-2009, 4:25 PM
Broken torsion spring on garage door in December. Cost= $225 to repair. I still have all of my fingers. I'm happy!

Brian Effinger
01-20-2009, 4:27 PM
I definitely agree with everyone - don't even think of attempting to do the garage door, unless you are a professional garage door installer. Just my 2 cents.

Brian Kent
01-20-2009, 5:01 PM
It's a great relief to hear that I shouldn't do the garage door myself. Every time I looked at it I was just guessing where the tension might be stored and what would happen when I released it. It's sort of like, If I stick my nose into this rattlesnake den, I could imagine a scenario where I might not die.

Still thinking about Stupid #2…
Still thinking about the trees. My neighbor is checking into the price of a couple of his landscaping guys chopping them down. That sounds good, because even if I got them down, I don't have a means to get rid of them.

Paul Atkins
01-20-2009, 5:48 PM
Someone paid my inlaws for their palm tree. They came and dug it out but it broke off before it was loaded in the truck - (worthless then) but they still payed them and filled in the hole. Yours might be worth something to someone. Garage door is trouble waiting to happen.

Brian Brown
01-20-2009, 6:04 PM
A very loud vote for leaving the g door for the pros. In reality, how much are those palm going to grow in the next few months? Maybe a short time down the road you can have pro help attack them.

Jon Grider
01-20-2009, 6:32 PM
I guess I'm one of the few amateur survivors of installing a garage door,complete with tension springs and GDO. Was it a piece of cake? no, not even close to easy,but if you have the directions, doable for some diehard DIY'ers. I'm not recommending that you undertake the repair, but if you take a look, and your door spring is like many, you'll notice a spring tensioning screw[mine was a square head]near one end. If you attach a bit and drill to this screw and turn it counterclockwise,the spring unwinds and tension is slowly released. My spring had a painted line that appeared as a straight line once all the tension was removed. As others have noted though this may be hazardous to your health,don't attempt it without getting the install manual for your door.

Chris Kennedy
01-20-2009, 8:01 PM
I would leave the garage door to professionals as well.

As for the palms -- how tall, how close to the neighbors, your own house, and everything else that could be significantly damaged? If it is reasonably straight and you don't have to "thread a needle" when you bring it down, I would suggest a nice axe and a cross-cut saw. Scarp the front with the axe to direct it down, and then cross-cut the back.

If you don't have an easy place to lay it down when it falls, get a quote for having it chopped down and removed. Compare the quote to the deductible on your homeowners insurance -- then assess the risk of cutting it down on your own.

Cheers,

Chris

Gene O. Carpenter
01-20-2009, 8:12 PM
I knew someone would say they did it and "it was a piece of cake"! Somebody else has started another very simular thread
I am not saying that all GDO installation or repair's should be left to the pro's! Just the one with a coil spring where the spring material is about 1/4" in diameter and that material is then formed around a Mandrel that forms a coil about 3" to 3-1/2" Dia and it's about 5' long. It's securely anchored on one end to the frame and a long bar 1"to1-1/8" X door width that passes through the center of said spring and through the frame.Where it fit's into the frame will be a spiral grooved drum around which the cable is wound. The other end,,the dangerous end, has a like drum and there's a collar with larger than usual set/lock bolts and has holes drilled around outer edge..
A rod is inserted into a hole and pulled from the top over and down the front.Lock it off and insert the bar in another hole, loosen the lock bolt and pull over and down..You are winding the spring around the bar
Lock and repeat this til the number of repetitions has been enough to wind the spring to proper door weight lifting tensions.Ballancing the door.If it won't lift the door you wind it some more...
Also keep in mind you're standing on a step ladderwhile you're doing all this!.
That's the way the way it's done, and I've done it on the side jobs. But I'm overly cautious about anything that's gonna cause ol BabyHuey any pain..
I've been scalded by 212* boiler water when an improperly installed PRV let go just as I put my wrench on it to turn it 1/4 turn to floor..I've been burned by gas furnace delayed ignition where the flames came out and removed my beard and moustache.. I have a herniated disc from lifting heavy appliances by myself.
So I became overly cautious about everything that might cause HURT!
By all means install that GDO yourself! It's easy IF you can and DO read the Install Manual that comes packed with each GDO...Just read and do step by step..
Don't say "I AM MAN,I CAN DO WITHOUT READING INSTALLATION BOOK"! :<)
They kicked me out on perm disability in 92 and last month my 22 year old Kenmore furnace mounted humidifier conked out. Most parts were nla so I tried to order another unit only to hear the salesman say "we don't sell furnace mounts anymore" !
So I went to Lowes and paid $189 for a real pos and had to go back for parts that should have been in the kit to start with.
I don't know if Sears still sells GDO's or not.

Again I say DIY if you follow the instructions and you want to save to $175 to $250 that I suspect the different co's charge today
But DON'T touch that long Torsion spring GDO!
Gene
PS: Jon, You're talking about the springs that are in line and attached to your cables,,this is the type I am saying DIY, the other wrap around the bar spring is a "torsion spring" leave that one be!!

Ed Hazel
01-20-2009, 8:47 PM
I must be really stupid because I would do them both myself in fact this past summer I cut down two sixty foot Populars both close to buildings and replaced my garage door. I have installed repaired replaced several of the garage doors with the wind up springs they are no more dangerous than many woodworking tools matter of fact I think a chainsaw is more dangerous that the "scary" garage door spring.
I did use my dads man lift to cut the trees down started at the top and worked my way down.

Ron Jones near Indy
01-20-2009, 9:05 PM
Leave the garage door to the pro! If you are familiar with using chain saws rent one. If not, call a pro and watch closely while asking questions. Recall that info and make a determination of your ability level on the next cutting job.

glenn bradley
01-20-2009, 9:22 PM
I'm with Lee but I'll toss in that chainsaws and palm trees don't mix. Think "gas powered, carbide bladed, cut-off saw". Your local rental yard will have one; just tell them you want to cut palm trees. If they hand you a chainsaw, find another rental yard ;-)

Jerry Olexa
01-21-2009, 8:02 PM
Leave the garage door to the pros IMHO....Get a new Stihl chain saw

Sonny Edmonds
01-21-2009, 9:33 PM
Check your fire insurance is paid up, burn down the garage.
If possible, burn the palm tree with the garage.
Have the garage rebuilt with a new door.
Problem solved! :D