Garage doors getting really close!

[Jeff Horton]

Quick update on the garage door project (that seems to take forever and ever!) Here is a photo of the two left side doors. All they need is a little touch-up caulking and the final coat of the stain (I use stain because it doesn't peel like paint does).


http://www.kudzupatch.com/woodshop/gdoors/staining.jpg


Hoping to hang a pair Saturday and build the arms for the garage door openers. If all goes well I should have at least one operational set Saturday. Once I get them hung I will pull them down and take them to be glazed. My wife thinks it is nuts but I want all the bugs out before the glass goes in. Would hate to let a door slip and break out some of the glass.

When I saw cutting them to fit the openings I dropped one on my shoulder. My head ended up inside the frame where the glass would go. That alone scares me and makes it worth installing them twice. Could have had a head full of stitches!

Oh yea, I almost forgot. I had the openers installed last week. One company I called refused to do the job when they found out it was swing out doors. I told the girl/lady that all I wanted was them to install the openers, I would take care of the rest and they still refused! I called the next company and just told them I wanted them installed and nothing more. The guys were a bit confused when there was no doors but they asked me to call them once I got it operational. They wanted to come back out and see how this was going to work. :D

[Gail O'Rourke]

Those look awesome, I remember the seeing the drawings. Please, show us when they are installed. I think this is a project many would love to build. Great job.

[Pete Harbin]

Great job Jeff! Can't wait to see them in place.

Pete

[Bob Rufener]

What a beautiful set of garage doors. A lot of work but I am sure you have a lot of satisfaction from doing this project. I'm a bit confused as to how door openers will work on swing doors but I'm sure you have this well thought out and it will work well. Don't forget to open the door before you enter the garage......

[Wes Bischel]

Jeff,
They're looking great! The doors are really going to fit well with your house. Big project, but well worth the effort! Can't wait to see the finished product.

Wes

[Jeff Horton]

.....I'm a bit confused as to how door openers will work on swing doors.....

.... Don't forget to open the door before you enter the garage......


Thats my biggest fear. We have been without doors so long that one of us will forget and drive into them.:)

The openers are so simple that when you see it you will just go "Why didn't I think of that." The basic idea is used on boat house doors all along the lake. I will post photos once it is up and working.

[Byron Trantham]

Really nice job Jeff. Looking forward to seeing the final install.

[Jim Becker]

Those are really turning out lovely! Very nice job, Jeff!

[Steve Clardy]

Looking awesome!!

[Frank Chaffee]

Hey Jeff,
The doors are really looking great! Thanks for putting your whole design process out here and allowing us Creekers to watch and/or participate in it.
You are killing me with the suspense of waiting to see your opener however, as I have done some linkages and have several possibilities in mind.

Please hurry with the next pics!

Thanks,
Frank

[Jeff Horton]

Humm, another unanticipated opportunity for some ingenuity. (read problem)

I had miss judged when I wired the house and put the outlets in the ceiling to far towards the doors. So the cables on the openers were to short. So yesterday afternoon I was tired and didn't really feel like working in the shop, so I decided to put the extension cords in place. While I was there I was fooling around (OK, playing) with the remotes. I also checked the electronic eyes to make sure the auto reverse worked properly when something occurred to me.

The mechanism I have in mind will push the doors open. Garage door openers 'push' the door closed, opposite of what I need. This means when the doors start to open, if something, like one of my dogs comes running in and trips the beam it will cause the doors to close. Not a good thing! Actually this is a serious hazard.

The good news is these are chain drive openers. It appears I can just take the tracks off and reverse the carriage that attaches to the door. By swapping sides when the door openers 'open' the carriage will be on the other side of the chain. The side that is going towards the opener instead of away from the opener (towards the doors). That means my doors will open on the open cycle, and the sensors will work correctly. The opener will still be operating the same, just the carriage will be on the other side of the chain being pulled instead of being pushed. Make sense??

Then everything should function properly. My only concerns is how the load sensors work. The sensors that cause the doors to open if they hit something and the load on he motor gets to a certain point. If they are directional my whole idea may have just hit a serious snag! :confused:

To be continued.....

[Tyler Howell]

Looking great Jeff. Moore Pics please.

[Corey Hallagan]

Jeff, that is wondefull work! They look great!

Corey

[John Bush]

Hi Jeff,
Nice design and build on the doors. I built my own shop doors similar in size, with divided light thermopanes on top(they had to be tempered glass) and barn door style panels below and they have held up well. I used
French style hinging which places two of the four hinges closer to the top to manage the weight better.
I've been researching gate openers for our driveway gates and there seems to be a big variety in opener styles that may work for you garage doors as well. The safety stops measure the extra load on the actuator motor(if doors contact something- probably the same thing for the electric eye) and cause them to stop and reverse a few inches, then stop again.
That would work better for your application. These limiting sensors will also respond to wind loads on the doors as well. The sensors don't know if the wind is pushing on the doors of if the cat is stuck between them.

I haven't tried to send pics before, so this is a good excuse to give it a try. Good luck. JCB.

[Jeff Horton]

I quit early today because it seemed every web site I needed to access was down. Since the openers were bothering me I decided to take them down and see what I could do.

I set up the ladders and found that taking the units down was fairly easy. Even thought a helping hand wasn't necessary it sure made it easier! Once on the ground a quick look confirmed what I as thinking (and hoping!)

http://www.kudzupatch.com/woodshop/gdoors/reversing1.jpg


This is the opener as it was installed. The carriage (the silver part) slides backwards to pull open the door. Opposite of what I need. As I said, when you tripped the sensor/light beam it would have caused the doors to close instead of open. So I had to fix that.

http://www.kudzupatch.com/woodshop/gdoors/reversing2.jpg

So, I just take the end off the track and slide the carriage all the way off.

http://www.kudzupatch.com/woodshop/gdoors/reversing3.jpg

Then I put it back together with the carriage turned 180 degrees. The chain and motor are still turning in the same direction, just now it is pulling on the carriage (since it is on the other side of the track) rather than pulling on it. :cool:

So when I open the door it pushes the door open like I need. When I close the door it will pull them closed. AND the if you trip the sensors now it will reverse and open the doors. :)

Now that this working. I am headed to the 'studio' to mount some hinges and start to build the hardware to attach to the openers and the doors. Hopefully tomorrow night I will have photos and you can see how everything works. I hope! ;)