Ping Lobster - Stanley sliding wardrobe doors

[David WE Roberts]

Ping Lobster because Google showed you fitting some in May 2007.

I am trying to take out some Stanley sliding wardrobe doors (fitted by previous owner) and am puzzling over the fittings that run in the tracks on the floor.

Other makes of door fitting (long time back) I remember lifting the top runners over a rail and then the bottom track guiding wheels. You just lifted them up and out to remove them. These have profiled feet at the bottom which fit inside a chammel so you can't lift the door, and there is no obvious way to seperate/remove bits of the bottom guide. Hard to believe that you have to fit all the doors to the bottom channel then muscle the whole thing into place on the upper channel before screwing the bottom channel down.

So there is a magic trick to it. I don't have the instructions. I could just graunch everything out but I'm trying to recycle responsibly and pass the units on to someone else I I get them out without damage.

Cheers

Dave R

[Andy Burns]

My Stanley ones were like that, had no problems removing them intact.

Mine were new about 20 years ago, must have changed the design.

[David WE Roberts]

Update - seing a mention that the runners just push into the track, I tried crude leverage.

The light doors - no mirrors - hang from wheels but just have rubber guides at the bottom. Lever them out of the track with a narrow screwdriver, tilt the door, and the top wheels lift out (with a bit of heaving and swearing).

The heavier mirrored doors have wheels top and bottom. Following the 'lever with a screwdriver' technique I found that there are retaining clips around the bottom wheels which clip over the wheel assembly and into the tracks. Pop them off and the bottom is free. Top is being awkward at the moment so downstairs to change to short range glasses from varifocals then have another go.

Cheers

Dave R

[Lobster]

Mine are in a rental house so I don't have access to them at the moment. Pretty sure they were wheels on the bottom only, and the top was just a plastic guide which pulled out? There was a little blue plastic lever affair on the wheels (or was it at the top) which you had to turn through 90 degrees to unlock the release mechanism.

NB I've played with various different incarnations of these over the years so memory could be failing here...

David

[David WE Roberts]

Turns out it is a two person job. One person holds door, rotates outwards into the room to about a 30 degree angle, then pushes up. This takes the tension off the spring loaded top rollers and gives them enough angle to clear the top guide. Person up the step ladders eases them out and the door comes free.

Thanks for the responses. For one the 'lever something and see what gives' approach has worked, as opposed to a crack, followed by later information on the lines of "you just need to turn the concealed screw exactly 37 degrees anti-clockwise then sacrifice a pidgeon or you will break it and never get it working again".

Putting it on Freecycle in a bit.

This is the first stage of our DIYing things that we can do ourselves so we don't have to pay the builders. Next stage is removing the kitchen then removing most of the central heating ready for a combi to be fitted.

Cheers

Dave R

[newshound]

Correct, there is a release mechanism on the bottom. I will try to locate the details later

[newshound]

Confirmed, no force required. All done from the bottom. Flip out blue tag through 90 degrees, this releases a T shaped section which is locked into a slot in the track. Then use crosspoint screwdriver on the screw, this retracts the bottom wheel, then you can lift the door slightly to free it from the track at the bottom, then move it inward or outward until the wheel at the top becomes free.

[David WE Roberts]

Thanks - and to all others. Sadly the description above does not apply to my model. Happily I've got the buggers out. Oh, and I forgot to mention the screws on the mirrired doors - screw in to create a bit of movement before popping off the black plastic clips on the floor rollers so thanks for the reminder..